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MikeyBikey Is Unwell - Part II

I also think an official complaint is a good suggestion. You have put up with so much shoddy service and indifferent treatment from various HCPs. The whole system needs a thorough shake up.😡
 
MikeyBikey said:
I think you are right as it was a two year saga that started January 2023. When I made the suggestion around a year later they should have thought "in the community isn't working, best have him in". If they had acted then maybe the infection would not have got in the bone leading to Osteomyelitis. Sadly there are so many ifs going back to when the "new broom" vascular surgeon had not cancelled the bypass behind the knee on that leg (and also angioplasty to the leg I lost).

I have come to hate the term "in the community". The podiatry service in this area went downhill after it went "in the community". I doubt I would ever had that nonsense if one podiatrist refusing to use the dressings recommended by the consultant (what was that all about?). Since my amputation I have encountered more services "in the community" and none was up to my expectations (one bizarrely outsourced to another Health Trust).
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Mikey - I can only imagine how battle weary you must feel, never mind the impacts of the osteomylitis and the treatments for it. Antibiotics are wonderful, but they also carry a price, in terms of side-effects and impacting the good bugs along with the bad.

Unfortunately, if you do not raise this litany of treatment which seems to have ranged from barely mediocre to massively inadequate, it will just fade away - even if there is anyone (aside from you) who properly understands the course of events.

Care, and in my observation, care "in the community" is woefully disjointed - where any actual CARE exists. All too often it seems it's a metaphoric "sticking plaster and hope for the best". Quite frankly: Just not good enough.

If you have a note book, or such like, it could be helpful to start building your time lines. You'll see some things via your online records, but certainly not all. Once you have that skeleton your complaint will come together. It'll be an emotional rollercoaster and exhausting, but I'd urge you to consider it very seriously.

When my late mother was on the receiving end of some shabby treatment, a consultant asked me to make a complaint, saying if complaints aren't raised, things don't change. She also contacted me to thank me when I had done it. My mother was treated like royalty - no waiting - ever. No rescheduled appointments whilst sitting in the waiting room (Yes - What? And this was for the Big C)

(Obviously wasn't complaining about her!)

(Edited to correct typos and make sense. It was a Saturday evening, but I was 100% sober, despite my efforts to suggest otherwise. 🙂 Ahem.)
 
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I know it is a lot to think about and work to put a case together but bringing a case for medical negligence may be a route to go. A friend got a substantial pay out when she brought a case and won.
Your treatment has been appalling.
 
I’m so sorry you’re dealing with osteomyelitis @MikeyBikey and have had such disjointed treatment in the community.

I had osteomyelitis in my heel bone and was in hospital for 3 months with various operations & skin grafts to try to clear it. I’d all but given up hope of saving my leg but after 3 months & a cocktail of IV antibiotics it did start to clear. The infection was sent off for analysis to a lab in London because it was so stubborn and once it was isolated more specific antibiotics were used and things gradually improved. It was a quite a rare bacteria linked to osteomyelitis in a diabetic foot.

I really hope the treatment starts to work on the infection for you & your situation starts to improve. Sending best wishes.
 
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I echo everyone who is supporting you to make a formal complaint. What you have been through has been emotionally gruelling as well as physically torturous.
 
Interesting article in todays Telegraph about making complaints, and the time it takes to just get to the bottom of everything. Not just the same as it is about a death, but it just goes to show if one of the family does not SHOUT loudly, nothing happens....... MickeyBikey........thinking about you.
 
"I don't believe it!" in the word of Victor Meldrew!

We have gone a step backwards! Early on Sunday morning I woke feeling slightly nauseous. This intensified until I was slightly sick. Then around dawn they managed to get everything in place before I had the worse "D&V" attack in my life. I more or less missed yesterday but had two sets of blood tests, an X-ray and a cannula inserted and got multiple IV antibiotics.

More with it today and managed two slices of toast this morning. Then more blood tests. No replies so far to "What do you think it is?". Totally drained and feel I have gone back weeks...
 
Oh dear Mikey! Really sorry to hear you have more health woes.

I had a 12 hour D&V virus a few weeks ago and I think there is a lot of it going about. I have had Noro Virus twice before and wondered if it was that again but previously it had been 48 hours of uncontrolled/spontaneous D&V whereas this time it was much shorter, thank goodness. Maybe my body is getting better at fighting it off or it is a different virus which has a shorter action time.
What I think differentiates it from the likes of food poisoning is that there was no colicky pain or tummy ache, just a sudden need to evacuate both ends. Such things are bad enough when you have mobility but must be just horrendous when you aren't mobile.
Hope you are over it now.
 
rebrascora said:
Oh dear Mikey! Really sorry to hear you have more health woes.

I had a 12 hour D&V virus a few weeks ago and I think there is a lot of it going about. I have had Noro Virus twice before and wondered if it was that again but previously it had been 48 hours of uncontrolled/spontaneous D&V whereas this time it was much shorter, thank goodness. Maybe my body is getting better at fighting it off or it is a different virus which has a shorter action time.
What I think differentiates it from the likes of food poisoning is that there was no colicky pain or tummy ache, just a sudden need to evacuate both ends. Such things are bad enough when you have mobility but must be just horrendous when you aren't mobile.
Hope you are over it now.
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I had a really bad tummy ache with it (I overheard a nurse saying UTI - there seems a lot of them hereabouts - 65 and over) so crossing fingers it was just a 24 hour thing. When the consultants came round they did not stop by - or maybe I am in semi-isolation while they wait for everything?
 
Oh Mikey, I don’t know what to say you are certainly going through the wringer at the moment. Hoping you start to improve.
 
Sending best wishes and hoping the IV antibiotics clear the UTI and bone infection. My heart goes out to you Mikey. D&V on top of everything else you are dealing with is awful. :care::thankyou:
 
Yesterday was a landmark day as it was the first time I sat out in an armchair since admission. It could have happened weeks if not months ago but needs the hoist and two obliging nurses. Two hours were enough - I was not light-headed but uncomfortable the more so because of the awkwardly placed bedsore (hospital gives you new and depressing conditions like bedsores and UTIs 🙄 ). Nothing today unfortunately
as I need more of this and regular physio.
 
They changed my antibiotic today. When I said. I had read on the NHS website (i.e. No Doctor Google) that the one I had been on could make people prone to UTIs I didn't get a straight answer. I think hospital consultants are vaguer than GPs on side effects. When my GP changed me from Simvastatin to Atorvastatin because of serious shoulder aches he said he had never heard of muscle pains from statins! 🙄
 
MikeyBikey said:
They changed my antibiotic today. When I said. I had read on the NHS website (i.e. No Doctor Google) that the one I had been on could make people prone to UTIs I didn't get a straight answer. I think hospital consultants are vaguer than GPs on side effects. When my GP changed me from Simvastatin to Atorvastatin because of serious shoulder aches he said he had never heard of muscle pains from statins! 🙄
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I thought that muscle aches and pains were a well known side effect of statins. Well documented too.
 
I hope the new antibiotic is more effective and your UTI clears up Mikey. Sorry to hear that your treatment and communication with HCPs is living down to expectations. Sending hugs and best wishes during your very extended hospital stay xx
 
EMcKT said:
I thought that muscle aches and pains were a well known side effect of statins. Well documented too.
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That was why his comment bemused me. Fortunately a change to Atorvastatin cured the aches .He was also unconcerned when I raised the issue of every male on the male side dying prematurely from a heart attack A few years Iater I had a multiple bypass (my cholesterol was only 4.2 before I started statins but clinics and GPs were really pressurising middle age diabetics to take statins.
 
MikeyBikey said:
That was why his comment bemused me. Fortunately a change to Atorvastatin cured the aches .He was also unconcerned when I raised the issue of every male on the male side dying prematurely from a heart attack A few years Iater I had a multiple bypass (my cholesterol was only 4.2 before I started statins but clinics and GPs were really pressurising middle age diabetics to take statins.
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I had severe muscular pain and lost muscle mass from just a few weeks of Atorvastatin - plus memory loss and all the usual problems with Metformin - but nothing is in my file about it - that's how to ensure both medications are 'safe and effective' for all.
 
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