Like everything in life if you exceed a certain amount of any particular thing, eg, food, drink, state of mood or emotion, then you harm yourself, and so the saying goes 'too much of a good thing can be bad for you' . I have never been more convinced of this saying as I am now, for seven long months I have shown nothing but patience and tolerance not just for my wound to heal but in dealing with various medical professions, incompetent nurses and long waiting lists for specialised doctors. But patience has resulted in elbow wound getting worse and me the patient getting more and more frustrated, without the appreciation of the nurses for my tolerance or pain.
Last week I asked to see the Tissue Viability nurse who is supposedly the expert in wounds and pressure sores, yet have not seen her for more than 6 weeks, but to be fair they took notice of my request and so she came to see me, which proved to me that titles, qualification and position mean little when you don't have passion for the job. To be brief, the nurse did not like the idea that I was seeing the GP's nurse and suggested they cut down on their visits to me!! the only reason I go to the other nurse was because the GP thought that my wound needed daily attention and since the district nurses can not provide it then the practice nurse would see me, but even then it was just ONCE a week. I obviously pointed that out to the nurse then asked her about an alternative dressing as the skin is getting damaged, and suggested the name of a nurse she knew very well who had told me about a new dressing that just came on the market which might be good for me, her reply was: 'I don't know that one'!!! did not even say I will look into it or I will talk to the other nurses! then took the adhesive dressing out and just put a bandage around the wound!!
By 8pm that day my wound deteriorated as it started to leak and bleed, so I was back on the adhesive dressing, when I had my next district nurse visit I explained what happened and the reply was : 'well you wanted the adhesive to be taken off' SO IT IS MY FAULT??? I am in severe pain the skin is getting damaged and breaking and after 4 months I think it is within my right to worry about my elbow since no one else seems to be concerned enough. Obviously I can not say all of this to the nurse, it will antagonise them and make me hated by them more than they already do probably. The nurse whom I usually like, then said, 'you really must be more patient with dressings, give them longer time and you must have hope' hahahahaha well 4 long months I think is enough time to judge the success of anything let alone dressing, and with health you can not afford to be too patient or wait for results, sometimes a day can cause major problem. As for hope well how can I have hope when I am surrounded by Caring professions that do not care, experts that lacks knowledge and people shift the blame and responsibility to someone else. What the nurse failed to understand is that for a patient who is in constant pain an hour is like a month and a day is a long year, when you are suffering patience is a luxury that not many can afford, how can I show patience and remain so, when the wound is causing the hole on my elbow to get bigger, when skin is getting damaged and the nerves are getting trapped....patience is not a virtue but is a form of punishment and self harming....
In retail or commercial sector, a customer is always right, because they pay and their money buys them their satisfaction but in health it seems a patient is not given a right!
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