"Feel abandoned"

I was told after visiting the Yorkshire clinic that I had a inguinal hernia and it would need surgery. I attended the clinic 14/12/2018 and had the operation.

Upon waking from the anesthetic I could hear the staff saying I had another one and when I asked, was told the doctor would speak to me about this. I recovered in my room for the rest of the day and when my lift arrived I was handed a care pack with some dressings and some care leaflets as I was leaving. I now know the leaflets had some 17 questions to ask the staff about my aftercare, more so to what I could and couldn’t do.

All that was said was do not lift anything for a couple of weeks, but I was left to carry my day bag downstairs which was extremely uncomfortable to carry. The doctor never saw me before leaving.

After several days I felt well enough to ring the clinic about my dressings and the questions I should of asked before leaving, only to be met by a nurse saying, when I asked how long to keep the dressings on for... “have you read the leaflet properly?” she put me on my back foot feeling like i had been told off and never got round to the questions of my care.

I have been back to my own doctors twice because of it being extremely uncomfortable and I been back to see the surgeon for his 4 week review to explain to him of my concerns of how it is and that it is not settling. I was told by the consuktant he can’t understand why it isn’t and to give it another 4-6 weeks to see how it is then, which is on top of the original 4 weeks.

I literally felt abandoned at this point. I was told at my original consultation that my recovery would be a couple of weeks for a non manual job but that I’d be able to do most things after 4 weeks were up, but still no strenuous lifting for six.

I told the surgeon I have a lower spinal fusion and need to stretch everyday so it doesn’t spasm, but was told I couldn’t do this.

The slightest thing agitates the mesh but he didn’t seem to really understand my concerns over this. I feel abandoned, money taken from the nhs for the operation and just left to get on with it. He did mention that I need another one for the other side but because no permission was given he couldn’t do it, even though I had asked him before the operation if there’s another one found can it be done at the same time.

My advice is think twice about hernia operations as after reading quite alot of reviews there are a lot of problems with recovery of this kind of operation and secondly stay well clear of this clinic if you choose to have one.