[Crunchie]

We were offered the sperm storage free on the NHS thankfully.

The number of stupid mistakes that were made with Steven's illness was scary. I actually decided to write out everything that happened. The worse thing was after the op to remove the testicle a doctor looked at his chest Xray and told Steven that the cancer had spread to many different areas.

Steven phoned me up in a right state so I started the drive to the hospital barely able to see because of all the tears. Before I reached him he phoned me back and had been told that the doctor who was actually qualified to look at Xrays had checked it and it was fine.

Here's a few wee samples out of his "timeline of events"...

2008
11th- 13th September
Admitted on the 11th due to pain in right testicle. Told it could be due to cyst, tumour, cancer, infection, twist.

Discharged with antibiotics and painkillers and told the pain was due to an infection.

10th-12th October
Ultrasound Scan on the 10th, scan seemed to trigger same pain as I suffered before.

Re-admitted to Queen Margaret due to pain and the fact no one was sure what the scan results were showing.
Discharged and again told again that it was just an infection.
Given pain killers (Will need to check on antibiotics but I don’t think I was given any)

Jan 09

19th
Phoned about ultrasound scan appointment as I had received no word as to when I would be taken in for the scan.
Told my appointment is for the 21st of January (two days away)

20th
Letter arrives about the ultrasound scan appointment for the following day. The letter is dated the 19th of January, what if I had not phoned and the letter did not arrive on time? First class post no longer guarantees a letter will arrive the next day.

21st
Ultrasound scan
Was told that someone would phone me regarding the results the same day. No one had phoned by 5pm and so I rang myself only to be told “everyone from that dept has gone home”.

27th
I had the operation and was given a chest X-ray at night.
On the 28th I was advised that my chest X-ray was indicating that I had cancer and it had spread to several places. 50 minutes later I was told that the radiographer had checked my X-ray and deemed it fine. Why was I being advised about my X-ray results by someone who was unqualified to do so? The first conclusion understandably caused a lot of upset for both me and my partner.

Around 12.30pm I was discharged and given my discharge letter. I was not advised what to do re the wound and dressing (i.e. did I have to keep it dry, when could I take the dressing off etc). I had assumed that this info would be contained within the discharge letter but it was not. I was also discharged without pain killers and as a result spent 4 days at my partners house unable to do very much due to post-op pain. My GP prescibes strong pain killers straight away and was shocked that I had not been given any.

Added to that the amount of time we spent on the phone trying to reach various people was awful. No one in the NHS seems to have heard of answering machines apparently.

Neither of us have any faith left in the doctors that are looking after Steven. I think he's going to have the chemo then after a while seek help in finding out why he is suddenly not producing any sperm as it seems there may be a lot of different reasons why.