Hi, my name's Steve.

I have metastatic bone cancer (low grade) and also peripheral neuropathy. I don't know whether my symptoms are from the bone cancer or from the neuropathy. Who I mention it to depends on the likely cause.

The bone cancer is spread throughout every bone but it is low grade and I'm not expecting to need treatment for some time. I was supposed to see the cancer specialist last month (after a four month referral) but my hospital is so chaotic, I have just found my name hasn't been added to the waiting list. Now my name's on the list, I'm expecting to have to wait another four months but the hospital can't tell me how long I'll have to wait *sigh* Since my cancer is low grade, I don't want to take the place of someone whose need is more urgent.

Increasingly, I have pain all over when lying in bed but more so on the pressure points (hips). The pain started nearly a year ago but it doesn't worry me during the day. But I also have neuropathy pain, for example tingling feet and the surface of my legs, which I feel during the day but sometimes during the night. I can ask my doctor to increase my dosage of amitriptyline to calm down the neuropathy pain but will it calm down the pain on the pressure points and do I need to see the cancer specialist?

I'm not losing weight but I have been sweating a lot at night for the past two months, for which there could be lots of reasons, including my angina medicine.

I'm 80 years old and am still active (going to the gym in a few minutes) and I'm philosophical about all of this (but cross about the state of the health service in general).