Long & convoluted story short as possible ...
Aug 19, I ended up injuring my neck due to pretty awful disabled facilities at a festival, which left me having to get up a wet grassy hill to our pitch on which I slipped a few times & whiplashed my neck. Last one had me in agony & at trip to A&E.
A&E were great, really thorough, saw 2 neurologists for second opinion etc & they gave an emergency referral to a neurosurgeon & diagnosed 7 suspected injured discs in my neck. Yikes😟
This injury has been extremely disabling & also scary as my neck felt unstable & the diagnosis naturally made me nervous to push through the pain & get on with it as I'm used to doing with other disabilities.
Neurosurgeon refused to see me, basically without seeing me decided I was too old for surgery (at 57😏) & suggested pain clinic instead 😏 this felt sexist as hell tbh as a male friend had a very similar injury a year earlier & was seen within a few weeks, had surgery & was back in work after only a few months. No question of him being too old, despite being a year older than me.
GP was on my side that this was ridiculous & along with PALs help I was eventually seen by a neurologist a year after my injury.
Appointment was absolutely awful, doctor had clearly decided before even checking me over how this was going to go. Refused the MRI scan I was desperate for & referred to a pain clinic again. Been in the past & nothing to gain from going again when I mostly manage my usual disability well & was already doing the right things.
Letter from the appointment led with "this lady with diagnosed anxiety" & basically said sod all of use & no help. Said he'd checked me neurologically & I was okay, but I wasn't keeping up with his rushed requests & he didn't even notice, nor listen when I tried to say, so no way could he actually tell.
This led to my contacting PALs as I don't have a diagnosis of Anxiety, never have. I have Dysautonomia, where I can physically over react to stress, but I'm not a worrier & thankfully don't suffer with anxiety & so what if I did, it doesn't affect my neck
PALs pushed for the MRI scan for me, which after a wait led to a 3 line diagnosis letter telling me no narrowing of spinal cord, so all good & that's it.
Only it wasn't all good, I was frequently in agony, couldn't do anything with my arms, couldn't raise them, pull, push anything or tape for long etc. GP contacted neurologist & eventually got the full information on which discs involved & how etc. Thankfully only 2.
This lead to my asking GP about shoulder impingement, for which I was checked over, X rayed & diagnosed with double shoulder impingement too.
Today I have my first Osteopath appointment, over a year & a half wasted when I could have had this fixed. I usually exercise & swim to keep myself fit, but this has really limited that & my general fitness has suffered badly as a result. It's also made me mostly housebound as I need to use a stick for balance & couldn't due to the pain it triggered. So all in all, a load of unnecessary extra crap caused by the messing around & delayed diagnosis.
I feel angry about that, but also understand we're in a pandemic & doctors are up against it big time & I really appreciate the NHS.
I swing between formal complaint & letting it go.
What would you do?