Hi, you are “face to face with Shell”.
I am going to carry-on with the series: “Burn Survivor and Health Carers. If you haven’t seen the other parts; please click on the links below:
BURN SURVIVOR AND HEALTH CARERS (PART 1)
BURN SURVIVOR AND HEALTH CARERS (PART 2)
BURN SURVIVOR AND HEALTH CARERS (PART 3)
Please watch the video below for the next part and/or read on:
The next story I am going to tell you is concerning my chin. It was decided that the scarring on my chin had to be “re-surfaced” (my surgeon’s words not mine).
My surgeon said that the graft had not healed the way that he had hoped and it took longer to heal than any of my other grafts had.
One part of the graft in particular, would swell up to about the size of a small egg and then “burst”. It was horrible the fluid that would come out of it and it was sore. This process would re-occur quite a few times.
At one of my outpatient appointments I was telling one of the doctors the problems that I was having. He didn’t seem to take much notice and finished the consultation and began to walk out. At this point, one of the senior nurses (who I knew very well) said: “I think it’s because Michelle doesn’t like getting stitches out”, whilst she chewed and smacked the chewing gum that was in her mouth (she ALWAYS had gum in her mouth, quite unprofessional we [my family and I] thought).
I raised my voice slightly and said: “It has nothing to do with me getting stitches out”. At that point, the doctor turned on his heels and listened to me.
I felt that nobody believed me. I had already had one operation to try to fix it but they found nothing – they had been looking in the wrong area, even after me explaining where the problem was.
The doctor told me that they needed to see my skin when it started to form the “egg”; fair enough. So, the next time it did, I called the Outpatient Department, as instructed by the doctor. The nurse that I spoke to was very unhelpful, telling me that there were no doctors there and why was I calling them. I explained what I had been told. She said that she didn’t know why I had been told this, as really, there was nothing that she could do.
I got a little annoyed and I said: “No problem, I’ll telephone my own GP then”. She changed her “tune” and told me to attend.
When I arrived, the nurse took me into a room (she had called a doctor to come and see for themselves). She then apologised for her behaviour on the telephone. I said that I understood the pressures that she was under, as I myself worked in the NHS at that time but I also said that it was no good taking it out on me, I was only following what the doctor had told me to do. She agreed and I accepted her apology.
After the doctor examined me, it was decided that another operation was needed. After this second operation, my surgeon came to speak to me and said: “Yes, it was very dirty in there”.
I knew that even he [my surgeon] did not believe me, even though we had a really good doctor/patient relationship.
I am glad that I spoke up. I needed to, the problem wasn’t going to go away on it’s own.
So again, if you feel that something is not right…SPEAK UP!!!
Stay strong and we’ll chat soon.