Email to Uni Staff

Hi,

A few weeks ago I was diagnosed with a rare flesh-eating tropical
disease called Leishmaniasis. It became apparent to me mid-November
when a wound began opening up on my back which has had to be redressed
every two days since then. I was repeatedly told by doctors that it
was most likely an infected hair follicle and so they were not keen to
refer me to a dermatologist. A few weeks ago a second wound appeared
and this made me force them to refer me. The dermatologist suspected
Leishmaniasis and gave me a biopsy to confirm the strain and referred
me to an Infectious Diseases expert who I am now under the care of (Dr
____________ at North Manchester General). Results of that
biopsy came through today "inconclusive". I have been told to come in
Monday morning at 9am for a further biopsy to be taken this time by
the Infectious Diseases department at North Manchester General. This
will hopefully determine the strain of the protozoan and therefore
treatment.


Treatment will either be a 21-day stint on an IV drip or a series of
injections. Either way, it will impinge heavily on my time over
Easter and most likely after it (everything takes longer that it has
to, it seems, with the NHS!), as it has done since mid-November. I do
not yet no how much time it will take up.


I am telling you this because it is now obvious that it's affecting my
work and has done for the majority of the year. Seeing a nurse every
two days (normally taking a couple of hours at Walk-In but quicker
once I started going to a surgery) was bad enough, along with the pain
of the wound itself generally. Over the past few weeks, however,
things have obviously become a bit worse with not only literally more
time taken up travelling to and from hospitals but also with the
stress of learning about the disease and dealing with the NHS's
systems.

I'm not sure exactly what I'm hoping to get out of telling you. My
marks were okay in the exams, maybe could have been higher but I can't
blame that entirely on this. I've had to miss a bit of lab to the
detriment of my experiment and lab partner. I've missed the last
month's worth of Spanish lessons also. I've been forced to miss parts
of _________' lectures on Nuclear Age and had to ask him for a
deadline extension a few weeks ago when first diagnosed.

I know that you give marks for attendance of examples classes. I have
been to most but missed a few unavoidably. I would therefore ask that
I can have some of these marks back. I've also missed a fair few
lectures but am able to get notes from friends so that's a start.

Please let me know if you would like any more information. I'm sure
the doctor at North Manchester General will be able to give me a
letter of some form and if you like, I can get A&E, Walk-In and the
surgery to print off a list of all my visits since mid-November
detailing what was done and said.

Thanks

Girish

Biopsy 2

Taken by registrar at North Manchester General. Much more bloody than my first!

Pic

First Meeting with Consultant

Consultant was very reassuring but didn't really tell me anything I hadn't learnt about the disease in the couple of weeks since it had first been suspected I had it by the dermatologist at Hope Hospital.


Checked it out and concluded saying we'd wait for biopsy results that Hope had taken a few weeks previously.