to be totally totally p***ed off and appalled at my local hospital

[moomoo1967]

I shall try to keep this short.....I had two ruptured ovarian cysts back in May....I have had a follow up scan and another scan back in June. They thought that the cysts would reabsorb back into my body, one has done a runner the other one is now 7cm. They did a blood test on the last appointment but just said that it was routine.
I went to the doc's this morning as I thought I had a bladder infection and the doc said " so have the hospital spoken to you about the ovarian cancer ? " I said "about the what !! " No-one at the hospital had said that that was what the tests were for and no one had been in contact since the appointment on the 29th June. The doctor was as puzzled as I am, apparantly they do a blood test to detect a protein called CA-125. Normal would be 35, mine is 60 which apparantly is high. other conditions can cause this protein to be present.
Well it was such a shock that that was what they thought I may have, I burst into tears and was shaking.
The doc suggested I call the consultant, who is on holiday ! sods law so I speak to her PA who said she would contact the registrar on call but in order for him to be able to access my notes it could take more than 48 hours !! meanwhile I am in bits wondering if I do or do not have ovarian cancer.
Does anyone have any similar experiences of being tested for this protein ?
Do I complain at the fact they could have spoken to GP to advise me or spoken to me themselves ?

Yes the hospital did send the GP a letter which is what made her mention it to me, she thought I knew they had tested for OC but all they said was "routine blood tests" even if it was to exclude OC they should have said something.

It's hard to know whether or not hospital have handled this well without more information on what was aid in the letter if there was one.
Them not getting back today was unfortunate, but the consultant was away and the junior doctor's may either have been very busy (and a Ca125 of 60 isn't an emergency)or not wanting to get involved if they don't know the OP and consultant returning from holiday on Monday.
Medical secretaries are usually extremely busy typing clinic notes and she maybe thought if she rang you back to say the op would have to wait another day for info she'd just get another ear full from the OP. This isn't her fault.
It may all be a communication breakdown with the hospital behaving appropriately, the GP being insenitive in the way she mentioned the Ca125 and the OP panicking when she heard the word cancer.

ok so I have spoken to the PA and apparantly the registrar has sent a message through to my GP re the test results. I am waiting for my GP to call me. I just feel like I am going round in circles at the moment, I will definately be writing to complain once it is sorted. !!

Argh. Sounds like cop-out from registrar. He/she should still be willing to speak to you...

Hi everyone I have just heard from my GP, apparantly for it to be OC the CA125 result would have had to be alot higher, poss in the 1000's !!!!
She has apologised and said that maybe she could have handled it better and not alarmed me which is what happened yesterday. She is going to flag it up to the hospital that maybe the communication could have been better between them and the surgery.
So at least I can go and get my DD back from her holiday with a peaceful mind, I haven't seen her for two weeks bless her

thats fantastic news - sounds like the registrar figured it was the gp's mess to sort out and thats why they made her tell you rather than phoning you back.

I hoep your GP feels very guilty for having put you thorugh that.

I hope your GP has learned a lesson about tact Very glad to hear it's nothing to worry about :)

She did and was very very apologetic, I am so relieved. Thanks to everyone who posted on this thread

Glad to here it has all been sorted, hope all is ok with the scan at the end of the month. at the pregnancy line to your OH

hear

moomoo, so pleased all's well Are you considering changing gp, I think I would be?!

So glad!

Wouldn't change GP, she's learnt something from this. (I'm still with the pharmacist who made a massive error over a repeat prescription - because he will NEVER do that to me again, and hopefully not to anyone else, either.)

Moomoo - so pleased for you :)

I'm glad your Dr understands that what she did was awful for you. I hope both the hospital and the surgery learn from this.

What a lot of stress....

I hope your scan goes uneventfully at the end of the month.

So, when are you taking the PG test?? 6 is such a nice round number!

OMG my heart has been in my mouth reading this thread and I am so so thrilled that you are ok. What a relief! Have a big G&T, relax and regain your equilibrium then go and kick some serious gp/hospital/pa/registrar butt. Seriously, they need to consider how they would feel if they had been put in your position. It is simply not acceptable. Good luck!

What a relief! I agreee, go and have a drink...

HaHa ChippingIn, I should imagine that the amount of ultra sounds I have had over the past four months, something like that should have been picked up Bit spooky though as we had touched on the subject but neither of us really want the sleepness nights etc again but if it should happen then hey ho

I am positive that my GP has definately learned her lesson, and would be more careful in future. She was very remorseful and said that she will liase with the hospital over communciation etc. Thanks for listening everyone and have a fab weekend x

I'm glad you can have a fab weekend without worrying about this now.

Sleep is over-rated