shafibird
Greenlighter
- Joined
- Mar 6, 2013
- Messages
- 6
Firstly; I'm not sure this is in the right place, apologies if so and please move if needed.
I'm gonna try and just give a brief outline of my situation- I started smoking heroin and crack cocaine 12 years ago. I then began injecting heroin after 5 years of smoking, and finally I progressed to snowballing smack and crack together 3 years ago. Since I started snowballing, my health has rapidly deteriorated. It started with a bout of septic arthritisis my hip. I had an operation and month stay in hospital for IV antibiotics. 6 months later I had another bout in my wrist. Over the next 2 years I had 7 operations on various parts of my body, all "wash outs" to clean the infected joint.
18 months ago I was walking across Asda car park and my femoral artery ruptured, basically I'd damaged it that much injecting into my groin and going through the artery to get to my vein that the artery pretty much snapped. My best friend drove me to hospital himself and saved my life, and somehow the Doctors saved my leg. It took a long time but I made a good recovery. 6 months later- yet another bout of septic arthritis in my foot. Operation, antibiotics. One year later;
I felt like I had a virus; flu like symptoms, on and off, temperatures, feverish, sickly etc. I waited it out expecting it to be gone in a few days. It lingered for weeks. Some days I felt, say, 70% normal. Other days I could barely stand. My GP is harder to get an appointment with than the pope so I decided to wait ot out.
3 weeks later I collapsed, ambulance rushed me. To A&E, where I was admitted and diagnosed with pneumonia, severe Anaemia(my red. Cell count was so low I had to have a blood transfusion) a heart murmur and an abscess on my lung. So it would seem the abscesses I'm prone to have progressed from my joints to my organs.
Anyhoo, the point I'm getting to- I STILL can't stop snowballing. I manage a couple of days clean before I cave. I'm using whilst in hospital. I'm seriously ill. I'm also only 26!
My consultant offered to refer me to the local addictions team but I quickly said I no longer needed their help- Drs on NHS wards think its perfectly acceptable to discuss and ask about "your IV use of street drugs" in front of every and anyone else on the ward after drawing just a curtain for privacy; I may be being petty but I just don't feel at all comfortable or even respected being addressed like this, but I don't feel like I can say anything about how he doesn't seem to respect my privacy when he's trying to get me better and my illness is pretty much my own doing. However I need some help to get clean, my health is very obviously deteriorating (although I don't understand how a) I'm managing to get the same kind of infection reoccuring; I'm clean and hygenic etc and no one else I know has been repeatedly infected like this, and b) Not only has the infection reappeared, but its moved from attacking my bones to my organs now.
I've tried asking my consultant; but he just gave me a patronising look and said (very loudly, more like announced really) "when you're injecting yourself bacteria finds its way into the bloodstream, and your blood gets pumped around your body"- which to me is bloody obvious; what I don't understand is how it seems to have happened so many times when I swab before and use clean works everytime; to be honest I think my consultants general diagnosis is "Bloody junky scum, you've brought it on yourself"
Anyways, sorry for the disjointed way that's come out! Any thoughts would be really appreciated!
I'm gonna try and just give a brief outline of my situation- I started smoking heroin and crack cocaine 12 years ago. I then began injecting heroin after 5 years of smoking, and finally I progressed to snowballing smack and crack together 3 years ago. Since I started snowballing, my health has rapidly deteriorated. It started with a bout of septic arthritisis my hip. I had an operation and month stay in hospital for IV antibiotics. 6 months later I had another bout in my wrist. Over the next 2 years I had 7 operations on various parts of my body, all "wash outs" to clean the infected joint.
18 months ago I was walking across Asda car park and my femoral artery ruptured, basically I'd damaged it that much injecting into my groin and going through the artery to get to my vein that the artery pretty much snapped. My best friend drove me to hospital himself and saved my life, and somehow the Doctors saved my leg. It took a long time but I made a good recovery. 6 months later- yet another bout of septic arthritis in my foot. Operation, antibiotics. One year later;
I felt like I had a virus; flu like symptoms, on and off, temperatures, feverish, sickly etc. I waited it out expecting it to be gone in a few days. It lingered for weeks. Some days I felt, say, 70% normal. Other days I could barely stand. My GP is harder to get an appointment with than the pope so I decided to wait ot out.
3 weeks later I collapsed, ambulance rushed me. To A&E, where I was admitted and diagnosed with pneumonia, severe Anaemia(my red. Cell count was so low I had to have a blood transfusion) a heart murmur and an abscess on my lung. So it would seem the abscesses I'm prone to have progressed from my joints to my organs.
Anyhoo, the point I'm getting to- I STILL can't stop snowballing. I manage a couple of days clean before I cave. I'm using whilst in hospital. I'm seriously ill. I'm also only 26!
My consultant offered to refer me to the local addictions team but I quickly said I no longer needed their help- Drs on NHS wards think its perfectly acceptable to discuss and ask about "your IV use of street drugs" in front of every and anyone else on the ward after drawing just a curtain for privacy; I may be being petty but I just don't feel at all comfortable or even respected being addressed like this, but I don't feel like I can say anything about how he doesn't seem to respect my privacy when he's trying to get me better and my illness is pretty much my own doing. However I need some help to get clean, my health is very obviously deteriorating (although I don't understand how a) I'm managing to get the same kind of infection reoccuring; I'm clean and hygenic etc and no one else I know has been repeatedly infected like this, and b) Not only has the infection reappeared, but its moved from attacking my bones to my organs now.
I've tried asking my consultant; but he just gave me a patronising look and said (very loudly, more like announced really) "when you're injecting yourself bacteria finds its way into the bloodstream, and your blood gets pumped around your body"- which to me is bloody obvious; what I don't understand is how it seems to have happened so many times when I swab before and use clean works everytime; to be honest I think my consultants general diagnosis is "Bloody junky scum, you've brought it on yourself"
Anyways, sorry for the disjointed way that's come out! Any thoughts would be really appreciated!
best of luck