"I am suffering post-childbirth and nothing is resolved"

My son was born in Wishaw General toward the end of April by planned section. The section itself was lovely and at the time, I had been advised by my midwife to have a coil fitted during the procedure. All fine, this was done. I was not aware of any possible complications of the coil during a c-section, it was just hand written on the corner of my section consent form.

For the following 5 weeks I experienced intense pain, constant bleeding and stabbing pains in various places. I was unsure whether this was due to it being my second section or the coil and what was normal.

No one knew. I was advised to look for the coil strings to check it was in place. They were not there. I made an appointment with the doctor who confirmed there are no strings so the coil may or may not be somewhere inside me.

The doctor arranged a scan to check if it is somewhere. That was 6 weeks ago and still I have heard nothing on this despite being told during my section I would have received an appointment for 6 weeks postpartum (pp) for a coil check at the hospital. Where is this mythical appointment?

My nerves were grazed during the administration of the spinal epidural, which has resulted in mild nerve damage meaning at one point when I stood up my legs were not functioning and I fell to the ground, breaking my toe on the wall as I fell.

At 5 weeks pp I developed redness and pain in the wound site. I was given a cream for this. At 5 weeks 5 days pp I woke up drenched in fluid from a hole in my wound.

Now 6 weeks on from this I have had 6 different antibiotics, the infected open area in the wound is now around an inch long and leaks putrid pus round the clock.

I have had 3 swabs done, all of which yielded different results. The first one indicated an unusual infection which only had two treatment options. I had two courses of one of these and no changes to the infection.

Another swab was taken at my 8 week check and the second course of the same antibiotics prescribed. After 6 days I returned as still there was no change, I was then given a broad spectrum antibiotic and another swab taken.

The results of the swab prior returned the following day and indicated an infection that was not responsive to penicillin, which I am allergic to although not deathly, so decided that at this point I would suffer the reactions to the penicillin in the hopes it would clear up the festering wound.

A week later and I called again as still there have been no improvements. I am in pain constantly and leaking pus round the clock. Imagine my surprise when I was told the swab taken the day before I was prescribed the penicillin shows no infection. How is this possible when I hadn’t yet taken anything that would treat it?

I’m still leaking putrid pus and having to change wound dressings with astonishing frequency. I can’t in good conscience believe this is correct and that I am suddenly free of infection without even having to put myself through taking a drug I am allergic to.

So here I am, in pain, leaking, with a missing coil that may or may not be floating around inside my body. I dread to think how on earth it’s coming back out if it is still in there as I’m already in tatters.

I could not fault a single person who has looked after me. They were all lovely and I haven’t a bad word to say about any individual, but I am still here and nothing has been resolved and that just can’t be ok.

I need to be free of this infection and I need to know whether there is or is not a coil casually floating around inside my body.

My mental health is suffering in this vital time that I should be able to enjoy with my son and I feel incredibly resentful at this point that there seems to be no consistency in my care and no solutions reached. I am in bits. It’s affecting my life and my family every day this remains unresolved and it’s just not good enough.