I'd gone in at 8am, completed the pre-op assessment, met the consultant and anaesthetist, been given a bed, changed into a theatre gown, had my pre-meds at 9.30, due in theatre at 10am. And nothing happened. I lay there, Mum sat next to me. We twiddled our thumbs. I knitted. I read. I slept. Mum read. We talked about every topic under the sun. My tummy rumbled (having not had anything to eat or drink from 11pm the night before!). What was worse, they kept pushing the ward tea trolley past with a giant tea pot full of tea on it.
At 12.55 the consultant reappeared and said he had to cancel as they'd run out of operating time in theatre. They've told me to come in again tomorrow, as there's a chance I'll get it done, but I'm not holding out much hope. Today I was no. 3 on a theatre list of 6 and got cancelled. Tomorrow I'll be the extra one on the end of a theatre list of 6 so the chances of getting through that are fairly remote. And this consultant only operates on Mon-Wed mornings, so that'll be it for this week.
The frustrating thing is that there isn't anyone in particular to be angry with. It's not the staff's fault that they ran out of theatre time (either an earlier op. was more complicated than they expected or an emergency came in) and there isn't any slack in the system to allow for them to go over the allocated time. It just seems such a waste - the system won't pay overtime to allow all the day's operations to still go ahead, yet has to bear the cost of my half day's occupancy of a hospital bed, clean laundry, pre-med drugs, staff time and probably a repeat of it all tomorrow. It's also the attitude of the "system" that annoys me. That I haven't got anything better to do than lie around all day waiting for a non-existent operation, and do the same tomorrow, and probably next week too. The same thing happened to an elderly family friend last week. She was going in for a hip replacement, and got as far as being wheeled through the theatre doors, then the intensive care bed she needed for afterwards was taken by an emergency case and she had to be wheeled out again and sent home. That operation has been rescheduled for December...
But look, I did get LOADS of Noa done today! ;-)
19 comments:
Honestly I heard so many saying the same thing on radio 4 last week we'll all be resorting to medicine men.Hang about the golf course you might find your surgeon .Good luck for tomorrow.
How frustrating! As you say, it makes no sense as it's costing the NHS money for you to occupy the bed, etc, etc. No wonder everyone's saying the NHS is in such a mess. Hope you Do get it done and over with tomorrow. Good luck!
That's so frustrating. I hope it all goes your way tomorrow and you're finally able to have your op. Be thinking of you!
How annoying!! I just thought I would check in and see if you had managed to have the op.
Good luck for tomorrow.
Mega big GRRRRRRRRRRs indeed. (I get the timing thing now :-( )
Hope all goes ahead tomorrow.
VERY frustrating. But great knitting time. ;-)
I'm so sorry you had to go through this kiddo. It's getting just as bad here in Canada. I hope it goes through for you tomorrow.
What a pain - typical...
... at least you got some knitting done ... how irritating for you!
Long live the NHS!! I am so sorry this is happening to you and I hope you get the OP done ASAP
Noooo! What a total PITA!
How annoying. I hope it's gone ahead today.
Oh Daisy, that is such a ridiculous situation! I agree with what you say about it being the 'system' at fault, but do they not realise the anxiety this sort of thing can put people through, let alone the inconvenience? Keeping everything crossed, and having a word upstairs, that it all might go ahead for you today.
I hope you don't have to wait like that again. Best wishes
Lin x
That's so darned annoying - and the way the individual just becomes a number on the system, argh! As if people have nothing better to do than wait around all day, *and* be given pre-med drugs, to be dropped because there's a finite time allowed for ops. It's madness.
I'm hoping that no more GRRRRRRs today means it's gone ahead?
Hope you got in now. Pointless waiting is just sooo frustrating. Thank Goodness for knitting; at least something of value was created by the situation.
I hear alot about the health system here in France being in crisis but so far it isn't showing up. If you go to a doctor who then decides you need to see a specialist they don't write a referral letter. They pick up the phone and make you an appointment which more often than not is in the next few days! When I saw the doctor about headaches I was having on a Friday, I saw the specialist Monday afternoon at 2pm and was in a hospital bed with a drip in my arm by 3pm! From then on you deal with the specialist direct (not through your GP) - yes you have their phone number and can ring up for advice. I hope it doesn't change.
In the meantime, hope the tonsils have gone and you are knocking back the ice cream.
Hi hope it has gone ahead and you are now without the dratted tonsils. I had mine taken out when I was five, they used to wip them out as soon as you had a problem. Got lots of ice cream I remember, but it was in the Childrens Hospital in Norwich and they closed that down years ago.
how very, very frustrating. suppose you can't even have a therapeutic scream cos it would make your throat feel worse?
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