"Appendectomy"

I was sent by my doctor to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) on an evening in mid January as I had lower stomach pain on the right hand side. I was send to the Immediate Assessment Unit and arrived around 4. 55 p. m. It took around 10 minutes to get my details taken and another 10 minutes to get taken through to see a doctor. I saw a doctor after about 30 minutes, he took details of where the pain was and how long I had been experiencing it. I was told to wait in the waiting room as I would have to see another doctor. This took over two hours and while sitting in the waiting room, in pain, I was providing a 'door service' to members of the public. The door was for staff and was opened by swiping ID batches. People came up to the door, chapped the window or motioned to get in. It became very frustrating and a member of staff passed me I said to her 'I am providing a door service here' and she laughed. When I pointed out it was not funny, that I was in pain and becoming very frustrated she said 'don't let them in then'. When I further explained that people were become rude, battering the window and being downright cheeky she just walked off. I did eventually stop getting up and opening the door and was verbally abused by a member of the public when he did get in when a member of staff went out. I was asked 'whit's your problem hen? '

Once I did see the second doctor over two hours later, he checked me over and arranged for a scan which happened fairly quickly. On returning I was taken to a room in the Immediate Assessment corridor. The doctor confirmed I had acute appendicitis but as I was fit and healthy I would be operated on the following morning. I was taken to theatre at around 8. 30 and had all the paperwork signed off by the anaesthetists at 9. 15 a. m. when the anaesthetic nurse noticed I had not been cross match for blood and said it would take 20 minutes. After 2 and half hours with no contact from any clinical staff an orderly noticed I was getting upset at lying on my back on a trolley staring at a white wall. He came and chatted to me, a nurse passed and said 'are you still here? if it is any consolation we have people who come here at 7 a. m. and are still here at 5 p. m. ' I informed her it was of no consolation whatsoever and she walked off. It took another orderly to find out what was happening almost 3 and half hours later. It was four hours before I was taken to theatre by which time I was very distressed and anxious. As I seem to be running out of room, I will finish with discharge, even although there were numerous other problems. I was not given any discharge advice or even a leaflet on what I could and could not do. I was not taken to the discharge area in a wheelchair which I was told afterwards I should have been. I drove myself home as I was not given any advice at all and now realise that should definitely not happened. My partner had to google information on post appendectomy recovery after I almost fainted in Morrison's and ended up in Hairmyres A&E. I was then I discovered I should have had a period of complete inactivity for around two weeks. I was doing far too much and wondering why I was constantly exhausted and in pain even with co-codamol 30 mg. The whole experience was very stressful, because of a procedural error I was left for four hours on a trolley and because I was given no advice whatsoever on discharge my recovery was hampered significantly. I was discharged on 3 days later 2017 and did not return to work until late February still not fully recovered.