May I vent?

Envious

I am pleased I asked now.

It is good to see you post once again.

I was scared at times..felt I was in the twilight zone...especially after trying to reason with one of the docs to take my blood.i even asked her wouldnt she want to know that her infection was getting better? She said she would know she was getting better and that I was. They are very matter of fact people.

What a horrible experience Envious. It must have been a frightening one as well
Like others, I would have thought that Dutch hospitals would all have high standards and be amongst the best in Europe. The Dutch I know here have varying reasons for emigrating but none of them has said anything detrimental about their health service.

It's good to see you posting again (and as always GN is a good place to vent) I'd wondered how you were and had mistakenly thought that you had changed your name again and that another member from the states was you.

I hope everything is going well for you now.

Sorry you`ve had all that to put up with Envious, but nice to see you back here again.

That is truly awful Envious, you have my utmost sympathy!
Bye the bye nice to hear from you again, even though it is such a grim story.
I will send you some

No, maybe as a child.i do remember a penicillin shot then and the fuss I made before I got it. I just think some infections are resistant.thats what my dentist told me. Thanks for all the concern everyone.i am finally better and gained back all the weight I lost.

Do you think that you have become immune to penicillin?
Have you had it several times before? [not sure that makes a difference or not].

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.

Nonnie

And some knock our NHS.

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!

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.

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!

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.

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

Glad you are back home safe and sound.

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.

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.

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 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.

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!!)

That's terrible, envious.

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.

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

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. !!!

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%

Meant to add some