Can relate 💯! About 3 months ago I had a temperature around 39.5 for almost 2 weeks with only 1 symptom: my ears were burning. After that I noticed that eardrum became opaque white with some cobblestoning. I went to doctor, who honestly told me that he's not a specialist and prescribed me with penicillin. It didn't work. I went for advice to pharmacy. Pharmacist looked at my eardrum and said that I need to go to A&E. Now here's the catch: he wanted to give me papers for A&E, but for that I needed to have referral from my GP to pharmacy and I went to my pharmacy because I couldn't get a hold of my GP. I was adviced to call medical helpline to get referral from them.... Long story short, they didn't give it. After a week I ended up in A&E. After sitting there for six hours, I got finally checked by doctor. By that time my eardrum already ruptured. He said that it doesn't look good and I need to be looked at by specialist urgently, so he told me to travel to Whipps Cross hospital next day as they should have specialist on site. By that time all this madness with nothing working and doctors tossing me around was going on for one and a half months, and I had to travel in 1.5 weeks, I bought tickets half a year ago and couldn't cancel. I went to Whipps Cross, sat there for six hours and when checked by doctor, who spent less than half a minute on me, first thing I heard was: "Congratulations, it's not infection!".
Me reaction was: Sorry, I don't agree 😑
Then he started saying that if skin isn't red, it can't be infection. I said: "Ok, cool. What is it and most importantly how can we fix it because it's been hurting me like crazy for the past month and a half". He said that he will arrange appointment for me with specialist the day after tomorrow. I felt a bit relieved, because I thought that finally issue will be sorted... Oh, how wrong I was. Next day I got a call from specialist saying that they don't consider my case serious and will see me only in a week's time, literally several hours before my flight. When time came, specialist said after checking me: "It's a really bad infection. It can do a serious damage" They told me that it can go to my brain, confirmed that my eardrum is ruptured, gave me some papers to prepare me for possible operation that can potentially leave my face paralyzed. I was listening it, was looking at them smiling and was thinking that all of this could have been avoided only if someone listened to me for the past one and a half months, only if I met a single doctor who would actually have knowledge in that area. I was prescribed with antibiotic eardrops and was told that I need to be seen in a week. I said that I'm flying away, but I will by tickets back and we agreed that I'll be seen in two weeks and will fly back. Needless to say that earlier drops didn't help, I flew back to UK to be seen by the doctor only to receive a message that they arranged appointment for me in three weeks. I was furious, I called them asking what's going on and why arrangement to be seen in two weeks were changed to three without letting me know, I told them that I keep getting worse and that I spent lots of money to come to be seen by doctor in the time we originally agreed on. It was all ignored. Flight back took a toll on me, I couldn't sleep from the pain and went to central London A&E hoping to find some help there. At that time my pressure was 145/110, I started constantly loosing balance, my pain became unbearable and spread further. When I was checked by the doctor, I was finally given good advice, which is sad, but true. She strongly recommended me seeking medical help abroad, because NHS keeps tossing me in circles and I'm running out of time. I asked in which situation I should be worried. Reply was: "When it will become unbearable to touch head around your ears". But it already hurts, I said. "When it will become UNBEARABLE, that would mean that infection spread to the bones and brain". It's scary, honestly scary, when you come for help, but given none, you're left alone hoping that your body will overcome it or you will die. And I think what makes it worse is understanding that they should have helped you, but no one could be bothered, because system is broken!
Up to this point my issue hasn't resolved, I keep eating natural antiviral solutions, but my ears just slowly getting worse, pain never goes away. And I have so many bad experiences with NHS. They say it's free and we should be grateful, but in reality I pay towards it a nice sum of money each year and my health kept declining because when I went to NHS with a health issue, it didn't resolve a single one of them. I couldn't have used that money to go private, instead I'm left with the system that doesn't care about patients!
You must be logged in to post a comment.