"Being just another number"

I’ve been watching my spouse battle excruciating nerve cancer, in the head, face, neck, and slowly but surely making its way to other parts of their body I believe.

Having their face and neck carved because they didn't get it right a few times when taken into emergency because of the excruciating pain, GP and specialist, and to top it off they take their referral for their MRI that they had asked for first before it had started to spread again to that department and get treated so rudely by the staff member behind the counter!

Then to find out that when they went through the first round of radiation they missed the spot anyway! Now they have done the surgery that I believe they are all so proud of, but my spouse still has cancer, now in places that can’t be accessed through surgery.

Living every day in agony knowing that this thing is just doing its thing and spreading. To top it all off immunosuppressed due to kidney transplant and now when we ask for answers, we get told that we just have to wait and if it gets worse, go to emergency! Who I feel then fob us off anyway and say they can't bump us up in the queue but here, have some more drugs that may help with the pain.

My spouse has had to stop work because they can't function, they have to wait for me to come home after a full days’ work and a long drive, to look after them.

This happened to my spouse’s parent too, so you can just imagine the things going through their head because I believe our hospital departments don’t talk to each other the way they should to benefit the patient.

I feel that if you can't handle the amount of people you need to treat, refer them to another hospital that can!

So here we are still waiting as I feel appointments come in dribs and drabs, still in agony and feel like giving up.