GOING TO HOSPITAL SAVED MY LIFE
Paul Garratt, 40, a charity worker, lives with wife rachel, 35, a GP, in Saffron Walden, Essex. I’D BEEN feeling strange for about two weeks — bloated and uncomfortable after eating, always on my right side, under my ribcage. And for the past two years, I’d found I couldn’t put on weight like before.
The feeling under my ribs became really painful. So I went to my GP, who thought it might be my appendix or gallbladder but, after examining me, said this was unlikely.
So I was referred for a scan. This was in October 2020 — on the cusp of the second lockdown — so there was a likelihood there would be a wait, even though the scan was marked ‘urgent’.
Then, five days after seeing the GP and still with no news of my scan, I was suddenly violently sick.
I kept being sick every 20 seconds. Rachel obviously knew this was not normal and rushed me to A&E. The nurse at the door took one look at me and ushered me through.
I was given a CT scan and told there was a complete blockage in my colon, which had spread beyond my bowel wall — that’s why I was being sick — and the blockage was life-threatening.
The next morning I had surgery to remove a tumour. They hoped that would be it. But a follow-up scan a month later showed a 2 cm mass in my liver, and I had four rounds of chemotherapy and surgery. After another round of chemo in 2021, the doctors said they’d got it all — I now have threemonthly scans. I have no cancer and feel better than ever.
If I’d waited for my scan, I might not be here. Going to A&E that night saved my life.