"Possible unnecessary surgery"

Following a recent admission, I wish to express some concerns. I do however wish to stress that some of the care I was given was above and beyond by some of the staff, to whom I have expressed my thanks.

My initial visit was following severe right sided pain in January between my hip and ribcage. I attended my GP who, knowing my history of ovarian cysts, was concerned about a ruptured cyst or possible appendicitis. I was assessed thoroughly with an ultrasound scan internally and advised there was no clear issue identified but I was diagnosed with polycystic ovaries at that point.

The next day around 2am I was woken by the same pain, it was excruciating, worse than labour. My husband called an ambulance and I was transported to DGRI. I was later admitted to D9 ward where I was seen by multiple doctors. They carried out a chest x-ray whilst in A&E to establish a possible bowel obstruction which was not the case. I was then taken for an exploratory laparotomy on the Friday where they checked my appendix, ovaries and everything else that they could at the time. I obviously had had a lot of pain relief to try to help manage.

The results of the laparotomy where inconclusive as they couldn’t find an identifying cause for my pain. I was then discharged the day after. I advised the nurse prior to leaving that the pain was starting again but it was quite mild at the time, I was advised to manage with the painkillers I was discharged with, Co-codamol and Ibuprofen.

Later that night, not 5 hours after discharge, we had to call another ambulance as the pain was excruciating yet again. I was transported back to hospital and readmitted to ward D9. The doctors came back again to assess and tried to get my pain under control. I was given a CT scan the following day. I was asked to lie on my front for the scan which was impossible due to the laparotomy stiches and pain in my abdomen due to the surgery.

Following the results of the scan I was advised that I had an acute Kidney infection with multiple kidney stones. One of the stones had caused infection and inflammation above my bladder in the ureter which they had advised would be the cause of my pain. Due to all of the medication I had been given I had several bouts of sickness. I believe it was on the Sunday night that I had been very sick whilst in bed. I pressed my buzzer for some help and it was 20 minutes before someone came and then a further 20-30 minutes before someone came back to help me get cleaned and change the bed. I sat in my own sick for nearly 50 minutes.

After lots of antibiotics and fluids the pain subsided, and I am now home following discharge that week. I was advised around 12:30 that the surgeons where happy for me to be discharged home as they felt the stone had passed after having an ultrasound that morning to check and it couldn’t be seen. I still have multiple stones in my right kidney which require follow up in Ayr which I believe a referral has been sent.

I do not feel that the care provided at the point of sitting in my own vomit for nearly 50 minutes is right and this should be addressed. I also feel in a way that the exploratory laparoscopy would not have been required had a scan been carried out at an earlier time. I wouldn’t have the recovery required following the surgery either and they would have found the problem a lot sooner.

I would appreciate if someone could give me some feedback regarding this.