Hate our medical system

[Drakkon]

So since october I've been having wierd stomach problems, headaches, pains, all sorts of random syptoms. Went to see my "primary" doctor at the time, well he wasnt availible so saw his physicians assisstant. She thought it was just a urinary tract infection at the time and thats where my problems started.

So far i went back to doc 3 times, each time ahving to see physicians assistant cause primary doc was all booked up, finally physicians assistant gave up and sent me to a specialist, specialist was all booked up for over month and a half. The next week i got really bad (right before thanksgiving) and ended up in the ER where the doc said it was "just heartburn" and shuffled me off. So i went to a new doc, a doc my company kinda worked with, and she ended up being great, got me in to see a gastroenterologist in 3 days. On top of that i was pissin blood and so went o a urologst too. Gastroenterologist cant find anything so schedules to stick camera down my throat, urologist finds out i have a 1cm BIG kidney stone. Have the camera stuck down my throat, they leave something behind, and now im waiting on the results of that. Took some pills to draw down stone and luckly it kinda shrunk down to about 3mm. He found something "off" in blood tests though and wanted me to see and endocronologist.

So long story short, 6 different doctors have seen me now, not one can find anything that causes ALL my symptoms but the kidney stone was a pretty big one. They want me to see an endocronologist cause they think something might be wrong with my thyroid they just told me this week but guess what? they are all going on vacation till january and thus no one has the paperwork to get me in to see one till after than. On top of that just called main doc and found out for whatever reason my paperwork was routed wrong, and thus my old doc got paperwork that new doc should;ve gotten. Now i slept only about 2 hrs maybe last ngiht and feel like crap today. This is gunna be a crappy xmas

Notes:
Feel like crap for 3 months
see 6 different docs and havent had a week without a test/doc visit since oct
still no cure for whatever the heck it is i have
they think its my thyroid now, but thats after treatments for high blood pressure, GERD, hiatial hernia, kidney stones, migraines, etc....

 

[tfinch2]

I feel ya. I got tossed around too for months a few years back because every family practioner and urologist thought I was "too young" to have bacterial prostatitis and I wasn't tested properly. I had to goto the UT Health Science center as an "experiment" and they took care of it.

 

[Aimster]

Do you still have a kidney stone or it is gone?

 

[scarpent]

Hate the disease, not the system.

 

[Drakkon]

Originally posted by: tfinch2
I feel ya. I got tossed around too for months a few years back because every family practioner and urologist thought I was "too young" to have bacterial prostatitis and I wasn't tested properly. I had to goto the UT Health Science center as an "experiment" and they took care of it.

thank you...thats exactly what i am hearing too....i get put BEHIND all the old people because I'm "too young" and thus not a priority unless a doc makes a case for me :|

 

[Sundog]

Sorry to hear about your probs. Docs are not gods and we really do not know that well how the body truley works.

 

[Remy XO]

Originally posted by: scarpent
Hate the disease, not the system.

 

[Drakkon]

Originally posted by: Sundog
Sorry to hear about your probs. Docs are not gods and we really do not know that well how the body truley works.

I have no problem with most docs (except my old primary care physician who stuck me with his assisstants all the time...youd think after 3 consecutive weeks of having to come to his office a flag would've been set off). Most of the time it has been the offices managerial practices that have screwed me over. Misdirection of paperwork, loss of insurance info, lab tests misfiled, having to see "older" patients first. Its all added frustration.

To those saying "Hate the disease not the system" hating the disease gets me nowhere, hating the system and complaining to people is the only way to get me in to docs faster to fight the disease

 

[TraumaRN]

In a situation such as yours goto the nearest major large huge ass medical center that is hopefully attached to a major universities school of medicine, I'd bet today's paycheck that you'd make more progress that way.

I work for the Detroit Medical Center at Detroit Receiving Hospital(woohoo major trauma hospital) and I'll tell that we see funky stuff ALL the time and most of the time they'll figure it out if they hospitalize you for a couple days.

Generally large teaching hospital will get you better medical care than smaller community style hospitals.

Example, had a patient who had a major localized allergic reaction to some weed killer he was using, he has was no joke the size of a basketball, red swollen pus filled and his skin was falling/peeling off....he went to community hospital and they told him they would have to amputate it, he demanded to be transferred to my hospital where they not only saved his hand but did some major plastic surgery(they literally drained all the fluid and then grafted/sutured his hand to skin on his abdomen so it could heal for about a week) and the guy was fine 2 weeks later, with full function in his hand....

 

[sandorski]

Some things are just hard to diagnose. The first Dr that thought infection was pretty close and made a good preliminary diagnosis IMO(not that my opinion mounts to much, me no Dr ). I suppose if you had some funky scan they'd have found the issue quicker, but those cost $mega for what could have been just an infection. One day they'll have a Star Trek style hand scanner, untill that day diagnosis remains difficult.