(I had some cute clip art in the draft form but there's no such thing as free anymore. Hence, the unusual spacing.)
About three years ago, I leaned across my dining table to reach something and a searing pain cut across my midriff.
Well, I thought, that’s a weird place for a cramp.
(IMAGINE CLIP ART OF STOMACH PAIN.)
It happened again a few times, always when bending over. The fact that it was horizontal pain and obviously not muscular intrigued me.
When my annual Medicare wellness exam arrived, I mentioned it off-handedly to my doctor. She expressed concern but we went no farther as she is limited as to what is covered in the Medicare wellness protocol.
And that’s when a series of frustrating events began which served only to reinforce my aversion of doctors and hospitals.
My primary care doctor, whom I trust and admire because she puts up with my nonsense, is in a large clinic that accepts Medicare patients. Physicians that accept Medicare patients are rather hard to find in Anchorage.
I tried to get another appointment with my doctor, but the earliest date was too many months in advance , so I took a date and time with another doctor in the clinic. This time it was with an Asian doctor whom I’d seen before. Unfortunately, between his accent and my hearing loss, I simply cannot understand him.
He sent me off for an X-Ray. Later, his interpretation of it noted “large hiatal hernia.” Big deal, I thought. Lots of people have hiatal hernias, wherein the stomach begins to protrude through the hiatal opening in the diaphragm. It was the “large” that I should have paid attention to. I just thought my stomach was over-achieving.
A third doctor got involved and focused on a slight anomaly in my heart and she pestered me mercilessly until I submitted to an echocardiogram, which showed inconclusive results.
(IMAGINE CLIP OF OF MULTIPLE DOCTORS HERE)
After a couple months of all the doctors and aides going in different directions, I was pissed off and ignored them all. There were too many different doctors involved. Now, that is the mission of that clinic—that a patients can always get medical attention from one of the many doctors. Nice principle, but in practice it is baffling to the patient.
The next spring, I began my 17th year of picking up litter along 40 miles of the Seward Highway and what a concerning wake-up call that was! I got out of breath easily and frequently had a horrific pain near the bottom of my rib cage on the left side--an incapacitating pain. I had to sit down and relax for a while before it went away.
(IMAGINE CLIP ART OF BACK PAIN.)
I have a vivid memory of struggling to reach the end of one day’s route, holding my breath, all abdominal muscles clenched against the pain, and barely making it. What’s more is that the distance I could clean daily was a fraction of what it should have been.
Little by little, I realized that two things brought on that pain: overeating and tightening my abdominal muscles. As for over-eating: guilty, guilty, guilty. The thing is, I never knew how much or how little that amount would be.
I ate much less than usual, as friends can verify, but the pains still came.
Then, my annual wellness exam rolled around again and after further discussion with my primary doctor, I agreed to see a gastroenterologist.
In his office, I described all my symptoms (including how I could make the pain vanish) and handed him a sheaf of test results. He leafed through them as he considered my symptoms, and said, “AHA! You have a large hiatal hernia.”
That, he continued, explained all my symptoms, the pains, the shortness of breath, the elevated red blood cell count, and maybe that slight thing with my heart. He did not put any emphasis on the LARGE, so I continued to think of it as an over-achieving stomach.
“You need surgery,” he said. I told him all my reservations—possible cognitive decline after anesthesia, a weird reaction after a colonoscopy that had me going to the hospital for a CT scan, and NO confidence-inducing hospital experiences. Quite the opposite, in fact.
(IMAGINE CLIP ART OF SURGERY SCENE)
And right then I dug in my heels and they remained dug in for two more years.
(IMAGINE CLIP ART OF STUBBORN WOMAN)
Long Pause.. To begin with, this is your website Gullible. That does not give us the permission to discourse upon all of our own lessons with all of our systems that prove beyond any doubt that, all of them, from websites to you name them, ending up with our medical systems, are IMPERFECT. I just did a copy save so if and when this comment suddenly disappears I won't have to begin anew. (It actually did just that just now).
ReplyDeletePatti and I have been making airline reservations for DECADES. Last night it was impossible for us to successfully get a Delta Airlines flight reservation made in less than one full hour online here. So we 100%, absolutely and totally agree with you that our medical system is NOT PERFECT. Do you know how often I have wanted to ask a Doctor this question: Doctor, in your graduating class, where did you stand? It's true. It will be from first to (heavens forbid) last in their class. The problem is this: Where else can you turn for medical help but our medical system, flawed as it is. Our advice which we follow is: Hang In There Gullible.. Cap and Patti
My surgeon had four " framed certificates" on the wall in his exam room. One was for a year as chief resident surgeon at Duke, another for an accomplishment at Yale, a third for an accomplishment at Cornell, and a fourth from another prestigious medical school. He said they were for completing advanced techniques, but still!
DeleteGood Grief Charlie Brown! When I sat down and wrote the above comment I totally forgot what I had planned to write and went off on the above tangent. Proof Positive: Beginning with us nothing is PEFECT is it? God maybe?
ReplyDeleteGullible, we along with probably all of your readers want to say: Thank You So Very Much for explaining in some detail what has been going on with you for quite some long time. Yes your issues with the medical system ARE true and valid! Again, where does one turn? Your Allies .. Cap and Patti
We do tend to fly off on tangents, don't we? I hope that by going into details that it will give courage to some other person facing similar circumstances. Otherwise, I would just stay mum.
DeleteI share your aversion to doctors, hospitals, anesthesia and all that stuff. I'm glad to see you are home and hopefully comfortably recuperating.
ReplyDeleteBeing raised in Alaska where doctors were scarce was part of it. These days, finding doctors who will accept Medicare patients is also a challenge.
DeleteI too, share your aversion to doctors, etc!!!! ;)
ReplyDeleteTnanks for reading, Lee.
DeleteNot only does an aversion to doctors run in the family, so does stubbornness. I hate going to the doctor. I ended up passing out a couple of times before I decided to go to the doctor. I didn't even tell him about passing out. l Fortunately, I passed out in the doctors office. That's when they started running tests and discovered the cancer. That's what being bullheaded gets you. I was so bad that I ended up in a wheelchair for about 6 weeks. It took two techs to get me on the radiation table. After 20 radiation treatments and 2 years of chemo, I am still here 15 years later. It doesn't pay to be stubborn or avoid doctors. It's good to see you are doing better and are already out picking litter. Just don't over do it.
ReplyDeleteAmazing Bud. Absolutely, positively, amazing! Whewie! Happy you seem to have survived quite well. Cap and Patti
DeleteI did not know you were fainting, Bud, prior to diagnosis. Still, what you went through was far tougher than my procedure. Plus, you still had the energy to build three sets of stairs for me. Incredible.
ReplyDelete