"Suspected Appendicitis Feb/March 2012"

Anything else?

I must admit at first when my GP called up I was told there was a bed and when I got there, there wasn't any bed avaliable. I had to wait over 7 hours in acute pain in A&E and was upset when drunkern youths were placed higher than me on the waiting list even after my GP had already called ahead. I didn't get onto the ward till after 2am after waiting in A& E from 7pm.

Once on the ward I was pumped with 3 very strong drugs to combat any infection that I might have substained as at that point no one was 100% sure it was my appendix that was causing so much pain. Within a day I started feeling better and the senior doctor was thinking of sending me home, which I'm glad in the end it didnt happen. If it wasn't for the surgeon who wasn't happy that I was still in some pain I would have been sent home.

My problem is, is that I have a high pain barrier. I just don't feel pain as much as other patients and can look very well when infact it's not the case. My past operations of gall bladder removal and the removal of a larger teratoma attached to my bowel are good examples of this. I was told with both of those issues that I should be doubled up in pain so great that I should be unable to continue working and yet for both and with the suspected appedicitis, I was able to carry on working right till the last minute.

I was wheeled down for sugery 3 day's after being admitted as my operation was not deemed an emergency but when they opened me up I had already had a burst Appendix and that peritonitis had already started to set in. I was told after the surgery that it was a very nasty infected appendix that they had removed and that they had not seen one so infected in a long time.

I would like to thank the surgeon who did my operation because without him and his team I would have been sent home and I would like to thank both the ward staff on PRH ward 12 not SAU and the recovery staff.

My care after sugery was the best considering they were closing the ward around me. My surgeon both pre and post surgery had a really nice bedside manner and still checked up on me even after surgery.

I would like to complain about my anesthetist who I found to be very rude especially as I told them that I was allergic to a certain drug which they use for sugery. They were very argumentative and the complete opposite to all the staff. I was having problems when I came round from the operation but they did nothing to offer the recovery staff any help in that they had to call a senior doctor to go over their head. I have to admit their behaviour worried me prior to my operation as I was already nervous about the situation and to have someone who only sees patients as numbers rather then people is disgusting.