Well... I WAS going to have surgery today.
Background: 34F, 1st attack Dec25, 2nd attack Feb26, 3rd attack Apr26. At the 3rd attack, I attended A&E/ED because of the pain, they did bloods and gave me IV meds to help with the pain. I'd been in A&E for 6 hours, and would have had to wait another 4 to see a doctor, at 6 hours in A&E (plus the 6 hours at home I'd spent in pain beforehand), my pain subsided, and I didn't feel the need to stay in A&E wasting everyone's time, including mine, so I self-discharged.
Today, I was scheduled for a Lap Chole. Admission time was 8am (UK time) and scheduled surgery time was 8:30. At 8:10 the anesthetist came to do his checks... no problems. At 8:15 the surgeon comes to do his checks... no problems. At 8:20 the nurse comes to do her checks... no problems. At 8:25, I start my walk down to theatre... and I see the surgeon walking towards my room, and he asks if he can "have a quick chat"... already I'm thinking... this is odd.
Surgeon: "Were you in A&E in April?"
Me: "Yes, for a gallbladder attack, but it subsided after I had pain relief, so I self-discharged"
Surgeon: "Right... well... your bloods were abnormal... ALL your bloods were abnormal. It looks as if you might have passed a stone into your bile duct".
Me: "Oh?"
Surgeon: "Yes... I can't in good conscience do your surgery today without an up to date MRI scan to see if the stones have moved, so unfortunately we're going to need to cancel."
I'm no stranger to cancelled surgeries... this would have been my 18th anesthetic. But this one hits different... I feel like I'm not supposed to be upset about it because it would have been unsafe to have the surgery today.
It seems because I "walked out" of A&E (that was literally the diagnosis on my A&E notes: "patient walked out") that no one followed up on my blood results.
I guess I'm back to waiting.