Originally Posted by Cyfr
Where do I start. Christmas 2005 I started getting really bad headaches and then felt really sick, so I went to my doctor when it continued for a few days.
I was given medication, the headaches went away but the sickness didn't and I also had bad stomach pains.
The pains got so bad in early January that I called 999 because it was that bad at one point. I had bloods done, and more medications and a drip because I'd lost a lot of fluid from being sick all the time.
Over time throwing up stopped (months we're talking) but the feeling sick and pain did not stop. I went back to my doctor many many times, he gave me lots of different types of medication none of which helped. I had an endoscopy (camera down in to my stomach) which I had to wait like 8weeks for, and a CT scan which was also going to be an 8weeks wait. However its not as if I just had 16weeks and I was all checked out, had to go in and out of the doctors and out of patients surgery every few weeks, sometimes more than once a week, in order to convince them that they needed to put me on the waiting list.
Neither the Endoscopy or CT scan showed anything conclusive. So my doctor and consultant basicly put it down to something i'd have to live with.
I kept going back and annoying my doctor, because I wasn't getting better, feeling sick EVERY DAY and nothing was working. By now its had a major impact on my every day life, I mean how would you feel to be sick 24/7?
We insisted we be refered to a specialist in Manchester which we were, weeks and weeks later I got another test for stomach acid. Then another 6weeks later (today) I visited Manchester Royal Infirmary for the results.
We had to wait 2hours longer than our appointment time, then we saw a doctor, who wasn't the consultant which we had on our letter, who had NO case notes, NO test results had NO idea what had been going on for the last 1.5years, and gave me medication which i've already had and didn't work. Now I have to wait a further 7weeks to be seen again.
I really can't express how angry I am. I have been passed pillar to post for the last 1.5years and it's quite frankly beyond the joke. The waiting times are a joke for things they could just tell me over the phone, or things that just don't need to wait that long for, the communication between departments is a shambles. How am I ever supposed to get anywhere if I have to explain my situation to a different doctor everytime I visit? I'm not getting any followups, im being treated as a new patient everytime I visit.
One point five years. I'm an otherwise healthy 18year old who should be enjoying life, but I can't. I don't understand how they can get it so wrong. Why can't somebody sit down, understand the situation, follow the situation through to the end resulting in a diagnosis and treatment?
Quite frankly, Mr Blair, Mr Brown, and New Labour, your waiting times might be down, but it dosn't mean a damn thing if people are not getting better.
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