"Unhappy with treatment my mum received"

My mother has had cancer 4 times in a short space of 5 years and during these 5 years she’s only been put through A&E 3 times due to sudden problems that are due to the cancer treatment, she has not been the type that has been in and out A&E.

The third time she has been put through into A&E was December just past due to bleeding from the vaginal area now this is very abnormal for my mother to pass blood from this area due to her first ever cancer diagnosis being cervical cancer the treatment made it impossible for this to happen due to the brachytherapy and radiotherapy, this is now meaning my mother can’t have children and Has gone through the early menopause. My mothers cervix actually closed over and she needed an operation he  middle of last year to pierce a small hole to relieve the build up of blood.

So, months later she was awoken at 3am due to the feeling as though she had peed herself and in a lot of pain in her lower abdomen  to find out that she had been bleeding, her pyjama bottoms were soaked in blood the floor and toilet seat was covered in blood and she counted around ten blood clots in the toilet that she had passed. As her daughter i phoned the cancer helpline we were given as up to 8 weeks after treatment thats the best place to phone for 24hr cancer advice. they phoned our local hospital The Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy and was told to immediately go over. When we arrived at A&E the triage nurse was waiting for us and took us right through and done my mothers obs etc then taken us through to a bed further into a&e to be seen by a doctor. The doctor was brilliant although they hadn’t checked my mothers notes and it wasn’t until we mentioned that she was actually a cancer patient is when the doctor said they would go and have a look at her notes.

Fast forward an hour and we were taken up into the gynaecologist ward. The nurse that had first came in also done my mums obs again and told us that she was told by a&e that my mothers bloods had been taken which was false as they hadn’t taken any bloods nor did they mention anything about her needing bloods to us. Another doctor had came in a while later to examine my mums stomach by touching etc and said thry would need another doctor to do the vaginal examination. to which a male doctor also joined with when they done the vaginal examination. When they carried out the examination my mother bled even more and soaked through onto the tissue and bed and also on the floor. The female doctor told us and the other doctor that she could feel something inside of her and was unsure what this was, the male doctor then felt inside and said he felt nothing he proceeded to ask my mum if there was a chance of pregnancy or STD’s and also asked if anything had been done to her cervix as it was very small, this was clear enough to see he had not read her notes or he would have known why her cervix was this small and how there would be no chance of pregnancy. She was sent away home within 5 minutes after the examination they handed her a couple of wipes to clean her vaginal area and was told she was fine to go home even though she was still passing bloody very heavily. She had to remove her blood soaking pad from the bed herself as nobody had removed this and nobody had came back to see her if she was okay. when she was cleaning herself up in the bathroom there was blood on the floor that was dried up which was obviously not my mothers and we had informed the staff of this which to me that is very poor infection control as it was someone else’s blood. Her discharge note that she got given had claimed this was due to the small operation she had months before this or a period. Again, this is another clear statement as to them not reading her notes due to impossibility of her not being able to pass a period.

Fast forward to now my mother is now passing heavily  blood with clots again and has informed her cancer nurse to which they have now fast forwarded her scan due to them being unsure of whats going on and my mother had a conversation with her cancer nurse about this time in hospital and her cancer nurse had said herself that it is impossible for it to be a period due to again the impossibility of my mum passing a period.

My mum now refuses to go to Victoria hospital due to the way she was treated and felt very violated. I didn’t actually want to write this but i don’t want anybody to experience what my mum has went through. I’m not saying all doctors are like this as i’ve seen some amazing doctors that’s helped my mum and even my family through the past 6 years but the way she’s been treated this time is horrific. As a 19 year old girl i shouldn’t have to be writing this but my mum but she should get the compassion and care she deserves. this is highlighted very well on the nhs website and should apply to everyone not just my mum. 

thank you for your time.