"Feeling Lost"

In mid June my husband developed a sore back which he tried to self –manage but by mid July he was much worse and made an appointment with his own doctor. He prescribed him anti-inflammatory tablets and pain killers. His symptoms got worse and the pain he was suffering was excruciating and after several phone appointments with his doctors he was advised to stay off work and rest. Blood tests were taken from him and we then got a phone call from our doctor to say that he was being admitted to Crosshouse Hospital that day for an urgent MRI Scan.

A MRI Scan was done which showed that he had two prolapsed discs in his spine. He was sent home on at the beginning of August 2015 and told that he would be given an appointment in 2 weeks to see the same consultant surgeon at his clinic.

2 weeks later he attended the clinic at Crosshouse. The consultant was of the opinion that as my husband has suffered this back pain since June with no sign of relief and due to the fact that he was on a very high dose of pain killers that he should be referred to see back specialist at Southern General Hospital, Glasgow with a view to having an operation which cannot be carried out at Crosshouse. At this point he told him that we would still have to see go to Head Physio before this could happen.

At the beginning of September 2015 he saw Head Physio at Crosshouse. He then told my husband that there would be a 12 week waiting time for referral and that there was no guarantee that the Southern General Hospital would agree to see him. He also recommended that my husband receive some physio but again this is a 6 week waiting time. My husband had already been recommended by his own doctor for this and he attended one session of this but when the Physio was made aware that the Consultant had recommended that he be referred to Southern General he was discharged from any more physio.

My husband is self employed and also works part time for NHS. Both these jobs involve driving. He has gone from a very active person who works extremely hard to someone who has no quality of life now. He cannot drive due to the physical discomfort and high medication, cannot walk very far without pain and is practically housebound. All he wants is to be able to get well and back to work as soon as possible but the way things are this isn’t going to happen for a very long time.

I know he is not the only one waiting on further treatment but this waiting time is most unacceptable and we feel that we have been abandoned by NHS to just sit it out and wait and see. At no time has it been explained to us what will happen if the Southern General will not take his referral. The only one who is helping us at the moment is our family doctor but his hands are very much tied as to what happens next.