"I have been left with ongoing pain"

I went to A&E in September of last year with extreme back pain and got an MRI showing I had a bad bulging disc. I had to wait in A&E for 12 hours while they talked back and forth with Edinburgh Royal Infirmary sitting on a chair in a waiting room with no pain relief and in agony.

I was sent home with a follow-up appointment the next day. They said they would do surgery to correct this. The pain went on and progressed so I made a doctors appointment and got better pain management. I then had problems urine hesitancy and panicked as I was in so much pain I was struggling with every day life and my symptoms were getting more severe.

I phoned NHS 24 and they sent me straight to A&E where I waited another 12 hours where the doctor told me I was acting anxious. I actually put in an official complaint about this doctor because they were extremely rude to me. So I went off home and suffered in pain and ended up having to use a walking stick and maxing out on painkillers every day, just struggling to do anything - I am in my 20s.

It got so bad I ended up having to phone A&E again because I couldn't stand the pain. This time I opted to go to St. John's hospital, as I felt horribly anxious returning to FVRH, where I got another MRI and at this point I was in so much pain I was in tears just having to lie on my back.

Well from there they sent me in an ambulance to the DCN ward in Edinburgh because they considered my case an emergency. I was then told I was actually too young to have the surgery and was given a nerve root injection that did not help. I then went into urinary retention and had to be catheterised. I was unable to sit or lie down flat so hard to curl up into a ball or I would be in excruciating pain.

The ward in Edinburgh was understaffed and even though the nurses and doctors tried they were stretched too thin so I ended up going with very little pain relief for the 5 days I was kept in before they finally agreed to do the surgery.

I have been left with ongoing pain, which although is better than just before the surgery is still very difficult day to day, I also have a numbness in my left foot now that has not changed in the 6 months since. And to top it all off when I got home I had the reply from my complaint to FVRH where they said that although the way the doctor had spoken to me was not the best that they didn't really do anything wrong and they wished me a good recovery.

I went through absolute hell with this and the care I received was horrendous it had a huge impact and still does on my mental health as I felt belittled and ignored when I needed the help the most.