health

Three years ago, I went to the hospital for a pain I’d been dealing with for years. They tried all kinds of treatments, but nothing worked, and eventually decided I might need some sort of intervention. I realized this when they handed me a piece of paper outlining the procedure and its awful side effects. I felt I had no choice, but hoped they’d explain more about it. No one told me anything beyond what was written. 

 was in pain and felt stuck, so I went ahead. When I got home, the side effects hit hard — they were awful. The treatment temporarily left me weakly incontinent, which was a horrific experience. You take control of your body for granted until it’s gone. If I’d been properly informed, I might have coped better. Instead, I was caught short in all sorts of places, which was frightening, and I worried it might never end. No one reassured me, and to this day I still have anxiety about it because it was so traumatic.

I’m angry they didn’t warn me or explain the consequences — it felt like they just wanted to get the needle in and see what happened. Today, I saw someone from the same department and told them I’m still struggling, but I’m not sure it mattered.

I don’t know if the poor service was because the health board has been a mess from the start or because the Labour government won’t fix it. There’s an election coming, and hopefully whoever takes over will sort it out. It’s not right that people here have to deal with bad healthcare just because the government can’t be bothered or doesn’t know how to fix it.

The health board is in the news for the wrong reasons most weeks, and it must cost a fortune to cover all these mistakes. I think the main problem is the sheer size of the organization. Betsi cadwalader