"Bad care for kidney cyst in leicester"

I had had digestive problems for quite some time, and after referring to my GP there was still no answer but then I noticed a hard lump under my right rib-cage. Due to my symptoms being digestive, I was referred to the colorectal dept at Leicester Royal Infirmary, and after a scan I was informed I had a "massive" kidney cyst and it was referred over to the General Hospital Leicester.

Now a kidney cyst is nothing, but one the size of mine, 13.5 cms, requires investigating, or so says the BMJ. However I was given an appointment for nearly a year later. From my medical notes, which I obtained much later, they clearly indicated malignancy under the Bosniak classification system.

Under NICE rules a cancer diagnosis requires treatment to begin within a month. If they don't diagnose you, they can just ignore the results, no matter how clearly diagnostic they are. That's what happened to me.

I couldn't go on with the digestive problems so most unwillingly my GP managed to persuade them to action. I can see from my blood results that my system was largely giving out by that stage, and my immune system was nearly gone. To my surprise I noted that I was given an HIV test, which no one told me or asked me about. Under NICE rules, not only should my consent be sought, but I should be counselled too, as it would invalidate any life insurance I had. I was clear, but the damage was done.

I was slightly alarmed when the anaesthetist lifted my operating gown to give me an epidural as no one had checked my back at the pre-op and I have a large mole right where he had been indicated to put the needle. He put the needle in a vertebra lower, which as the incision was the width of my body under my ribcage had no effect.

I wouldn't have minded but a nurse had been detailed to run the tip of a tissue across my belly, presumably to check that the anaesthetic was working. The pain was blinding and with 49 metal staples across my abdomen I reared up on heels and head (something I can't do when well) and slumped semi-conscious.

I tolerated it until someone, I presume the surgeon came along, and he attempted the same thing. He nearly lost an arm. I didn't see his face as I was only intent on not allowing his arm to cause blinding pain to me.

They then brought along the 'pain team', a special team who specialise in providing pain relief and I got a manual morphine pump. By now I knew how to control the pain - by praying for sleep and not moving a muscle, and they were discomforted by my failure to use it and I tell no lie when I say the nurse leaned over and whispered to me "We can tell how much you use the morphine and if you don't use it more we'll take it away".

I won't detail any more, other than to say that I feel the cancer services in Leicester are a shambles.