No-one ever said that this journey was going to be the easiest thing that I have ever done and I have come up against struggles that I never thought I was going to go through in my life. One bane of my life currently is an apparent issue in the supply chain between the providers of my stoma bags and them getting to me.
I use Fittleworth who talk to my doctors (supposedly) to sort out my monthly order of stoma bags, adhesive remover, black bags and dry wipes and get them sent to me at the appropriate moment in the month. This however seems to be causing some issues. Somewhere down the line they aren’t talking quite as well as they should be leading to me frequently being left with maybe 1 or 2 bags left and even sometimes having to dip into my emergency bag stashes just to get through the month. This might seem really minor but it is a real hassle.
When I have to chase these up I end up calling Fittleworth, then attempting to call my doctors surgery but inevitably I end up going in because their prescription line is terrible. Once I’ve been to the doctors, I come back and have to call Fittleworth and we go back and forth for a little bit.
It seems as though it is 6 of one and half a dozen of the other, Fittleworth aren’t personalising the prescription and the doctors then aren’t signing them off because they don’t seem to be personalised. In addition to this someone along the line has prescribed the wrong type of bag and so I continually receive the wrong bag (something else for people to understand…). My conversations frequently go
Fittleworth – “but you got a delivery last week”
Me – “yes, but they arent the right bags, so they aren’t really much help to me”
Fittleworth – “well these are the bags that you have prescribed”
Me – “these are an old prescription, I am no longer using those bags, I need the flat bags”
Honestly. It would test the patience of a saint.
Life with a bag isn’t terrible but it would be so much better for me if my doctors and my prescription provider would be able to talk to properly to make sure that my order gets to me on time.