Have you had treatments or "routine" operations delayed or cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic? How has this impacted you?

[PainConcernProjects]

Have you had treatments or "routine" operations delayed or cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic (or anything similar)? How has this impacted you?

If you have had a negative experience that you would like to share as somebody with pain please reply to this post and drop me an email at [e-mail]

It would be great to hear from you!

[urodgers1968]

Hi, yes I have been messed about since last June, understandable last year, but I've found out over time off constantly ringing and writing that it's actually due to the secretary at the pain clinic, surely I can't be the only one she has treated badly, she rang me once left message and when I called back she said, can't remember why I called you now, why else would she call me, after I wrote to the doctor at the hospital mentioning the call, she rang me back with an appointment, I believe that there has been long waiting lists made, some due to covid, some just due to the staff using it as an excuse, I was in agony and she knew this even about me going to A and E, concidering this is an orphopedic hospital I don't see how covid can be used as an excuse, disgraceful, this is in Birmingham

[PainConcernProjects Partner Community Champion Pain Concern in reply to urodgers1968]

Hi, thanks for replying, could you drop me an email at [e-mail] to discuss this further please?

[Debbs73 in reply to PainConcernProjects]

Hi. Yeah I was due to have my operation on Monday 18th October. However my husband's friend's wife rang my husband to say he had tested positive for covid. Now I had just had my pcr test done at the hospital which is routine before any operations. Long story cut short hubby has flu like symptoms so both did a flow test can't bk positive for both. Phoned hospital explained situation she suggested husband go for a pcr test done that day. Told to await my results next day. Both pcr positive so no operation for me. Gutted. I've waited 3yrs for this operation. Gonna phone my consultant secatary Thursday to see if any idea how long I need to wait. Worse thing is that over the years that my son and husband have been ill with various illnesses I've never caught anything from them. Talk about bad timing. Hubby feels worse than me, I'm wondering if my drugs are fighting oh the illness with me.

[PainConcernProjects Partner Community Champion Pain Concern in reply to Debbs73]

This sounds like a nightmare Debbs! Could you drop me an email at [e-mail] to discuss it a bit more please?

[urodgers1968 in reply to PainConcernProjects]

OK I will, thanks

[Imagine1]

Yes I have been messed about and it was just before Covid. I fell downstairs and broke my foot/ankle, I went straight to casualty because I couldn't walk, I was put in a wheelchair, I saw the nurse, she eventually xrayed it having had to ask her, it showed a break so what did she do for me absolutely NOTHING. It was never put in a cast or boot and I had no physiotherapy and no follow up appointment. This happened 3 months before lockdown so there was no excuse. I received an airboot nearly a year later. I am now left with a limp, I can't walk far without being in pain and I have a condition called Complex Regional Pain syndrome because I was left with no physiotherapy. This all happened January 2020. Since then I have severe CarpalTunnel Syndrome, no treatment, broken coccyx, no treatment, I have had numerous cancelled appointments for an operation I need urgently this was nearly 2 years ago, I have to have my gall bladder out because of numerous stones plus I have been tested for cancer which took months because of weight loss. Luckily for me I don't have cancer but the stones are multiplying and nothing is being done. What a surprise.

[Judo1010]

After trying for years to get my optician to request a cataract operation, and being told that if he did they would laugh at him because it was ok. As I have a pituitary tumour, which can affect your vision, I have my eyes tested every year. Luckily I saw a different optician, who had no qualms requesting a cataract op. The day before I was due the op, we where put into lockdown. Meaning that I couldn’t attend the operation. Later when I eventually managed to get an eye test (during covid) I was told that I needed to change my glasses, but as my vision hadn’t gotten much worse, It was suggested that as I was booked in for a cataract op, it was pointless ordering glasses. This all took place in the early days of covid lockdown and I eventually had the operation on 9th of August this year ((2021). It was explained to me that I had stitches put into my eye, which meant a longer recovery period. After the op I spent nearly five days not been able to see with my eye, had to put drops in for eight weeks. But worst of all I couldn’t have an eye test for new glasses. Eventually my vision in the eye improved, but I still had to wait until the hospital told me it was ok to visit my optician. In the meanwhile I had no option but to wear both sets of my glasses, distance and reading, which put a great strain on my eyes. Eventually I was able to have my eyes tested, which by then where fine and I received my new glasses on October 7th.

[Kittykat55]

No, I have not, but my husband had back surgery that he desperately needed pushed back due to the pandemic.

[abellemed]

Yes - my appointment for severe spinal stenosis pain treatment ground to a halt when Coronovirus hit our local NHS Pain Management dept - it was closed down completely and all consultants/administrators etc were transferred to other Covid19 wards in the UHL. I was due to have radiofrequency lumbar nerve ablations back in early 2020 and am still waiting. For months I couldn't even contact any of the numbers by phone to find out anything about my treatment at Leicester General Hospital. I am on huge amounts of analgesia (my GP even put me on morphine but it gave me horrid side effects). After nearly 2 yrs waiting for something which might have given me my former active lifestyle back (ie now being unable to walk for more than 50yds and furniture-walking round the house), I am now in despair. Leicester General Hospital's Pain Management has now been back for several months but my treatment is still "in the backlog". I am on pension credit and cannot afford to go private, but would have done so 2 years ago if I could, as my quality of life is now virtually nil.

Also, due to the anxiety and stress this is all putting me under, I have now (as an incidental finding) been found to have tachycardia/atrial fibrillation so have been given an appointment (after 6 weeks of being in limbo, worrying about my heart which has never been a problem before) to be seen by a cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital. next week. I have also been so frustrated by trying to co-ordinate my care between my (pathetically useless) GP surgery and their incorrect referrals...but I could go on...

Half the problem has been the waiting and waiting, with no outcomes. This all started with the Coronovirus panic spreading round our UHL hospitals and withdrawals of services which are sometimes as life-defining as presenting at A&E (which I havem't used of course).

[Sorohan]

Have been waiting for treatment since 2019