As you will come to appreciate the more you comprehend the story I am about to share with you, there is one fundamental nugget of information that I always preface and underline whenever I engage with a medical professional, be it pharmacist, doctor, nurse, surgeon, medical specialist, dentist or other.
What is that message?
It is this;
“I am on blood thinning medication due to having X number of life threatening DVT incidents over the years so whatever you do, whatever guidance you recommend, whatever treatment you advise and whatever medically invasive procedure you may be considering performing on me, you need to factor my blood thinning requirements into whatever diagnosis you end up suggesting”.
Meaning;
The business of tinkering, tampering, denying, halting or changing a blood thinning treatment regime can have serious, life changing or deadly consequences for a person on such a medication.
Why? Because the business of keeping blood flowing without it becoming “too thick or too thin” … though that is a very loose simplification of the concept … can require a very fine degree of monitoring that can, and does, make the difference between whether a patent or sufferer leads a safe and healthy existence or crashes and burns with further clots, strokes or more serious or deadly consequences.
There? Have you got the message? (A message I deliver to any person ever attempting to advise, diagnose or treat me for any medical condition.
INCIDENT ONE
September 2022. Dr prescribes me wrong medication. Pharmacist warns me the medication would be harmful in light of my condition and existing meds. He advises me to return to clinic, explain situation and request alternate medication.
September 2022. Dr X performs digital examination
l was a Warfarin patient and warned EVERYONE I was at risk if my Warfarin was removed during a medical procedure). Nobody listened to me and, as I had feared and suspected, without blooding thinning meds leading up to and during the operation, I DID manifest a DVT. (My third over 20 years). Point being … I pleaded for something like Clexane as a temporary insurance policy (and was eventually promised it prior to the op) … but it was never administered. The experience has left me a) with extra DVT related discomfort and b) a paralysed right foot as a result of the biopsy waking up a 20 year old sciatica problem.
Ironically, poignantly, I suffer every day due to the paralysed foot (and the DVT discomfort, both being ailments that were avoidable had I been listened to and cared for properly … yet I don’t suffer hardly anything relating to the prostate cancer. (The team at Dorchester’s Robert White (Radiotherapy) Centre have been the only NHS staff I no longer fear whereas I would rather suffer at home these days rather than find myself back in your NHS system and wards.
I’m not being dramatic, (and am probably too previously distressed or traumatised as to wish to formally make some legal complaint), but really? (Pause) Well … You let me down … at every juncture … at every step of the care process.
That’s my story.
Prostate Cancer treatment.
My story relates to a perceived recognition of a NHS service under duress and strain during and following the C19 pandemic – to the point where I received negligent care and a life threatening DVT AND a paralysed foot as a result of a poorly executed biopsy.
I was a Warfarin patient and warned EVERYONE I was at risk if my Warfarin was stopped leading up to a medical procedure.
But nobody listened to me, (not the consultants, not the nurses, not the doctors, not the pharmacists, and not even the specialist nurse who’s job it was to prep and prepare my meds and myself prior to the biopsy I “needed”.
And, as I had feared and suspected, without blooding thinning meds leading up to and during the operation, I DID manifest a DVT. (My third over 20 years).
I pleaded for something like Clexane as a temporary insurance policy (and was eventually promised it prior to the op) … but it was never administered. The experience has left me a) with extra DVT related discomfort and b) a paralysed right foot as a result of the biopsy waking up a 20 year old sciatica problem.
And, on leaving the hospital after the biopsy and contracting that 3rd DVT, it didn’t stop there when my local doctor prescribed me the WRONG meds to deal with the DVT. Meds that would have killed me. (It’s all on record).
The doctor, on a Friday evening just before a weekend, instructed me change from Warfarin to another, more modern blood thinning med, INSTANTLY, without any preparing, wind down or guidance … when I knew I needed Clexane. (I had a fresh new DVT and knew I was in trouble, either if I followed the doctor’s wrong advice or dare not follow the advice).
I, therefore, called my Warfarin nurses in Dorchester and explained the dire situation and they consulted a blood expert and then actually phoned the doctor and ORDERED him to cancel the dangerous prescription and write me a prescription for Clexane. Thoe nurses and that expert saved my life that evening. x
Ironically, poignantly, I suffer every day due to the paralysed foot (and the DVT discomfort, both being ailments that were avoidable had I been listened to and cared for properly … yet I don’t suffer hardly anything relating to the prostate cancer. (The team at Dorchester’s Robert White (Radiotherapy) Centre have been the only NHS staff I no longer fear whereas I would rather suffer at home these days rather than find myself back in your NHS system and wards.
I’m not being dramatic, (and am probably too previously distressed or traumatised as to wish to formally make some legal complaint), but really? (Pause) Well … You let me down … at every juncture … at every step of the care process.
That’s my story.
I HAVE COMPREHENSIVE SELF MADE NOTES, CHARTS, PERSONAL GRAPHS, DIARY ENTRIES AND OTHER MEDIA TRACKING EVERYTHING and if I was fitter and healthier, I’d be bringing legal claims .
Anyway. This is enough for now. And really? I’m a happy, amicable soul … not looking for vengeance, blood or compensation.
But you, DR F.O.S, have hurt me. And you have failed me and failed to care for me.
Kind regards,
Chris
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