Scotland

Here is a story from a concerned mother in Scotland:

Hi, my son (19) has just been diagnosed with UC, about 4 weeks ago. He had quite a severe case and horrible abdominal cramps. When he got out of hospital it looked like he was going to be on the mend. However, after a week he landed back in suffering chronic abdominal pains + tightening of the chest, palpatations, high temp and painful shoulder joints, making him unable to move his right arm. The joints in his arm seemed to seize up. After giving him fluids etc, the pain in his joints eased. It is now 4 days on and the abdominal pain is worse than ever, he is constantly on the toilet (which is foul smelling…and that’s from a distance!) He doesn’t want to eat anything, so you can imagine, the weight is starting to drop off and I am really worried.

He has tried calling the nurses direct, who are there to deal with UC etc, but has never once managed to get in touch with them. It’s always an answer machine with no response. No, I’m not worried, I’m starting to panic!

(Thank you so much for writing in, I really hope you and your son and the rest of your family start seeing relief soon.  Please keep us posted of how things turn out with your son.)  It really bugs me to no end that you are having such trouble with communication with the nurses out there in Scotland, I hope that changes too! and FAST