Feeling Meh

[trachet]

I should be cleaning/tidying my house but all I want to do is vegetate on the sofa or go back to bed. In January this year I suddenly got a pain in my r eye. Didn't think much about it but went to a walk in centre just to make sure it was ok. Well it wasn't. I have had about 15 lots of laser surgeries quite a few injections into the eye and 1 operation under general anaesthetic (10 days ago). I've got to go back to hospital tomorrow for another injection in my eye.

I currently have no sight in my r eye. During the op they placed a tube in my eye which in a few weeks they will open up. I hate myself as I am such a quiet person who tends to accept what people in authority tell they want me to do. I was due to have the op on 31 July. At that time I had fairly ok vision, blurry but wearing my glasses I could see most things. However the hospital cancelled the operation to the 28 August. During that month I lost about 50% of the vision I had.

At the same time I had an infection in my l toe which they were treating with antibiotics (the wrong sort!) The toe would improve, but moment the tablets were stopped it would flare up again. I went to my local chemist on the 3rd August to find a new prescription for antibiotics, which I wasn't aware had been prescribed. To top it all they were penicillin-which I'm allergic to so the pharmacist took them back. I only found out the next week what the antibiotics were for. I had to take them for 2 weeks which meant that I would still be taking them on the day of the operation.

The hospital then cancelled the op and gave me a new date 25/9. I knew my eye wasn't feeling good. On the 27/8 the hospital podiatrist said the toe was healed and the infection had gone. I decided to then head to the eye dept who informed me there was no room for me to have the op the next day. A nurse went and fetched the consultant who said there was no way I could have the op as the infection was still an issue. He couldn't see why I was making a fuss as I had been given a new date in September. After telling him for the 3rd time that my eye was getting worse he measured the pressure. It was sky high. Within a blink of an eye He had cancelled someone else's op and I was admitted as an emergency.

A junior doctor talked to me and informed me that they were going to place a tube in my eye. The operation wasn't to restore my sight, but to save my eye. Well I still have no sight and the constant headaches are really getting to me. If I had made more of a fuss in July would I have had more eyesight? I know it's a question that can never be answered. This whole experience has made me even more depressed. The headaches, the pain of the tube and the 11 eye drops a day are just getting too much. I know only time will tell if I get any sight back. I just don't know if I can survive this. I'm so devastated.

[coolpolitealex]

Poor you, I know just how mistakes can be made and once they are made, blame raises it's head in the minds of those who made the wrong decisions, and they compound their error by years of refusing to acknowledge, or look around for ways to shift the blame, and we as patient's get the blame generally for many reason's, and still the problem get's worse, while the bureaucracy trundles on, every dep't trying to avoid the obvious answer to the problems of their error's, and it can take years before they are made to listen, by some body or other, who's job it is to apportion blame.

So you the patient have your respect for them diminished to hell, as you lye back and allow the same people to have another go only this time they hate you that little bit more.

Sorry if that sounds a bit apathetic , but hey' I've been there, I've been left to wander through the vagaries of the Medical profession's process of denial, and it is you the patient that's at fault, and they shut up shop and trundle down to the next decrepit dept, where they go through it all again.

Best wishes Alex

[trachet in reply to coolpolitealex]

I must admit my GP apologised for prescribing me penicillin. But as no-one had told me I had to take them.....The consultant when I saw him a week after, last Fri, said more or less you should be grateful that they operated on me!

[Hidden]

Sorry you have had such a problem.

Sad to say there is little that can be done here to restore your eye.

What I suggest is that you talk to your GP and put in a complaint.

You could try Healthwatch, they have a system that deals with complaints and act as a organisation that patients can complain to. I do not have a telephone for your unknown area so you can obtain that from your GP surgery or off the internet.

Healthwatch will advise the best way forward and can represent you when the hospital is approached.

Good Luck

BOB

[trachet in reply to Hidden]

Thankyou I will look into it when I can eventually get a GP's appointment.

[Sandraann21]

Hi no wonder your depressed !!!! God have you been through it !!!! Well you have been through the worst now, it can and WILL get better you just stay strong and positive and youll come through this and be a much stronger person for it. You take great care and let me know how you get on with your eye, xx

[trachet in reply to Sandraann21]

Hi. I'd thought I'd let you know that I have now permanently lost the sight in my right eye. I'm desperate to see my GP but she has been away and is only back next week. Due to work and hospital appt. I can only see her on Thurs next week. That means after working for 12 hours on Weds I have to get up before 8 to try and get an appt. They are putting in a new computer system and at the moment you can not book an appointment with her. Needless to say I am devastated and keep crying. x