The Uncaring Caring Profession

I sit here today in constant eye contact with my ailing hubby, wondering what is going to happen next. He is sat as still as possible as every movement causes pain. Over the last two weeks I have contacted the medical people involved in his care and met with a wall of silence. I told the GP that every 2-3 hours he was screaming out in pain and clutching his chest, the reaction, silence. Hubby has told them that a Klebsiella UTI was causing him grief with extra rigidity and spasms, the reaction a stupid letter implying that we had been telling everyone that our local hospital are refusing to treat Hubby, which is not the case. We are not stupid we do understand about resistance to antibiotics.

Take him to A&E I hear you cry.

I could do that but that would be rather cruel in Hubby's case as it on average takes 6 hours to get through the process, meanwhile he would be sat upright in his chair in pain, with breathing difficulties, he can not safely lie on the trolleys they have, his body being too spastic & contorted. They would then order an x-ray to check out the knife like stabbing pain in his back and spine, we would trot over to the department to be then told sorry we cant take an x-ray of your hubby as he can not sit still long enough or straight enough for us to do it.

I tried this morning to get him admitted straight onto a ward, where I could set up his special mattress and provide an environment for a doctor to at least check him out and maybe put our minds at rest. Sorry I don't feel comfortable dealing with your hubby's case, get in contact with your spinal injuries unit. Our spinal injuries unit is 80miles away in London. We rang this doctor yesterday left word with secretary that it was urgent, could he not have told us that yesterday. Thanks for nothing !

So here we sit looking at each other waiting for the inevitable, Autonomic Dysreflexia attack , heart attack, stroke etc etc...wondering whether the spinal injuries unit will phone us to come on in or whether they will slam a door in our faces as well.