"Absolutely horrendous"

I attended Hull Royal for major surgery. I was then placed on a ward and that's where my trouble began. The nurses were awful and rude. I pressed the bell to ask a nurse for some painkillers as I just had major surgery and the pain relief I was on was not working. They told me there was nothing they could do For me. I waited another 40 minutes by then my whole body started to shake with pain and I even had flashing lights before my eyes. I pressed the bell once more and waited for at least 20 minutes before anyone came to see me. I felt so alone.

I always considered myself to be strong and have a high pain threshold but being ignored and the relentless level of pain turned me into a child again needing a bit of comfort. When a nurse finally showed up I told them they need to do something for me. By now I was crying and begging. I never at any point raise my voice or was disrespectful as I really admire nurses as in my opinion their job is really hard looking after the sick constantly. So it came as a complete shock when I heard one of the nurses say quite loudly and dismissively outside my door that they'd given me pain relief and what more did I want? The nurses were behaving like I was annoying them. When all I wanted was a kind word and understanding of my pain.

After I heard what was said I told the nurse if there was not anything else they could do for me pain wise then I was going home. They then said she could contact the pain management team who would could come to see me and I felt why hadn't they or any of the others told me that before I got this bad? It took the pain management team well over an hour before they visited and finally got me comfortable to the point where the shakes died down and the aura was gone. I was comfortable the next day as the pain management team visited to make sure everything was going ok, which it was.

The next day I thought that I would continue to receive the Same level of pain relief. I was so wrong. The pain relief was taken from me and I was told that there is nothing I could do about it, as it didn't matter what the pain management team had stated they were going by what they saw in my chart which was completely different to what I was taking the previous two days. I was mortified. The pain relief they were giving me had absolutely no effect on my pain. I asked one of the nurses to contact the pain management team as the pain meds that I was on currently had no effect they told me they would contact them but they won't come to see me until after the weekend. They said this in a matter of fact kind of way and left the room. I feel they basically meant tough you get what you get and that's it. Throughout this time I was already petrified to press the call button as the nurses always acted like it was an annoyance. The pain started to reach astronomical levels again but this time I knew there wouldn't be any help. I felt frustrated, abandoned and isolated.

I have never been treated so terribly before by people to which the most basic part of their job was to care. I felt so let down and alone with no where to turn to.