"Poor hospital treatment"

A few years ago, I had finished work and had gone to the bathroom before going home, only to look down on the paper and the bowl with a lot of blood in it and had some cramping and abdominal discomfort. I had a relative who died from bowel cancer so I called Health Direct who directed me to go to the Emergency Department if I couldn't get to a GP that night so I went to Royal Perth Hospital (RPH).

I believe it wasn't so busy that I had to wait a long time, I was through the door within half an hour. The RMO was nice. They weren't able to get my vein after many attempts to take bloods. I have a family history of poor veins, so this wasn't a surprise, but the RMO was kind at least. At no point was anyone able to get my vein, or went to get the ultrasound machine or offer any sort of pain relief. My arms looked pretty bad after that in my opinion.

A nurse came in, shot me a look, I felt, and said in front of me to the RMO, why is this patient in my ED? and muttered and huffed to themselves. They came back with a consultant who said they would need to do a digital exam and gave me the option of a same-gender doctor to do the exam, I took that option and I believe they rolled their eyes at each other, I don't know why.

They didn't find haemrrhoids or melana. A few minutes later the consultant came back, looked me up and down and said, do you eat many fresh fruits and vegetables? I said yes and I believe they scoffed, held their hand in this precise and condescending way and said, I'll ask again, do you eat fresh fruit and vegetables? At that point I felt too mortified to answer. I was heavy then and ate a lot obviously, but usually good food. I know weight increases risks of everything, but here I was bleeding out of my anus. I wasn't there to discuss my eating habits, not that the consultant offered or gave me any advice about that either. 

They pretty much sent me home after that, the RMO vaguely saying it was probably diverticulitis and apologised for not being able to get my vein. I kept bleeding on and off for a few weeks and felt too humiliated after that experience to get it properly checked out for a little while. I have quite a bit anxiety about going to the doctors, dentists, invasive procedures and strangers touching me, etc., and at the time I had pretty bad depression.

A few months later I saw that same nurse who attended to me at the Donate Life PD day and I couldn't make eye contact with them, nor them with me.

I have finally have had a colonoscopy, not through a referral from RPH or from anything RPH had done. My report came back with numerous slightly larger sized sessile and hyperplastic polyps. I'm waiting on the histology to see what any of that means.

I go back to that night at Royal Perth in my mind sometimes and it never fails to upset me. The RMO aside, I felt everyone was just so unkind, it was humiliating. I'm not a difficult or behavioural patient, I didn't deserve that treatment. Now I'm in my healthy BMI I wonder if I would have been treated differently or taken seriously. My veins are still crappy, and I am still bleeding. I also note the very different experience of presenting to my own hospital's ED, and being treated like a person and not a nuisance.