To think I should be on the list for emergency surgery?

[Brutalista]

I have a non-functioning gallbladder.

Since my symptoms started last autumn I've been taken to hospital in an ambulance five times, admitted to hospital four times, undergone 5 different scans and have been discharged each time with very heavy painkillers that I cannot function with or without.

I can't look after my two small children, run my business, drive my car and my mental health is declining alarmingly.

Unlike gallstones, a non-functioning gallbladder causes pain constantly.

I'm utterly fucking miserable and my family is really struggling, but the consultant won't treat my case as an emergency.

Besides the obvious suffering I'm in, surely it is not cost-effective for the NHS for me to be shipped off to A&E in a truck every time I can't manage my pain at home? A simple gallbladder removal should fix this, but they won't bump me up the list.

If AIBU it might help me to know why, so do your worst...

Are you under the care of a specialist? Are you on any meds to help relax the muscles of your gall bladder?

Similar here op.
Except my (emergency) surgery was canceled 3 days running.
So I discharged myself and went private.
It was £4.5k and worth every fucking penny.

That sounds awful, OP. It is a horrible pain and does indeed make it very hard to function. You have my sympathy ... not that sympathy helps one tiny bit!

Oral morphine every 2 hours! What dosage and how long have you been at that frequency for? Also, doesn't your GP have any concerns about that? I think I'd be inclined to go back to him and ask him that very question!

While you're there, I think you should tell him that you are no longer managing at home, are on your own all day, and will he please arrange for some urgent home care services for you. That might shift him.

Perhaps more realistically, you could also ask your consultant;s secretary to check that you are on all possible lists and emphasise that you woulds take a cancellation at the drop of a hat (if you can do that).

Good luck. This is awful.

I'm on oral morphine too, it's horrible & you start to need more & more of it. You poor thing op.
Is there another GP you can see in tr practice?
Also, like a PP said, phone the consultants secretary, they're often very helpful and hopefully will be able to help you.
I think if it were me I'd be calling my GP almost daily to tell them I couldn't cope with the pain.
I really hope you get this sorted soon op.

The morphine gives me the willies a bit, ADish. It was the pain clinic at the hospital that advised me to take a low dose of it regularly and that was a couple of weeks ago. It makes me feel tired and foggy, not ideal when wrangling a 2yo and 5yo. It does work for the pain but it's hardly a long-term solution and even mid-term I can't imagine that it's that great for me. Do you get many side effects, Germgirl

Piggychops they've given me buscopan, that's a muscle relaxant isn't it? I've not noticed it doing much, tbh.

Time to make a nuisance of yourself op!

Yeah, I'm thinking maybe it would help to see your MP and have them put your case a bit for you, they might have more success than you've had. Certainly sounds like an emergency to me.

Maybe also try getting a social services assessment of what extra care you need at home because of being so incapacitated - they should lobby for earlier treatment if it would mean not having to put a whole (expensive) care package in place for you.

I have morphine for severe unexplained abdo pain Op, I can take up to 30ml a day but the frequency and dosage is up to me. I'm terrified of getting addicted so I eke it out as much as I can. However, I'm starting to need more & more to get the same effect. I took 30ml over a few hours yesterday & today I have the 'morphine hangover', I feel absolutely knackered & light headed. It makes me very constipated, I have terrible piles! (Sorry, TMI)
When I take it I get a foggy, spaced out feeling, I don't know how you cope with that & look after children! It's all I can do to look after myself! I daren't drive when I'm using it.
Op, I feel so sorry for you, please do try your MP & also hassle your GP again, and try the secretary. It's not right that you've been left like this.
I hope you get things sorted soon

Your GP sounds a bit shit . Any chance of seeing a different one or even registering at a different practice? To me this sounds almost negligent because I'm sure it IS within the power of the GP to get things moving and they're just not doing it. With you in pain and off your head on morphine it must be all the harder to get on top of all this. I think PALS should probably be your next port of call. I do hope you get this sorted soon

DH spoke to a GP mum friend of mine on the school run.

She said that GPs see so many people with regular gallstones pushing to get the op sooner that they are used to fobbing them off dissuading them. My GP might have lumped me in with them and not understood that a non-functioning gallbladder is a different beast and causes constant pain.

Not that I'm minimsing the suffering of anyone with gallstones AT ALL but from what I understand the pain from stones doesn't come on every day.

Anyhow, some late night googling unearthed the consultant's PA's number so I've left a message for her.

I'd also suggest moving gp's. My dh had suffered for almost 3 years with a condition and was fobbed off at every opportunity. He moved gp's when we moved house and he got seen by a specialist straight away and then an op less than 3 months later.

i would have thought that it became an emergency when it landed you in hospital tbh.