Leaderofthecats
Well-Known Member
- Relationship to Diabetes
- Type 2
(TLDR: Bring your own food, if you have any opportunity to do so before being dumped in A&E)
So, I had a really dodgy experience a few years back.
I had a medical emergency. First when I called up, the doctor tried to say they had no appointments indefinitely and go away. This is common at full capacity city centre doctor clinics, as it turns out. They told me to clear off and take aspirin.
After taking 10x50mg of Tramadol (which is an obscenely large amount.) I was still in awful pain, so with great difficulty I went along in person.
The receptionist took one look at the situation and immediately got a doctor. They had an available appointment in 5 minutes time, she says. Fancy that. Guess they lied before.
The doctor stared and said , you need to go to the royal infirmary. Right now. For testing. Don't even go home first. There's a bus stop right outside.
Well! I lived like 5 minutes away , didn't have my bag or coat on me just my phone and keys, not even a hoodie, and so I went back and got those.
I think I assumed they were being ridiculous as I recall having some soup before I left as I was ravenous. I was in no fit state to go all that way anyway even after eating. Never mind on an empty stomach.
Arrived at the royal infirmary and the staff were a bit upset that I took so long. Ended up being referred to A&E then was literally guarded by nurses to make sure I didn't return home first, and then was escorted to some weird NHS taxi to be taken to some weird A&E in a totally different city. It was all a bit scary. Nobody explained anything properly.
Just as well I returned for my things, then.
I'm not sorry.
They told me "anything you need can be bought at the hospital shops" to shut me up, which is totally drivel. They didn't even sell underwear and tampons. And no phone chargers either.
The rubbish shops mainly sold sugar free sweets, magazines, and bags of bombay mix.
Yet another lie...
So that's the context.
Inside there was no WiFi, and my phone had no charger because I didn't expect to straight up be abducted and taken to some weird city.
They claimed I had an infection and could die of sepsis. I was hooked up to an IV for four days and not allowed to get dressed or leave the shared ward. I was under constant threat of surgery so food provision was erratic.
There was actually no infection found on the tests, I found out later from my GP. By then I had alarming swelling of my entire arm to be fair and it was spreading, but no infection was found. The NHS is also making no effort at all to investigate the actual cause of it, and doesn't seem to think this is very important at all to do. So, I'm not cutting them much slack.
I have pills for gout which appear to be stopping it from happening again, but this was my idea and my doctor just went along with it. I have no idea whether I actually have gout or not. I'm surprised my idea worked actually.
Anyway, so they eventually decided I could start eating meals as they weren't doing surgery.
And this is the relevant part for this forum.
The entire menu was absolutely atrocious, from my perspective. I was ticking "large" on every portion of veg going and still ended up with just a spoonful of two altogether. All the pies and bread were white (yuck!) and they had stuff like school dinner style sugar topped apple pie, yoghurt, tub pudding, etc.
You got a menu in advance to fill in for all the next day's meals, with no "diabetic" options. At all. Literally not even one.
I protested about this to the nurses, who said... And I quote:
"everything has carbs and that's what diabetics *should* be eating"
(implying that only a moron would think otherwise)
"You need lots of sugar for your blood levels."
(I'm type 2. My levels are always high and I was literally being told I could die from an infection at any moment. Last thing I needed was even higher BS!)
And the prize winner....
"The whole menu is diabetic friendly. We specially choose all the options to be as healthy as possible. It's been looked over by a nutritionist and everything has safe carb and sugar levels for diabetics."
The tub of yoghurt had more sugar than I've ever seen in yoghurt before and was full of artificial c**p. It was smaller than a standard pot of yoghurt as the bottom tapered but it still had 14 grams of sugar in it!!
The yoghurt pot sized chocolate pudding had 30g of sugar, which was about half of the entire weight.
I doubt the other options were any better , especially since we had no way to check any nutrition information.
What a pack of liars. I gave up as I was ravenous and exhausted, just ate the best I could, and upon my return home my blood sugar was over 20 mmol/L !
If you're going to A&E, I advise taking your own food. As much as possible. Because the NHS staff aren't looking out for diabetics Some will happily dupe diabetics into consuming far too much sugar and tell bare faced lies about the A&E menu without a hint of remorse.
In related news, when lockdown hit the NHS apparently thought this gout medication might help covid-19 sufferers and so they tried pretty hard to refuse to renew my prescription because of this. They did the same with some antipsychotic medication, I know because a friend had massive problems due to that.
They don't genuinely care about diabetics' wellbeing at all, I reckon. They're incredibly tight fisted and penny pinching even when it's a false saving.
I saltily remarked to my new doctor (I had to move when lockdown hit) that it would cost them plenty if I get chucked in A&E again because of having no medication for my condition that they aren't bothering to investigate, and he was just completely appalled with the whole arrangement and put in an emergency prescription demand.
The pharmacy said I'd need to wait 7 days for prescriptions, but mine came in the next day. They didn't bother to tell me, but I phoned up to ask on the offchance.
For all that I complain about my present doctor, he's a lot better than some of the alternatives.
Stay safe and cover yourself for all eventualities.
So, I had a really dodgy experience a few years back.
I had a medical emergency. First when I called up, the doctor tried to say they had no appointments indefinitely and go away. This is common at full capacity city centre doctor clinics, as it turns out. They told me to clear off and take aspirin.
After taking 10x50mg of Tramadol (which is an obscenely large amount.) I was still in awful pain, so with great difficulty I went along in person.
The receptionist took one look at the situation and immediately got a doctor. They had an available appointment in 5 minutes time, she says. Fancy that. Guess they lied before.
The doctor stared and said , you need to go to the royal infirmary. Right now. For testing. Don't even go home first. There's a bus stop right outside.
Well! I lived like 5 minutes away , didn't have my bag or coat on me just my phone and keys, not even a hoodie, and so I went back and got those.
I think I assumed they were being ridiculous as I recall having some soup before I left as I was ravenous. I was in no fit state to go all that way anyway even after eating. Never mind on an empty stomach.
Arrived at the royal infirmary and the staff were a bit upset that I took so long. Ended up being referred to A&E then was literally guarded by nurses to make sure I didn't return home first, and then was escorted to some weird NHS taxi to be taken to some weird A&E in a totally different city. It was all a bit scary. Nobody explained anything properly.
Just as well I returned for my things, then.
I'm not sorry.
They told me "anything you need can be bought at the hospital shops" to shut me up, which is totally drivel. They didn't even sell underwear and tampons. And no phone chargers either.
The rubbish shops mainly sold sugar free sweets, magazines, and bags of bombay mix.
Yet another lie...
So that's the context.
Inside there was no WiFi, and my phone had no charger because I didn't expect to straight up be abducted and taken to some weird city.
They claimed I had an infection and could die of sepsis. I was hooked up to an IV for four days and not allowed to get dressed or leave the shared ward. I was under constant threat of surgery so food provision was erratic.
There was actually no infection found on the tests, I found out later from my GP. By then I had alarming swelling of my entire arm to be fair and it was spreading, but no infection was found. The NHS is also making no effort at all to investigate the actual cause of it, and doesn't seem to think this is very important at all to do. So, I'm not cutting them much slack.
I have pills for gout which appear to be stopping it from happening again, but this was my idea and my doctor just went along with it. I have no idea whether I actually have gout or not. I'm surprised my idea worked actually.
Anyway, so they eventually decided I could start eating meals as they weren't doing surgery.
And this is the relevant part for this forum.
The entire menu was absolutely atrocious, from my perspective. I was ticking "large" on every portion of veg going and still ended up with just a spoonful of two altogether. All the pies and bread were white (yuck!) and they had stuff like school dinner style sugar topped apple pie, yoghurt, tub pudding, etc.
You got a menu in advance to fill in for all the next day's meals, with no "diabetic" options. At all. Literally not even one.
I protested about this to the nurses, who said... And I quote:
"everything has carbs and that's what diabetics *should* be eating"
(implying that only a moron would think otherwise)
"You need lots of sugar for your blood levels."
(I'm type 2. My levels are always high and I was literally being told I could die from an infection at any moment. Last thing I needed was even higher BS!)
And the prize winner....
"The whole menu is diabetic friendly. We specially choose all the options to be as healthy as possible. It's been looked over by a nutritionist and everything has safe carb and sugar levels for diabetics."
The tub of yoghurt had more sugar than I've ever seen in yoghurt before and was full of artificial c**p. It was smaller than a standard pot of yoghurt as the bottom tapered but it still had 14 grams of sugar in it!!
The yoghurt pot sized chocolate pudding had 30g of sugar, which was about half of the entire weight.
I doubt the other options were any better , especially since we had no way to check any nutrition information.
What a pack of liars. I gave up as I was ravenous and exhausted, just ate the best I could, and upon my return home my blood sugar was over 20 mmol/L !
If you're going to A&E, I advise taking your own food. As much as possible. Because the NHS staff aren't looking out for diabetics Some will happily dupe diabetics into consuming far too much sugar and tell bare faced lies about the A&E menu without a hint of remorse.
In related news, when lockdown hit the NHS apparently thought this gout medication might help covid-19 sufferers and so they tried pretty hard to refuse to renew my prescription because of this. They did the same with some antipsychotic medication, I know because a friend had massive problems due to that.
They don't genuinely care about diabetics' wellbeing at all, I reckon. They're incredibly tight fisted and penny pinching even when it's a false saving.
I saltily remarked to my new doctor (I had to move when lockdown hit) that it would cost them plenty if I get chucked in A&E again because of having no medication for my condition that they aren't bothering to investigate, and he was just completely appalled with the whole arrangement and put in an emergency prescription demand.
The pharmacy said I'd need to wait 7 days for prescriptions, but mine came in the next day. They didn't bother to tell me, but I phoned up to ask on the offchance.
For all that I complain about my present doctor, he's a lot better than some of the alternatives.
Stay safe and cover yourself for all eventualities.
