Our prolonged dealings with Calderdale Hospital have raised an important general issue about the right of patients to share knowledge of their condition.<\/p>\n
To what extent should patients be encouraged or allowed to ask questions? We would hope that we are moving to a time when the patient can if s\/he wants be fully involved with understanding what medical decisions need to be made. The Internet, used wisely, can of course help this process. We have have greatly appreciated the open approach followed by our GP and St James’ in Leeds.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
However, in some of our dealings with Calderdale Royal, we so often feel that we are being regarded as disrespectful, ungrateful, not trusting or even insulting if we persist in asking detailed questions about Elaine’s treatment.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
Here are some matters for which we would still like further explanation.<\/p>\n
1.\u00c2\u00a0Elaine repeatedly told medical staff about severe problems with the stoma? Why was she undermined, almost treated like a recalcitrant child and not taken seriously?<\/p>\n
2. We have now (17 months later) had it explained that bile was causing necrosis. However, we don’t understand why this happened with Elaine, and not other patients having similar treatment.\u00c2\u00a0Why was bile able to form and give Elaine so much discomfort with her stoma?<\/p>\n
3. Why was this not explained to Elaine at the time?<\/p>\n
4. Why were experienced and highly-trained nurses and medical registrars not able to recognise necrosis? Is this not in their training?<\/p>\n
5. Why did the consultant leave it so long before examining the stoma himself?<\/p>\n
6.\u00c2\u00a0Might the need to do an early reversal of the ileostomy have increased the chances of the cancer returning?<\/p>\n
7. When patients have rectal cancer, is it usual to wait eighteen months before doing a follow up colonoscopy?<\/p>\n
8. When patients have cancer, is it usual to go over six months between one hospital consultation in their specialist clinic and the next?<\/p>\n
9. Elaine has complained at every consultation and emergency hospital admission about acidic defecation. Ever since she returned home after the operations in early 2005. At her recent meeting with the consultant (and subsequently confirmed on the web) it was suggested that acidic defecation is caused by mucus which she has since learned is an indication of cancer. This raises the question that the cancer remained present after her operations. Could this be the case?<\/p>\n
10. Elaine is a rather unusual patient. She recovers from things unexpectedly. She recovers from serious surgery so quickly it beggars belief. She similarly succumbs to illnesses against expectations. Clearly, Elaine is one that doesn’t fit the mould. Has this in any way been taken into account when making decisions about treatment?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Our prolonged dealings with Calderdale Hospital have raised an important general issue about the right of patients to share knowledge of their condition. To what extent should patients be encouraged or allowed to ask questions? We would hope that we are moving to a time when the patient can if s\/he wants be fully involved […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/79.170.40.245\/upshitcreek.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/79.170.40.245\/upshitcreek.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/79.170.40.245\/upshitcreek.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/79.170.40.245\/upshitcreek.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/79.170.40.245\/upshitcreek.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=31"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/79.170.40.245\/upshitcreek.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/79.170.40.245\/upshitcreek.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/79.170.40.245\/upshitcreek.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=31"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/79.170.40.245\/upshitcreek.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}