The Surprise of Gallstones!

I've learned some interesting new things this weekend.  Firstly the pain of an unhappy gallbladder.  Wow that's a horrible pain.  It made my cry on several occasions. Starting at 10.30 p.m. on Saturday 7th August I went through the procedure of speaking to NHS direct, the duty doctor, saw the SERCO out of hours doctor and went home.   The SERCO doctor didn't know if I had a heart problem and he had no ECG machine to monitor me.  He sent me home with some acid blockers.  The pain was not responding to medication the doctor gave me and I did as he said, I called the ambulance.

The ambulance crew arrived at home around 4.30 a.m. on Sunday.  They did have an ECG machine and my heart seemed fine.  They offered me morphine but I wanted to know what was happening to my body and I didn't fancy feeling spaced out.  I had some paracetamol and a spray of something  under my tongue.

At 5.00 a.m. I was in Treliske Hospital's A&E department which was the noisiest busiest place I've been to in years!  I waited 4 hours to be seen by a doctor.  When he arrived he was so kind.  All the staff were, there just weren't enough of them.  They were rushed off their feet.  After an examination the doctor said he thought I had gallstones and I would be admitted briefly to see the surgeon.

I was moved to two different wards and saw another two doctors, the second of which was the surgeon who, at 6.00 p.m., agreed I have gallstones.  Luckily for me the pain had subsided and I asked to go home and wait for an ultrasound appointment as the hospital had so many patients and so few staff.

In my little side ward there were three other women, two of whom were writing in pain for hours at a time.  One had gallbladder pain and morphine didn't help her a lot or for long, but there weren't enough nurses to administer the morphine injection when she needed.  Both of these ladies had been waiting for an ultrasound scan for days and were promised one on Sunday.  There's only one radiologist on duty at a weekend for the 700 beds/patients and so, again, was totally overstretched.  The patients had to wait until Monday for a scan so their diagnosis and recovery plan could continue.

I have packets of painkillers and I mustn't eat any fat.  I'm hoping if I do as I'm told that I can continue working on the project and teaching my French students but if I disappear off the radar for a while, it could be because of an event of the hospital variety.  I hope not, of course.

Having done some research on gallstones, it seems that women over 50 and especially those on HRT are the most common group to suffer with gallstones.  Here's some info on a BUPA website http://www.bupa.co.uk/individuals/health-information/directory/g/gallstones.

I'll post separately about the project.

Kim
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