Gallstone symptoms

[antipodes]

I think that Dr are under pressure not to refer people for anything if they can possibly delay things.
I am not sure how this actually saves money.

Digeroo I am with you on this. By leaving it they usually have to operate ANYWAY and your recovery time is longer (and no doubt costlier, extra meds etc). It seems like nonsense: does not save money and sometimes makes people much sicker (or even kills you!).
In France they do send you much more quickly for specialist opinion (at least it seems so to me) and you hear much less of this type of thing. Sometimes the specialist will say, OK it's still mild, let's leave it, but at least you are on their files and if it flares up again. you go straight back to the specialist and whisked into hospital.   When I had carpal tunnel, I was sent to specialist in good time, and had steroid treatment that prevented an operation - that was money well spent!
You do hear a lot of this in the UK, e.g person goes back again and again and again for the same complaint, with no improvement. It's very surprising. Or perhaps here in France people are more proactive and will complain (loudly) if they don't get appropriate treatment.

[antipodes]

[galina]

I agree surely keyhole surgery is cheaper than an emergency op with longer recovery time.
It's calmed down again now, he managed some dinner last night and it wasn't followed by stabbing pain. He's got an appointment with the Dr again next week where he claims he'll push for an ultrasound.

Well that's not quite what happened to me.  I didn't actually get the op when I was admitted as an emergency at the hospital.  I got treated to fight the symptoms of high temperature and jaundice, which would have otherwise killed me!  The op comes later, when the patient is fully recovered again.  In my case it took over a week to recover.  That I had the op at the end of this was coincidence, because it was planned to happen at that time anyway.   That it took nearly a year of suffering debilitating symptoms, ending with an emergency admission to hospital and this sort of thing is still going on today, is somewhere between absurd and criminal.  I was told that they would try and do it by keyhole procedure, but that they would convert to an open procedure, if necessary, and this would have meant a six week recovery time, instead of a few days with keyhole.  I was lucky to get keyhole in the end.

Wish your OH all the best, but please do get insistent.

[Kea]

Thanks for your advice and support everyone.

Good news, things have moved along. OH so ill when he saw the GP again and blood tests suggesting issues with the pancreas he was immediately referred to have Ultrasound. However he also had an appointment this week with a Gastro consultant to review past tests and he has ordered a CT scan instead.

[galina]

Thanks for your advice and support everyone.

Good news, things have moved along. OH so ill when he saw the GP again and blood tests suggesting issues with the pancreas he was immediately referred to have Ultrasound. However he also had an appointment this week with a Gastro consultant to review past tests and he has ordered a CT scan instead.

Thank you for letting us know.  Hope your  OH gets a speedy diagnosis and treatment.  You must be so worried.  At least things are going in the right direction finally.  Wishing your OH well!

[Kea]

Went for his CT scan today.....got to go back again next week half way through the scanner broke down 

[galina]

Went for his CT scan today.....got to go back again next week half way through the scanner broke down 

Oh dear!  sorry to hear that, what a nuisance 

[pumkinlover]

Sorry to hear that, last thing that you needed after all that time.

[Kea]

Still in limbo, he has discovered they will have to start from scratch meaning he's had a big radiation dose for nothing and he's spent the last week trying to contact the consultant having cancelled his scan to see if it can be changed to an MRI (as he's paying for it anyway!).

[pumkinlover]

It's time some one got their act together.