Rushed First Hospital Appt - So confused

[rh1984]

Hi All,

Had my first hospital appt yesterday. It was supposed to be with a gynae, but once I arrived the Dr I had been booked to see was not in. I met with a nurse, and a student doctor (I think?) although this was not explained to me. The appointment was at the end of the day, and was less than 10 minutes and very rushed as they were an hour and a half behind.

I barely had time to tell them half of my symptoms, had a pap smear, and was told I would be referred for surgery. I was told the Dr I had been assigned to is leaving so they are not sure who I would be with. One of my questions was if they found endo how would they remove it? They said that most of their doctors only do ablation. I explained that I had read research that says there are better outcomes with excision and they just said that they don't know who will be doing my surgery but that most of them only do ablation. They didn't know how long wait times for surgery would be.

I am happy they took my symptoms seriously, and offered a lap. However, I left feel so rushed, and flustered. I don't know if I will even meet my Dr/Surgeon before surgery to ask questions.

My questions are: I

f they find endo (and they are only able to do ablation) can they just report what they see, not do ablation and refer me to a BSGE surgeon who does excision?

Or am I able to go back to my GP now and ask for a referral to a BSGE centre that does excision (now I know the general gynae's I have been referred to only do ablation)?

Feeling very confused. I think I will make an appointment with my GP (who I've only met once) to discuss this, and see if they have been given any information from the hospital.

Thanks for reading!

[ChloeV]

Hi,

Sorry to hear you had such a rushed experience. It is awful how often these long-awaited appointments do not give us the care and answers we so need.

If you live near a specialist Endo centre it would be worth you trying to be seen there. This condition is scary enough, you don’t need to be worried about your care also. You have nothing to lose by going back to your gp and asking about waiting times and to be referred to a centre. It has got to be worth finding out more, no? Maybe you can try calling the centre directly to see if they can give you a rough idea of wait times?

Good luck with it all.

[rh1984 in reply to ChloeV]

Thanks Chloe, they were great but yes such a let down to be rushed through after such a build up in my mind. Yes, I think talking to the GP about it and the BSGE centres is what I'll do. I live in Wales so not sure how it would work to be referred to somewhere like Birmingham but I can only ask!

[wanwood in reply to rh1984]

The BSGE centre in Cardiff sees people from all over Wales but if Birmingham is closer it would be worth at least trying to ask about a referral. The team in Cardiff are excellent but the wait is long. Ideally you want to have as few procedures as possible so you want the diagnostic procedure to be accurate and the treatment to be excision -- you are not wrong.

[rh1984 in reply to wanwood]

Thank you, sometimes you just need someone else to confirm what your thinking (ie less procedures & excision). Birmingham is much closer than Cardiff, it would be good to hear reviews on Birmingham and wait times.