"The ward has been amazing, ED not as much"

I have chronic kidney disease, IgA nephropathy I believe is what it’s called. I have been in and out of the hospital over the past 5 years since my diagnosis so I am well experienced. I started to feel unwell last week, and I knew there was no point in coming into the hospital at the weekend. So I phoned my GP after the weekend, who contacted the ED in Daisy Hill. I spent 18 hours sitting in the waiting area in a chair before I was told that my blood results were normal and I was sent home. I was also referred to Belfast as the viral infection had spread to my eyes and they had become all red and swollen. I sat in Belfast for 8 hours and then I was able to go home. I still felt really ill so I went to sleep the second I got home. A few hours later I woke up in absolute agony, I was in tears with the pain. I wasn’t able to put a millimetre of pressure through my feet, which had been sore since the previous week. I had to throw myself off my bed and slide down the stairs in order to be able to phone 999 before I passed out. I was brought back into the hospital and spent 20 hours waiting for a bed down in the ED. I was then finally brought up to the ward and given proper pain relief. Throughout all of this I found that some doctors that I interacted with did not really listen to me. I felt that if I had come in with drugs or alcohol related problems I would have been seen a lot faster. It was infuriating waiting to see a doctor as all they could offer me was paracetamol until I had been seen when I am on morphine at home to help with the pain.

Since arriving on the ward, the staff have been amazing. They’re totally brilliant. The staff are very kind and caring. The food has been alright since I arrived, it could be a lot better. The food has varied a lot over the past few years. In 2017 it was atrocious, from 2018-2019 the food was amazing. But it has gone downhill again since then, but I know it must be difficult to cook for so many people at once.