I'm recently back home after a 3 week stay in hospital, my wife came home from work at midnight to find me extremely poorly, very hot and throwing up , she called the out of hours G.P who gave me antisickness meds, I remember none of this and it didn't work , I was admitted to hospital where I continued to be sick a week later.
They thought at first inhad a skin infection but I didn't, then they thought I had a chest infection with fluid on my lungs but I didn't so an official diagnosis wasn't given, antisickness through a syringe driver eased the sickness , this is where the fun began, they kept telling me I didn't need the oxygen that I'd been on for the last year , my stats at test were good so they kept taking the oxygen off me, my wife was getting frustrated with this and said I needed it to move around , lifting arms etc soon had me out of breath but they wasn't listening so they took it off me again , she came up to the hospital and dragged one of the nurses to my bedside and told me to get out of bed, I dutidly did as I was asked and within seconds the poor nurse was in a panic and was turning the oxygen back on saying please use it quickly , as amusing as it was I shouldn't have had to go down that road to prove I needed oxygen.
The next amusing steps was when they gave me a mri and told me I was developing a spinal cord compression which I knew about and which my wife and palliative care team had to explain that we knew about but then they said once they did an operation to help with the spinal cord compression they'd be able to cure my breast cancer, now my wife and palliative care team had to tell the hospital a few things . One it's too dangerous for me to undergo a operation and 2 they couldn't cure my breast cancer they even had to explain why and the reasons why? My bottom and middle right lobe of my lung collapsed last year and wouldn't be growing back, the top lobe of the right side is hazy due to the tumour being in the bronchi and blocking the air way .
Yes they thought the dark shadow on my lung was fluid and that's why the lobes had gone , it took someone else to explain the dark area is because there is no lung there anymore and I have terminal cancer and receiving end of life care, 3 weeks it took for this to sink in .
Don't even get me started on the level of care , they asked 3 times in the 3 weeks if I needed a wash, all 3 times was when I was throwing up so of course I said no , my wife ended up coming in to wash me every day.
Even during this time they still kept insisting I didn't need the oxygen until I moved an arm then they shoved it back at me .
The NHS have really gone downhill , however the constant being told my cancer could be cured was a bit like dangling a carrot at a donkey and they should have read my notes properly.
Like I say I'm now back home with my oxygen and when the next infection comes I won't be returning to the hospital, yes I know it means I could die from the infection but that hospital visit traumatised me that much that I'm prepared to take that risk, after all I'm already on end of life so what else can GP wrong?
