The Catch 22 situation

[Bermondsey_bill]

A few years ago the rules changed and we could pick and choose where we wanted to be treated, however in the last 5 or so years certain Area Health authorities have become special centers of excellence and as such have been allowed to set the criteria for exactly how much care they give based on causality. I shall explain: the AHA that I live in is Guys and St Thomas' (now a Cancer of excellence). I was recently taken to my local A&E due to problems with my lymph, now as a peripheral to the main problem my lower legs burst out in lymphatic blisters. My initial stay in the hospital was 5 months during which time 4 seperate referals were made to the TVN (Tissue Viability Nurse) to treat my lower limbs and each time the only advice the TVN (and this was more than one individual) could give was to elevate my legs. This frustrated both myself and more importantly the ward consultants who had made the referral. So I sought to find out why the rejection. Basically I was told that a lymph can be caused by one of three different ways - firstly Cancer, secondly blunt trauma and finally via infection. Since mine was as a result of an infection via diabetic leg ulcers blocking a lymph node I could only have the most rudimentary care. Anything peripheral to the leaking lymph was (and stll is) outside the staffs remit. I don't blame the staff, they are simply working to the policy set down by the AHA. The upshot of this is next time I have cause to go to A&E I will have to tell the Ambulance crew to take me to another hospital (some 10+ miles away) rather than my local(less than a mile) simply because I know that at the distant hospital any peripheral problems I may have arising from or pertaining to my lymph will be dealt with fully.

[Romaine1]

Did your infection from the diabetes end up creating the worsening lymphadema in the rest of your body? I don't know where you are, but if it is at all feasible, you probably need to be in a large city where there are doctors who are familiar with this condition. Not enough are. Please let me know.

[Bermondsey_bill in reply to Romaine1]

I'm in London (not half a mile from Tower Bridge), and generally very few doctors on first sight recognise the condition being where it is - since it starts off looking like I have a big tummy, but then just keeps going on and on, so much so that it has elongated my trunk and buried my penis. Indeed when I was in hospital recently I became a regular stop on the medical student must see list ! Chronologically I was an insulin dependent diabetic, got leg ulcers, then 5 lots of infection (each requiring a week in hospital for I/V antibiotics) and somewhere over those 6 months I got cellulitis which blocked a lymph node in the left hand side of my groin. Since the lymphatic fluid has to goo somewhere (and its path to my kidneys was now blocked) it started to fill up the body cavity - so much so that excess fluid began to tunnel its way to the surface and form blisters. And in places where there was no pressure on the skin (i.e. tucked up under the buttocks) form a blister the size of an egg, which when burst released extreemley alkali lymph fluid that burns the skin.

[lovesradio]

So vexed to hear of this nonsensical situation between Health Authority areas