May I vent?

BTW I paid 5,000 euros for that lovely experience!

That does sound very traumatic. I think over here you are usually asked if you have an allergic reaction to penicillin. Did they forget to ask you?

OMG you certainly have cause to rant.
I hope your soon feeling 100% again

Didn't ask if I was even allergic to penicillin.hard to believe ! but I wasnt..I would of told them when they were about to give it to me. I am better..it was a tooth abcess..amazing it can make you so sick. I got a root canal and crown once I could open my mouth enough.

I didnt know that amoxicillin is basically penicillin.
That would explain why my son had a reaction to it recently, and isnt quite right yet.
I think that he is over whatever he went in for in the first place, but his gut is not back to normal and was told to take those pribiotic drink things.

Glad you're better now, Envious

Meant to add some

Glad that you are recovering Envious.

Without any experience of Dutch hospitals, but with some experience of working there and the Dutch people, I would never have expected such poor care in their hospitals. Perhaps, despite our complaints the NHS is not so bad after all.

Hope you are soon back to 100%

Poor you, I thought the Dutch health service was good but your experience gives a lie to that. I can't see why you could not fly whilst taking antibiotics, I'm sure thousands do.
Dental abscesses are very very painful. When you have your root canal filling ask your dentist if he/she got right to the top of the root. I am having dental surgery two days before Xmas because my dentist didn't! I think it will be a great way to diet. !!!

I thought we hadn't heard from you for a while Envious. What a terrible experience. Glad you are on the mend

How awful for you. I am immune to penicillin but only found out when an abcess in my mouth didn't respond to dentist's treatment (penicillin). He told me to inform my doctor to add it on my notes. Since then whenever I've had to have treatment of any kind I've mentioned it.

Thank goodness you now know you are allergic.

That's terrible, envious.

Phew! Glad you`re better now but what an appalling experience. Good old NHS! For once getting some praise! (Oh no- too many exclamation marks!!)

What an ordeal, Envious. Toothache is pure hell. I've had several tooth abscesses but they have always shown up on x-rays and it's odd that yours didn't. It's worrying that your infection was resistant to penicillin. Antibiotic resistant infections are a growing concern and it's surprising that the doctors in Holland didn't consider this when your situation continued to deteriorate. I do hope your travel insurance covered your costs.

That is awful and I'm glad you are OK now. It is not my son and his wife's experience of the Dutch health care though. He has lived there for 15 years and his wife is Dutch. They had great antenatal treatment and a very good birth too.

What an awful experience Envious, glad you made it home. We always knew my mother was allergic to penicillin from when she was a child. DD2 is also allergic to penicillin. One time my mother was sick and prescribed antibiotics and became really sick. I figured it was the antibiotics and looked up the ingredients in her antibiotics and found out amoxicillin was in fact penicillin. My daughter had a bad reaction from amoxicillin too and ended up in hospital.

Envious

That certainly sounds horrible, the episode of the 'drains' being put in without anesthesia.

I have to ask because we had a poster called EnviousAmerican when you say your son helped you home was that to the UK?

I am surprised this was the level of care given by the Dutch. Why did it cost 5.000 euros?
I always thought we had a reciprocal health arrangement.

I am glad you have recovered, blimey even tooth ache is bad enough so you certainly went through the mill.

So sorry that you have had such a dreadful experience - no wonder you needed to vent!

Glad you are back home safe and sound.

Sorry to hear of your nasty experience and glad you are now recovered.

I was just thinking that of people I have known over the last few years having hip knee replacements, it seem those that have had treatment in NHS hospitals have had the better experiences, other than having to wait longer to get in. 4 out of 5 treated privately or in a private hospital have had infections or complications. I suppose it must just be coincidence as the surgeons are the same. those that were in NHS wards main complaint was that it was so difficult to rest with everything that was going on around them. Those in private rooms have said that they felt a little abandoned as they could go for a fair amount of time without seeing anyone unless they left the door open and someone passed by.

sorry I have changed the subject a bit.

Envious what a nightmare, especially being so far from home - I hope that you're recovering well.

As a nurse, I won't comment on the Dutch protocols regarding blood tests, ABX, etc but am truly astounded that you were asked if you .....

wanted to be resuscitated

WTF?

You only had an infected mouth (as painful as that was).

For those who advocate 'the right to die' take note!

POGS we do have an arrangement with the rest of the EU but it is not the same as the NHS. We get exactly the same treatment as their own nationals and in the case of NL everyone has insurance which they claim on. so we have to claim on our travel insurance to pay for treatment there.

With you there Riverwalk, your last sentence I mean.

Presumably they were asking Envious whether she wanted to be resuscitated in case she had an anaphylactic response to the penicillin they hadn't bothered asking her if she was allergic to!

Nonnie

And some knock our NHS.

I am Enviousamerican..just shorten it. I wasn't allergic to the penicillin.reading over what i said it sounded like I said that.it just didn't work! Not being European I had to pay for my treatment. I was told not to fly because it would of made my problem worse. The air pressure in the airplane. It aggravates many conditions and the eight hour flight home was painful.