Why Are We All Waiting So Long!!

Tell me about it.

Mine started about 5 yrs ago.

i waited 6 months for my first MRI. The consultant in Altnagelvin forwarded me to a spinal surgeon in the RVH in Belfast for a herniated disc.

Waited 2 and a 1/2 yrs for a consultation to be told my MRI was lost and would be too old anyway.

Got an MRI again in June and was saw today again to be told i now have 2 herniated disc's. I've been on tramacet for 5 yrs now and can't take much more of this.

There goni give me diff meds and nerve injectons before even thinking about surgery.

NHS, does that now stand for No Hope of Surgery????

hi all

yeh we,re all in the same position pain and waiting and costing the country thousands, the maths are a bit silly they,ll pay you incapacity benefit, while you wait ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~and wait, then you lose your job cos you been off work so long waiting, if they,d send us to have the op at a private hosp we would all be back at work (or hopfully) before losing our jobs , so saving the country money????????? i put this to my employer (local goverment) instead of them paying me while im sick they would have saved a hell of a lot if they paid for my op? but it doesnt work like that :roll: no well it wouldnt to dam easy eh. browsing diffrant sites i happened upon a site stating that by march 2008 the waiting lists for treatment is to be a max of 18wks from gp to consultant :shock: yeh ok we,ll see eh. i know thats not much use to us already waiting, but im all out of fight , take care all gail

Hi Gdee,

I had 2 injections prior to my Op, to be honest I think there a waste of time, well in my case they were. I think it's it just another way round the problem without doing the Op. If it works all well and good but if it doesn't the NHS have wasted the cost of 1 or more MRI Scans and Consultations for nothing. They must be wasting thousands doing this.

Ask them if you can have slow releasing Morphine Patches to see if this will ease the pain a little.

I went for my Pre-Assessment today the Nurse told me there was a waiting list of 13 week, but it would probably be sooner. So why did my Consultant tell me 4-5 months.

Does anyone know what there doing in the NHS!

Hope your get your change of meds and injections soon.

Bye for now,

Angela

hi all

i was told in feb when i had my mri results(16mths after injuring myself) that i needed urgent surgery by a ortho doc,but he couldnt do the surgery so referrd me to a ns(18wk wait) to be told by him in less than 5 mins that yes i needed an urgent op and i would be in within a few weeks!!! that was in july!. since then i,ve been told 4-5 mths then 6 mths then 1 mth, now by xmas, i,ve kept all the info i received and made a formal complaint how dare they mess with our lives like this. now i just wait i,ve given up fighting . gail

Hi Gail,

You can't give up, we have to keep fighting the system until they listen to us and do something about the waiting times for Ops.

Angela

Angela

It is a nightmare I can tell you that for one thing.

I have not been able to work since May 2006 and I have been getting worse instead of better. I have had to resort now to changing GP surgery and persuing legal action for negligence to get anywhere (and still not getting anywhere at the moment due to my notes not reaching the new surgery yet so they cannot do anything until they do). I do feel a LOT more confident with the new surgery as they actually listened to me and suggested things to me that I had been wanting to try with the old Doctors.

I actually want to get back to work, but it seems that every effort is shot down in flames by the DWP.

I also read this week that the EU want to restrict or potentially ban MRI scans which has now been postponed for 4 years now thankfully, so I hope that this does not stop people getting the treatment they require.

thanx both for your support, but it seems thats all i ever do is nag people (well it seems that way) i had a letter from industrial injuries yesterday stating that my employers cant find any record of my injury!!! well typical aint it, and cos its just gone 2yrs since i done it , think its a bit late to go back down that road not that i would get (or want)any finantial gain, just that it needed to be logged. so thats another door slammed shut. i,ve left my fighting to people a little higher up than myself now i am mentally exhausted by it all and i cant let myself get depressed over it. (another story)i do realize the neurology dept in this part of wales is under immense pressure as we have very few ns for such a vast area(has been on nationwide news) and i am trying to be understanding, BUT thats not going to help me if i end up in a wheelchair.one thing though my gp surgery have been very good . and of cors this site does me the power of good . thanz again all do appriciate it :smooch: gail

Thanks for your replies folks.

been in pure agony for a week now, can't walk without a walking stick phoned my doc on Monday who put me on Lyrica and today he put me on a tramadol from tramacet.

My doc told me today that i was a good candidate for decompression surgery as i have narrowing of the spinal canal. it wasn't until i did a bit of googling that i realised that it was spinal stenosis.

so now i have 2 herniated discs and spinal stenosis that i read actually makes you susceptible to herniated disc's

still no relief, took the lyrica all week. it says on a few sites that it takes a week at least to work. so waiting.

took 4 50mg tramadol tonight so far. relief after 10mins or so for about 15mins. no good.

Still waiting on a date for my nerve block injections, i have an idea there not goni be any good from what I've read about others experiences. Sure its only another pain relief not a cure.

I want my operation and i want it now. i'm still in full time work and it's killing me. but i need the money, i have twin 12 yr old daughters and a child on the way so i need the money.

can anyone give me some info on what i can claim for DLA or incapacity wise if i was to go on the sick??????

I can't answer your questions about claiming benefits but I can share spinal stenosis with you.

I was diagnosed with this at L4-S1 and had a laminectomy in March this year. My symptons went straight away but returned within about 6 weeks. I then found out that they had only done L4-5 - WHAT!! Apparently L5-S1 looked 'ok'. A further mri showed that it wasn't.

I'm now 6 weeks post-op laminectomy, foramenectomy and discectomy from L4-S1. I'm feeling pretty good about it this time. No symptons other than some tightness in the leg which goes when I walk.

My understanding is that the injections are pain killers, I didn't have any so can't be certain. Some people are very happy to continue to have them, personally I don't see them as a fix, just a patch. I wasn't offered the injections, just surgery. Stenosis wont get better on it's own, something is pressing down on the nerves, which in turn is causing you pain. That something needs to be removed. In my case it was part of the lamina, some of the nerve canal and a tiddly bit of disc for good measure.

I hope you get some answers soon - have you been referred to a NS yet or are you still in the early days of a dreaded referral??

Sandra

hi

gdee, i can associate with you on the stenosis(not that i was told) i was told that i had significant prolapse with compression and displacement of the cord at level c5-6 and further prolapse at c6-7 didnt know anything about stenosis till went browsing(as you do) and it is quite worrying, i wasnt offered the injections as i was advised for surgery as soon as i had my mri results, (mind you still waiting for the said surgery) i had a bad reaction to tramadol a few months back after i had been taking them for months! havent taken them since . as for your job it must be hell on earth trying to work with that going on in your back i really sympathise with you, if youve paid enough nat ins then you should be able to claim incapacity benefit at £68? a week then after 28 wks it goes up to £72 then after 52wks it goes up to£81 , but of course if you,ve a family then you would be able to claim for them and other things such as council tax rebate, your job centre plus office would be able to help you with what you can claim give them a ring. as for dla thats a lottery!!! get some advise before filling the form in the c.a.b office will help. its a worry financelly then the pain and suffering on top its a absolute nightmare. hope this helps.

doof

hi i really hope they dont c**k my surgery like yours, i didnt know about my second disc prolpsing til the surgeon mentioned it(my gp didnt mention it when she had my results) i was quite surprised and i asked if he was doing that one as well he said yes should do???? they,d better im not going through this c**p again next year when they can do the 2 straight off. im a little worried about the effects of surgery on my other discs was anything mentioned to you about risks to other discs?take care allgail

yeah we are all fed up waiting and waiting nearly3 years before i got my mri then 2 months for gp to get results, he then referred me to altnagelvin to see ortho doc who knew nothing about me already having an MRI didnt have my results or the scan pics so he referred me to belfast to see a consultant about having a discectomy after i told him what was wrong with me that was 3 months ago still no appointment oh if only i had the money to go private gp is a waste of time too i agree NHS does stand for No Hope of Surgery

best wishes all chris

sorry for the moan :wink:

hi chris

we certainly do know what you mean , you were referd to an ortho doc?? same as me and the ortho doc couldnt do the surgery so had to be referd to a ns ( not my fault i was sent to wrong surgeon) have you had any physio? maybe you should phone the hospital to ask if an appointment has been made for you, i done this earlier in the year , and when mandy said she hadnt heard anything she phoned her hospital to be told they had ne record of her so maybe its worth phoneng even if its to make sure they did actually get the referal! . i really feel for the people just starting on the nhs waiting train, just as well we all have this site eh, wish id noticed it earlier i could have picked up some useful tips along the way.best wishes chris. gail

Hey Gail,

No nothing was mentioned about potential problems with other discs, I've only found out about that from my own research. I was told that I may be suceptable to further disc problems later in life - in about 20 years or so but certainly not within 6 months!!!!

Hi Gdee,

It's interesting to hear about your spinal stenosis probs. Have you asked your GP how this has been caused?It's unusual to get it before your in your 60's. The reason I ask is because spinal stenosis showed up on my MRI scan which was caused by 2 factors; 1. the prolapsed disc at L5/S1 and the fact that I have a smaller than average spinal canal. The discectomy I had 2 weeks ago will hopefully have rectified the stenosis.

With regards to I capacity Benefit...my experience has been that you need to be off sick from work for 26 weeks before you can claim ( as I work for the NHS (oops...now to dodge all the flying bullets,knives etc...please be nice...I'm on your side :oops: ) and regarding DLA you can be eligible for this but there are strict criteria...best bet in your local CAB or look up direct.gov for info and links. Hope this helps and take good care of yourself and the kiddies...I know what it's like I've a 10year old and a 5 year old so never a dull moment!

Best Wishes xx