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anyone remember the saga of my eye from several months ago? Well there are further developments and I'm fed up and want to know if I can demand a referral to someone who cares!!!

6 replies

wannaBe · 12/12/2008 12:47

Long story short for anyone who wasn't subjected to my threads on this a while back.

In March this year I had excruciating pain in my right eye. Went to emergency eye clinic and was diagnosed with glaucoma, which has apparently been brought on by the maturation of a cateract I didn't know I had (I can't see so wouldn't have noticed deterioration in sight from cateract).

Basically the registrar I saw didn't much care as according to him, I didn't have sight anyway so no point removing the cateracts. So, given drops to relieve pressure and inflamation and went back for several follow-up visits during which I saw several equally disinterested people, until I eventually got to see the main consultant who is lovely, and who said that he would like me to stay on drops long-term (pain had gone by now so not a problem), and that he would remove the cateracts if I absolutely wanted him to, but that because they are complex cateracts with lots of blood vescles it is complex surgery and although he is happy to do it, if I wasn't going to gain sight from it is something I would need to think about as if it went wrong I could end up losing the eyes (I have a cateract on the other eye as well it turns out).

So I opted for the long-term drops solution with a view to seeing consultant again in due course.

Fast forward to last night, when I woke up with pain in my left eye. It wasn't quite as severe as the last time, but I recognized it instantly as the same pain I'd had in the other eye. So took painkillers and put drops that I use for my other eye in. But obviously self medicating is not the answer and I therefore rang the clinic this morning to ask to be seen. They fitted me in this morning.

And I saw perhaps the most hopeless, disinterested, and incompetant person I have ever met. He wasn't at all interested, didn't even seem to know what I was talking about, and had to look up the drops I am using for my right eye in his book. And then he called in someone else to give him instructions as to what to do. And she told him that I was "complicated."

Eventually after much deliberating they have put me on a dose of the same drops I was using in my other eye, and I have to go back in two weeks, deep joy.

But I am now fed up of the treatment I have had from these people. there attitude has been all along that because I have no sight and there's nothing worth saving, they're not interested. And the reality is that they simply don't have the experience of "complicated" cases, because in general their time is spent dealing with normal cateracts/eye conditions rather than those that are slightly outside the relms of normality.

Sadly the lovely consultant I saw the last time is on long term sick leave and is apparently in hospital so I cannot demand to be seen by him.

And as he is unavailable, I have 0 confidence in anyone else in that hospital.

So I'm thinking of demanding to be referred to moorfields in London, which is a proper eye hospital and where they are used to dealing with more complex cases.

But can I do this? Or am I now at the mercy of these idiots?

OP posts:
OhYouMerryMerryKitten · 12/12/2008 12:51

You can certainly say that you would like a referral to someone who has experience of your condition, please can you be passed on to moorfields.
Sorry to hear that the other eye is flaring and you are being treated by idiots.

NorthernLurkerwithastarontop · 12/12/2008 12:52

You could ask your GP to refer you? They will be able to explain what's possible. Are you close to Moorlands?

wannaBe · 12/12/2008 12:58

Not really - I'm in Swindon and moorfields is in London, so about 1.5 hours away once you take into account train/underground journeys, but they are a proper eye hospital whereas the people I'm seeing here are just in the general hospital's eye department.

Ironically I could have self medicated with those drops, as the dose they prescribed was the dose I was told to use if my other eye flared up again, but I thought it would be better to see someone first rather than self medicating.

OP posts:
TotalChaos · 12/12/2008 13:00

may be worth seeing if you can get in via the back door - I know that the eye hospital in Manchester has an A& E section you can just pitch up at without any referrals etc- possibly Moorfields has the same?

Sparks · 12/12/2008 13:25

Moorfields do have an a&e department, more info here

edam · 12/12/2008 13:28

You can certainly ask for a referral to Moorfields but do investigate whether they run any services nearer to you. They provide different forms of ophthalmology to various trusts all over the SE and Midlands so you may find there's a Moorfields dept. somewhere convenient.

Sorry the people you've seen have been so crap.

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