Okehampton Medical Centre

Why did it all become such a struggle?!

For many years now, the pharmacy has been my first port of call, before taking up the time of the GPs, and the pharmacy I use have been extremely helpful, and knowledgeable - they really have shown that they know their stuff when it comes to the condition I am struggling with - their initial concern, when I showed them the samples I had cultured, was that the GPs were failing to understand and identify the condition, as it is considered rare in a person like myself - outwardly well to look at - indeed, they offered to treat me with the correct drugs, and monitor my health, but said they need the GPs to initiate the treatment - they recognized the condition, whilst the GPs were making wild guesses, and still refusing to test - NICE says they should have been testing - and they recognized the potential seriousness of the condition - the GPs I spoke to really didn't have the foggiest - hyphae were apparently hair, the eyes could apparently not be affected by invasive Candida - look it up, don't take my word for it! I mentioned to the GPs the help and advice that I had had from the pharmacy, including being sent to Exeter A & E to try and get help, as the potential seriousness of the condition really is, well, sever, and needs timely identification and treatment if I am to fare well - A & E just told me off for being there, and treated me with no better understanding of the infection than the GPs had - only the pharmacy knew and understood - wow, how can this be? Having said that, the pharmacy once contacted our family to say that "You cannot take those prescribed medicines together," when incompatible medication had been prescribed - so, thank-you for watching out for guys! Anyway, after a soul-destroying appointment with a GP - the curt and rude indifference was simply crushing - I sought the help of the pharmacy again, asking just what I could do to get past the obstacle that the GPs had clearly become, time is of the essence, it really is, and we have so clearly wasted so much time! But things had changed, the helpful, knowledgeable and concerned pharmacist, had suddenly become a GP clone - it was unreal, just as the GPs were saying, nothing to see here, all normal, all to be expected - my word, how can this happen? Had the GPs leant on the pharmacy, like a Mafia Capo might lean on a community - could this really be happening? I was stunned! Only suggestion the pharmacy had now was for me to pay £1,000 for a private blood test to test all aspects of my health. Anyway, I decided to write to Exeter University, and sent an SD card of photographs, as they work with the GPs to train new GPs, I also wrote to the R D & E, Dermatology, along with an SD card, who asked me to ask the GPs to refer me - that was promised, but has not yet happened, I have no idea if it will, as all that I have asked say they cannot see that a referral has been made. So, as things have got worse, I am now taking Fluconazole for the third time - thank goodness for ebay, hey, honestly, without being able to access these drugs, I would be in a much worse place - at a dose promoted for the treatment of invasive candidiasis of the kidneys, as I have had flank discomfort for a few months now, urine filled with candida bud, sudohyphae, ad septate hyphae for many months now - around two years now since I became aware of what appears to be taking place - possible fungus ball, and I am damned if I am going ruin my health waiting for the Okehampton GPs to get their act together, that may never happen, and I am sick of it! 450mg a day, for 14 days, I have completed that today, and will decide what route to follow next. Saliva once loaded with hyphae and bud, now almost clear of hyphae - yesterday 1am in the morning, I will keep testing and looking for improvement - all this is taking so much of my time, and I shouldn't even have to be doing it! I worked out roughly what the cost of this ridiculous battle with GPs has cost me over the years, and it is now around £16,000. Hyphae all over my skin/rash, still have a wheeze, a few weeks ago pink phlegm, sats 92 - 95, a little breathless, coughing on agar grows hyphae, indeed hyphae can seen immediately on the agar, so already formed. I used to vomit in my sleep, and breath it in, it caused aspiration pneumonia twice, and is known to introduce candida infection into the lungs - GPs have been told, but have never ever made anything of it - Devon Doctors did though! I feel invisible to the GPs, unwelcomed and unwanted, a b****y nuisance, when all I have done is to try and help them help me. Candida, I guess, growing nicely in the blood sample - serious stuff medical science says - I feel like a b****y experiment. Why can I not fight this infection off? who knows, but I have some interesting looking cells in my blood, what they are, I do not know. Ten or more years ago now, the FCN, and a loving family member saved my life I think it is fair to say, when others I sought for help, sat on their hands and did nothing, though lies and gossip have plagued my life ever since, and since that day when I, was attacked, I have never been able to get fair treatment from many GPs - suckers, don't believe everything you are told, you might just discover you are being played. Does it not say in the hippocratic oath that you will do no harm? Epic fail there then. They promised a referral, I hope their word counts for something.