Well as mentioned in my previous post, I thought I was sick and tired of being sick and tired. In actuality, in this past month, I have instead grown sick and tired of not getting the appropriate health care I feel I am paying for. I am frustrated and infuriated. I went to my first cardiac rehab meeting on the 15th and the nurses decided that I was not ready to officially start until the situation with my colon and the pain caused by it, was under control. So the following post is the story of me trying just that...to get my pain managed and discover the source of it. Well so far, not so good.
Ever since at least July when I had my gallbladder out, if not before, my stomach has been very sore to the touch. But the last weeks of January, as I started doing Yoga, not only did the pain start to increase, but I was able to pinpoint where the pain was coming from. I gave it a few days to see if the pain would subside, but the opposite occurred. I decided to call my GI and schedule an appointment. I was seen by a very nice nurse practitioner around Jan 27th, who was not sure what this was, but her guess was an ulcer. She proceeded to schedule an X-ray and an ultrasound within the week (Feb.7th). If I was in good health the NP would have gone straight to scheduling the colonoscopy and endoscopy, but she decided to rule out anything that could be detected by non-invasive tests first. I was told to follow up with her in one week to go over the results. Instead the office scheduled my next appointment a month later, sadly I didn't realize this until I made it home. Luckily, with some persistence, I was able to make the appointment two weeks after I saw her which was somewhat of an improvement, but this time with a different nurse practitioner aT a different office.
So I managed to get a second appointment instead of March 1st, it was now for Feb. 13th. By this time, my pain was still increasing, but now I had severe nausea accompanying the existing symptoms. My pain was and is so bad that when the doctor presses on my stomach, it instantly brings me to tears, and I have a pretty high tolerance for pain. The nurse called in the doctor who was there to briefly check over me. He prescribed me painkillers and nausea medicine, and scheduled a CT scan the following day. He specifically told me to follow up in one week with my original doctor who I had seen in July and December. Instead, they schedule my next appointment another month out to see another nurse practitioner. I was not at all happy nor satisfied with this, so I demanded to be seen sooner due to my pain. After a few phone calls they were able to squeeze me in, in one of there nine offices to see yet another nurse practitioner I had never seen on Feb 20th.
The nurse practitioner I saw this time was very brief with me, and treated my symptoms as if they were mild or not so bothersome. She told me if the Scopes don't show anything there were no more options, oh and by the way we found a cyst on your left ovary and then she left the room, not to be seen again. Well I know cysts are common and most everyone women has one, but she could have given me a little more detail, like if I need to follow up with an OBGYN or something? So I was shoveled to the scheduler for the Scopes and was told May 8th was the soonest they could operate. This was really when the frustration kicked in. Not only have I not been able to consult with my doctor about my severe pain I'm in, I have to be in this severe pain for over 2 1/2 months. That's a hell of a long time to be on painkillers. They said there was nothing more they could do for me. After an attempt to contact my doctor directly and a long phone call with his nurse, his office finally squeezed me in between two of his appointments and they also informed me that the cyst is normal but yes, I should get it checked out by my OBGYN.
So Wednesday I go in at 10:30 to see my practicing doctor, the one who will actually be performing the Colonoscopy/Endoscopy. My goal is that he'll recognize my level of pain and hopefully decide that these scopes need to be pretty urgent. If not, than I don't know what to do. Maybe I'll go to another GI practice or check into the ER. But either way, out of all the many doctors I have seen, this is the most disrespected I have ever felt. I feel like my pain does not matter, I feel like my health does not matter, and I am sick and tired of this place and cannot wait until I do not have to go back. In which case I do hope there is in fact a day I do not have to go back to them
So to sum this up, within a month's time I have seen 3 different nurse practitioners at 3 different office locations, one doctor that is not my practicing doctor there, and I'm about to go in for another visit to see my actual doctor, for the first time since my intense pain has started. Not only that, if I had left the original scheduled appointments as is, I still wouldn't of had my second appointment until March 1st, meaning I wouldn't of had my CT scan until the end of the first week of March. This is CRAZY!!! I don't get how they throw me on painkillers and then not be able to do a Scope until May. I have way too many obligations before hand, a trip to Montana/Seattle, Cardiac Rehab, and a speech at the annual ARVD conference in Baltimore. I'm sorry but May will not work for me, I need to figure out what is wrong..NOW!
Anyone know someone who does Scopes on the black market?
Well, I went to the doctor today and it didn't go quite as expected. I still have to wait a few weeks to get my Scopes done, and this doctor said he is not in the business of pain management, so no more painkillers for me. I guess the waiting begins. I was also bought plane tickets to Montana and Seattle for March 12th-20th but I'm starting to get worried those plans are about to fall through. Luckily, I bought insurance, but I'm hoping I won't have to worry about that...we will see. The story of my life!
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