The Museum Of Modern Thinking

A few weeks ago, my mother had a unpleasant fall and badly hurt her shoulder and her arm. I went visiting as soon as I could (the immediate) weekend, and have been calling every day to make sure she’s ok.

At initial consultation, they took four x-rays of her shoulder and two doctors and a physiotherapist looked at them and concluded there were no fractures. My mum, unfortunately, was still in a lot of pain and going through the rigmarole of getting pain relief from the doctor that helped with the pain and didn’t make her feel nauseous.

After a week or so of no improvement, she went back to the hospital who exmained the x-rays, concluded there was still nothing wrong and said she should continue with the medication and physio exercises. Today, she’s been to see her GP who finally diagnosed a DISLOCATED SHOULDER.

I mean, how hard is it to spot a dislocated shoulder? Why the hell wasn’t it picked up sooner? How incompetent were the initial consulants? What really gets me is mum’s been walking around for weeks in a lot of pain, bearing with it, and it’s been completely unnecessary.

Credit to my sister who went back to the original hospital and raised hell - if I’d have been there they would have got both barrels. Of course, now the hopital can’t do enough for my mum, but it would have been a lot easier four weeks ago. They tried to put the shoulder back in under sedative, but it kept popping out, so tomorrow they’re going to try putting it back in under general anaesthetic, but if it pops out she’ll have to cut open and pinned - a prospect I’m not pleased about.

My sister and and I will be raising an official complaint about the matter via PALS, and God help them if anything serious happens to my mother.

Obviously, a political point: how many extra billions have been poured into the NHS, and they can’t even spot a dislocated shoulder? It makes me think about the x-rays I recently had on my toe, where there was “no sign of fracture” - a second opinion is needed, methinks.

EDIT: Apparently, my mum has not needed to have her shoulder pinned as it popped back in (”reduced”) quite easily under general anaesthetic - so I’m relieved.