It has been an exact month since my last blog. I waited in the hope that I could start the new year with something positive to blog about, I wanted to write how the elbow wound began to heal, that the GP admitted his mistake in sending the 'Vitamin D' letter, that the nurses started to come more regularly and spent more time cleaning the wound but I waited two weeks into the new year with no sign of improvement.
There are few incidents to write about but I guess one must forget the past, well unless it affects the future, so the 'Vitamin D' letter which was sent to me by mistake, does not affect the recovery of my elbow wound and once I confronted the GP he was very embarrassed and dismissive of the matter, he did not apologise but took the letter and said he will deal with it. As frustrating and slightly distressing the whole ordeal was but it does not have large impact on my health, so I was more than happy to forget the matter and accept it as just human error, and doctors and care professions are essentially humans.
I spent the last day of 2011 in agony with the wound at it worst, the nurse came to change the dressing and as she took it off, shouted Oh my God!! admitting that she has never seen it this bad, then told me we will only came twice a week!!!! cutting my visits down from three! I tried to voice my concern but got told that my wound probably got bad because it keeps getting looked at and changed! The wound is leaking, full of puss and bleeding yet the nurse thought it is better to leave it in that state then see it as regularly as before. I was in so much pain I called the GP who thought it is better to have a look at it, so I went and waited to be seen for more than an hour but that is not a major problem, at least I got seen on the same day so one must be grateful. The GP took a swab of the wound then prescribed pain killers which could affect the respiratory function, this is despite me informing the doctor of me being on ventilator and suffer from breathing problems.
A week or so later I phoned for the swab result, the receptionist informed me that the swab came back on the same day and was clear, anyone who had swab or blood taken knows that it takes at least five days to get the result, so how can the swab came back on the same day? and it was not any ordinary day but Friday 30th of December! when everything was semi closed, and more importantly the swab was taken after 5pm so even if it were to come back on the same day (which is pure fantasy, as it would not even happen in TV drama/films) it would have returned at 7 or 8pm and the GP surgery was closing early due to the festive season! I explained all this to the receptionist and was given the same classical reply, "But that is what it says on my computer screen"! It is as though this computer screen is the God of everything, the ultimate decider the figure that no one can argue or question!
Is it not the same computer that printed the 'Vitamin D' letter? was it not the same computer that 'documented' I had my scan before I even had taken the request form? so why when mistakes are made by humans, computers get the blame, yet when patients who are also humans voice their concern they get defeated by 'the Computer' are we the patients and people in need of care less of humans than care professionals? they are above the law of the computers yet we have no voice against a static gadget!
You know you are doomed when a mute computer has more power and say over your own health, and over rules any valid arguments you have.
