What’s wrong with me, hospital clueless

Can you afford to go private?

It might be worth shelling out to get a diagnosis because once someone has diagnosed, they send the results to your GP and you're then in the system to actually be treated.

I am sorry to read that you are still suffering without resolution. Whilst my comment now may not cure you, I thought I should mention how NHS hospitals work in terms of coverage during bank holidays and weekends. The aim is to discharge as many patients as possible at the latter part of any working week. This reduces beds in use and staff coverage. Weekend nursing staff our covered by agency nurses as well as full-time nurses. The Dr. coverage is also reduced with a duty Dr. available for each discipline. In view of this you were being prepared for discharge as you were not considered in a life-threatening or operable position. This is only an observation that I have made during my life and experience with the NHS. Many will argue this is not the protocol but I always joke for goodness sake don’t get ill on a Friday.

Regarding the colonoscopy, I’d present to the gp and ask for them to refer you for one due to the blood in stool, they might ask you to do a FIT test, but changes in bowel habits and blood should be a good enough reason. Two years is plenty of time for things to change.

the morphine and cocodamol must have done a complete number on you though, oramorph leaves me bad for ages and I have to resort to extreme measures to move through it. The joy of opioids!

I too would push for bowel cancer review - I know two people recently who’ve had severe abdominal pain and they’ve found a tumour causing twisting of the gut (one benign, one malignant). Good luck OP, sorry you’re having a rough time.

Hope you have a quiet and painfree Easter.

Have to agree, my doctor quite often asks if everything is ok at home, are things fine at work and am I taking anything herbal?
He's never asked my husband these questions.

Boom. There it is. Can you imagine some man who is the “breadwinner” for his family and a huge tradie being treated to a conversation about if he was avoiding going home to his wife and children, or being given this lovely pamphlet that OP was? This kind of treatment is disgusting. I do know it’s not “all men”; I’m sure OP’s poor DH is going absolutely out of his mind with worry and feels helpless in the face of this type of medical fuckery.

It is interesting that there’s all of the information campaigns and signs telling us to go straight to a doctor if there’s blood in our poo, but then…

The other medical disciplines / wards are probably already full with men getting appropriate treatment because there wasn’t a gynae team involved to fob them off with a ‘10 ways to live with undiagnosed pain when you’re a woman’ leaflet.

I'm so sorry you are in this situation and back home again. If you end up back in again, please say " I have asked for x, y and z test and to be referred to gastroenterology. Please note in my records, that despite my requests, this has been refused." That worked wonders for me when an F2 in A&E was arguing with me that I did not have a broken back and did not need a back XRay. Dear reader, I had a very badly wedged T12.

Jesus Christ. It’s like watching medical misogyny in real time - I’m so sorry we’re just watching while you’re living it, @elm26 . I can only imagine how helpless you feel, but unfortunately, this happens - a hospital is negligent, like yours is being, keeps discharging you without running necessary tests, and then what? Wtf are you supposed to do? Either go back to the hospital and be made to feel like you’re faking (that’s disgusting of these doctors, btw) OR what, stay home and become addicted to co-codamol whilst waiting 42 weeks for an outpatient gastro appointment? (My friend had out of control Crohn’s, I think - he’s horrifically ill, and they’re basically telling him even an urgent referral to gastro is 16 weeks here in Edinburgh).

If you have another severe attack, back to the hospital you go, tell them from minute one that you have diverticulitis already and this could be a very serious exacerbation or infection. Hopefully, then you’ll be put under gastro and they don’t fuck around nearly as much as gynae does (why is it that the department that’s supposed to be just for women is often so fucking misogynistic???).

I’m so, so sorry you’re going through this, OP. Please tell your DH to write down doctor’s names, so that when you’re finally through this crisis and can actually put in a PALS complaint, you can name specific doctors. If you can’t, at least write down the time that something happened (like the gynae consultant dropping your arm repetitively on the bed????) as that will show who the provider was in your notes (I hope).

Please DM me if you need some support (I’ve DMed you before; you might not remember as I know this hospitalization has been a nightmare for you). 💐

Poor you OP. Raise a complaint with PALS.
Say something like 'I’m concerned that despite significant ongoing abdominal pain and abnormal results (high faecal calprotectin and blood in stool), there was no gastroenterology review and I was discharged without a clear plan. I also felt my symptoms were dismissed. I would like this reviewed urgently and to understand what follow-up or further investigation should happen.'

Im so sorry. I would also go to another hospital, I know you shouldn't have to.

At this point you really need to try another hospital and with high faecal calprotectin levels you need to be asking them to rule out bowel cancer, especially when there's rising levels of it these days. I really hope another hospital will look at things with fresh eyes and a will to find out what's wrong, though the bank holiday weekend won't help unfortunately.

I hope no is still defending these doctors, this is beyond reasonable.

OP surely if they’ve found blood in your stool you should be straight in for a colonoscopy to screen for bowel cancer?! If you went to the GP with blood in your bowels you’d be on the 2 week track for screening! I would get yourself to a GP first thing on Tuesday. Better yet, go private! I’ve found the tiniest amount of blood and my private healthcare offered me a 3 day track to screening!

My mum has diverticulitis and a couple of years ago she experienced what it sounds like you’re going through. In the end it turned out one of the diverticulae had ruptured and she had an infection from it. She ended up having emergency surgery where they cut away the section that had ruptured and they gave her a stoma. I believe they diagnosed this with a CT scan - I can see you had a CT scan - did a rupture get ruled out at all? It was years of pain prior to this and a few weeks of the agony before they got to this point - it was very disappointing.
sending well wishes OP it sounds like you’re being to hell and back <3

This is awful 😥 and scary for you x

OP this is just awful. I’m so sorry. To refuse to scan you and run standard tests when you are in so much pain is breathtakingly negligent.

Telling you you have medically unexplained pain when they had refused to run the full battery of tests is obtuse in the extreme. Plain thick, actually, but more than that, it’s dangerous. This should only ever be a diagnosis of exclusion, yet they have refused to run the tests that would exclude all potential medical causes.

In your shoes I would be making the biggest almighty fuss that hospital had ever seen. I’d be onto PALS telling them to sort it within 24 hours or I’d be going to the ICB, my MP and the media. And they’d be damned sure I meant it. I had to do similar on behalf of my elderly father recently and it got things shifting, though I’m sure I’m thoroughly detested now. You shouldn’t have to do this, of course, but by God they’re negligent bastards.

Hardly anyone cares about old people, no matter who they are. They are sort of looked at as 'Why are you still living?' It's awful.

Don't hesitate to to call an ambulance again if it becomes necessary. It's a junior doctor strike not a consultant or surgeon one.

I also second trying a different hospital. It may even help you to be able to go in there fresh and know what to ask for and not let them fob you off. Get your DH to speak for you, as annoying as it is not to be listened to as a woman. 💐flowers and unmumsnetty hugs for you :) xx

I dont want to scare you, but diverticulitis needs to be taken seriously. I have had it for a few years. I started with abdominal pain last August. Felt nothing like my usual diverticulitis pain. I was ill for months. In November I started vomiting, a new symptom. Dr sent me to A and E. They finally did a CT scan. My large intestine was blocked and twisted due to my diverticulitis. I was vomiting faecal matter. I had an emergency laparotomy and a colostomy the next day. I am part of a support group, the number of people who also have colostomies due to diverticulitis is staggering. I never knew it could lead to this. Please keep an eye on your diverticulitis.

That’s so interesting about elderly doctors. Seems to me they’re all espousing (with some exceptions like you say) from the same textbooks they wrote 159 years ago, so I’m shocked they don’t revere older doctors the same

can you go to another hospital, sending big hugs the treatment is totally unacceptable. I am so sorry the NHS is just broken and I feel sorry for you and the doctors and nurses who can’t give patients the right care as the system is so broken and there aren’t enough resources.

Whilst I mainly feel sorry for the OP, I also feel sorry for the gynae team. Looks like they've been (I suspect desperately) trying to get the appropriate teams to further investigate the OP for non gynae causes, and are hitting a total brick wall. It's bloody awful when you know that you aren't the team with the right knowledge and skills to help the patient, you're begging the right team to take over, and they just won't bloody listen. Though obviously a bigger nightmare for the poor bloody patient stuck in the middle.

Have you been having a low fibre diet @elm26? That can help a diverticulitis flare. Bowel issues are awful. I really thought I'd relapsed in my IBD and it turned out to be constipation. I hadn't thought it was because I was going to the bathroom frequently. But my bowel had been retaining stool because of the discomfort.

It really is the most painful thing and given that you've been on so many opioids it wouldn't be at all surprising, even if you've been taking some laxatives.