Coo-eee, I'm home!

Val told me that she'd kept you all up to date and I'd like to thank you all for your kind wishes. :-)

Anyway, this hernia was exactly eight weeks since my last one but it was on the other side. However I encountered more problems again.


OK,here's what happened:
So Sunday night/early hours Monday morning I woke up in terrible pain and found a 'lump' on my left side - about 6 inches to the left of my navel. It felt like a hernia and the pain felt like a strangulation. So I took a shower using the HiBi Scrub that I used last time (to prevent infection) and phoned the out-of-hours surgery. A doctor then phoned back and from my description he also said it appears that I have what I said (strangulated hernia) and to phone an ambulance - which I did.

Anyway, I got to the Hospital A&E at about 03.15am where they left me until about 7am, then they sent me down for two X-rays.
Just before they changed over from the night shift staff to day shift staff, the lady Doctor came and said I should go home now and go to see my own Doctor who would refer me to hospital for tests as the X-Rays didn't show anything.

I pointed out that X-Rays would NOT show tissue like that, which she agreed, so I emphatically refused to leave. I told her there was something seriously wrong and it needs seeing to. She handed me over to the daytime Doctor who reluctantly then sent me up to the emergency admissions ward for investigation.

They didn't seem to treat me with any urgency and it was not until mid-afternoon that I was finally sent down for an ultrasound scan on my left abdomen. The doctor there poked the spot saying "Is it here?" "OUCH!!!" I screamed out in pain and said "I think you now know where it is now." Anyway the scan confirmed that I had a *strangulated left Spigelian hernia*.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spigelian_hernia

I pointed out to the doc doing the scan that A&E wanted to send me home at 8am.ish and he said it could've killed me!!!

So it was back to the ward and a visit by the surgeon. As it was, the surgeon said they may have to take out some of my bowel as I'd had the strangulation for quite some hours and it even took the hospital 16 hours before they operated on me. But fortunately for me the bowel was ok as I lay flat on my back whilst waiting which helped a tad... and it was less painful for me like that.

Anyhow, I went down to the theatre for my op at about 6pm but the anaesthetist wouldn't allow me to go through for the procedure as the doctor had failed to write if it was on my left side or right side and that I had signed and agreed to the op. That took another HOUR to get that sorted, then in I went...

Oh, I forgot! Because my type of hernia was a rare one, compared to other types of hernias, the doctors/consultants wanted the student doctors to come and take a look. I must have had about 5 or 6 'groups' of them popping in and having a feel and a look. LOL
(Southampton General is a teaching hospital)

After my op which took about 1 hour 40 mins I found myself in recovery and in worse pain than when I went in so they gave me some morphine... then some more... then more... and more... and more - I had loads of shots altogether after which I could've floated back to the ward by myself. ;-)

But they took me back to a ward where I spent the night awake and taking more pain killers and by morning I was feeling fairly ok. Although when the nurse came in to take my observations at about 1am she saw that my 'drip' wasn't flowing and that it hadn't been turned on so she said that she may as well take it down as I was drinking now anyway. I told her to leave it there and turn it on as I was NOT drinking - I was trying to sleep.

Then in the morning someone came round dishing out breakfasts but missed me out entirely (again! - this happened 8 weeks earlier too), so I asked the person dishing out the food why I hadn't got any and she said I'm on Fluids only - but the doctor/surgeon said that I could eat, so I called the nurse in. She confirmed that I should have breakfast and asked if there was anything I didn't like "Yes - cereals" said I, and I asked if I could have a sandwich to which she said 'No problem'. Then she returned with a bowl of cornflakes and said they (the hospital) doesn't have any bread!!! I won't tell you what I said!.

Anyway about five minutes after that in walked a young lady who said "Good morning everyone, I'm Matron."

Wa-Hey! I grabbed her (not literally) and asked why a hospital of this size does not have any bread and why I did not get any breakfast. She looked at my name and said "I'm sure I've just written to a person with a name like yours about another complaint a couple of months ago."
Yes, it was the same person - me ... she went ballistic and told off the nurse and ordered her to go and fetch me a Chicken Sandwich pronto - and one arrived within 5 minutes.
Matron also gave me her personal telephone number and told me to contact her if I should encounter 'any' further problems.

They finally discharged me at around 2pm yesterday but when I read my discharge papers it said ONCE AGAIN that I had Sclerosis instead of Cirrhosis.

When I queried it, the nurse said that they had copied it from my notes (which I had pointed out were wrong 8 weeks previously). I told her that I'm not leaving until they get it right. It took them four hours to get it right on the computer and to print out a new discharge paper for me.

So she then said I could leave as she'd ordered a taxi but once again I had to ask for a chair to be taken down to the entrance/exit. In their reply about my previous complaint the Hospital agreed that all discharging patients must be wheeled to the door in a chair by a hospital porter.

And now I'm home with a five inch scar which is a little tender and I'll leave my patio paving slabs alone now for a while. :-)

--
Gareth ( email address invalid ) .....


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