"Total Chaos"

I had surgery on the 7th July, I had a discectomy. On the day of the surgery, after the surgery, I told the surgeon I had issues with numbness down my leg left to my toes, I also pointed out that the muscles on my left leg were more clamped down than prior the surgery. The surgeon just touched my foot to see if I could feel their hand and whilst I could, it didn’t feel as it would have before.

Today almost a week on, I am getting progressively worse, despite following their instructions.

Also, on the day, I should have been given a follow up appointment, I wasn’t. I spent a fair amount of time on 8th July being pushed from department to department trying to get the follow up appointment. It was only when the appointments team told me, that they didn’t have my notes and that I seemed to have disappeared from the system it was worrying. They asked me to inform my GP, so that they could chase the situation.

My GP surgery on the 11th July, told me that my follow up appointment is 23rd August. They are disgusted at this and so am I, the word chaos doesn’t even come close. My discharge notes, clearly state 4 weeks, not 7. Also, the surgeon made it clear I am not to work until I am seen by them. This is now an extra 3 weeks on top.

Today, after pushing and pushing, I have finally been given an appointment that is at 4 weeks. I can't understand why I was put through all that stress.

I am also very unhappy that I am worse now than before the op. I wasn’t given any emergency number in case of problems.

To top it off, I was assured that I would have hospital transport take me home after the op. That never happened. I was left to make my own way home, as the hospital transport that was booked for 5pm, wouldn’t turn up until the 8th July. I needed a stretcher as I couldn’t sit, I was also in a lot of pain on my tail, due to the position of the recovery bed and expected to stay on that bed until what ever time the transport would arrive. No one could say when that would be, but as a day care patient it was meant to be the same day, how can it be possible that transport wasn’t available for a patient who needed to have a stretcher to go home and had received multiple assurances that there would be transport not receive it.

I have been very badly let down by St.Marys, little or no assistance given since the surgery and despite raising issues of pain and numbness, dismissed and left to be worse off than prior the surgery. I was repeatedly assured that the surgery would relieve the pain, it hasn’t, in fact it has increased, my mobility is even more severely reduced and I am further away from returning to work after all of this.