Hospital Experience

In June this year I had to go into the Hospital for a small operation, this is my experience leading up-to, and after the operation.

Before I came to France about  7-8 years ago I discovered a small lump between my breasts, well it was more on the right breast. So of course I panicked, as you do, when you find something like that. Anyway off I went to the doctor to have it examined. 'No need to worry, she said, 'its just a small cyst', well what a relief, as you can imagine I had myself dead and buried. So there was nothing more to worry about and it was forgotten about.

Then in May this year, it started to bother me, it was itchy at first and then became painful. It started to grow and was getting redder and redder. So I made an appointment with my French doctor to see what was going on.

Now just a wee word about my doctor, his name is Dr. Catoir and he speaks great english, thank god. He is equivalent to a GP in the UK and he is in the town of Realmont, only 10 mins drive away.  Anyway off I went, and he took one look at it and said it would have to be cut out, but I would need a mammography to diagnose exactly what it was before I saw a specialist in Albi hospital. So he made an appointment for the next day, Friday, to have the mammography done and at the same time he made an appointment to see the specialist for the following Monday.

So I had the examination done, but because a mammography would have been too painful they did a scan instead. They asked me to wait in the waiting room, and after about 10 mins they gave me a full report and the E-rays. On the Monday I went to see the specialist Dr. Denax in Albi hospital. He could speak a little english, but not a lot. Now I must say that my whole anxiety was the language and not understanding what was going on. So after the examination with Dr. Denax he said it was an abscess and I had to have surgery to have it removed. I asked if I would be put to sleep, and he laughed and said they weren't barbaric, of course. So he scheduled the operaton for the Wednesday, and I immediately went to see the anesthetist, who took all my particulars, now that was a bit more difficult as he couldn't speak a word of english.

So I wasn't to eat or drink anything the night before, and when I arrived at the hospital I was greeted with open arms. All the nurses were practicing their english, and I felt more relaxed. Because the cyst was infected, I had to wait in my room until the last surgery was finished. I had my own room with a TV, telephone, en-suite shower room and it was very comfortable. I had to shower and wash my hair with a disinfection shampoo, which was not very pleasant. After about 4 hours they took me down to the operating theatre, and the two young men who wheeled the trolley, tried out their english. The surgery went great and after about 5 hours my husband came for me to take me home.

Dr. Denax gave me a prescription for a whole load of stuff, so we went to the pharmacy and picked it all up. They said a nurse from Realmont would call out to the house to do the dressing. Next morning the nurse came, because the wound was left opened, she had to pack the wound, and had to call every second day to repeat the procedure. But after a week, I went down to them to have it done. This took about 6 weeks, after which I went back to see Dr. Denax to make sure everything was healed properly. So to summarize, from when I went to my GP, until I had the surgery, took 5 days, and that included a weekend.

I can honestly say the service and treatment I received was absolutely brilliant and I would say to anyone going in to hospital in France, 'you couldn't be in a better place'.

quote for today:
A nurse will always give us hope,
an angel with a stethoscope