I had an operation at UCLH 3 years ago, which I believe resulted in ongoing debilitating pain. The consultant would say "I wonder whats causing it''. I couldnt go back to work and after 2 years, UCLH tried to persuade me it was ''nerve pain''. UCLH tried to suggest that it would go away and that I needed CBT to ''deal with it''.
I was in severe pain, getting worse, with for example 3 months at the begiining of 2009 where just crossing my living room was so painful I was amazed the consultant could leave a person in this state. I was on such strong painkillers - patches - that I was asleep half the waking day - but which was a relief from the pain. I asked my GP to refer me to another hospital after 2.5 years. That hospital identified, at the first scan, that I had a huge incisional hernia, involving bowel. I had it repaired there.
I had approaximately 12 scans of the area at UCLH in the two year period before the second hospital took me on. The staff never said the word hernia, tried to make me feel like I had perhaps imagined it and also offered no advice in how to manage a hernia of this size.
I have suffered with loss of useful working life, quality of life - and of course nearly lost my home because of being disabled by the hernia. I have had no social life for these 3 years because the small energy I manage to summon up out of the pain, I have had to work to pay my mortgage, at home.
A sad side effect is that I have nearly lost my trust in doctors.