A big Fuck You to the medical profession
Last night I had a mildly upset stomach and went to bed hoping to wake up all good and well. Of course, we know my life and nothing ever goes easy or as we hope it will. I woke up with intense pain in the stomach. I got out of bed and took a pain killer, then got into the guest room bed so that my flopping and throbbing in pain would not wake Kate. I took the pain medicine at 6:40AM and the pain continued as if I took nothing.
Kate left for work very nervous about leaving me alone but I promised her that if the situation got worse I'd call my father and have him take me to the emergency room. The pain continued causing chills, shaking, and numerous other side effects. in 4 hours time I was able to take another pain pill. At roughly 11AM I took another pain pill and knew within 30 minutes it wasn't working. The pain was getting worse, not better. At this point I reached out to my father to get a ride to the ER. While I couldn't grab him, Kate was able to and he came to get me.
We arrived at the hospital slightly before noon and I checked in. Prior to leaving the house I had called my doctors office and found out they had two doctors at the hospital doing rounds. One would be there until 1:30PM and the other slightly after 2:00PM. Not an issue at all! Last time I went to the hospital I was signed in and hooked up to the IV with pain drip within 18 minutes. I expected no different this time around; but again as stated above "we know my life and nothing ever goes easy or as we hope it will".
At 1PM I was still in the waiting room waiting to even get into the ER. They had ONE trauma nurse on duty and she was slower than a Ford Tempo in the quarter mile. Not only that they took three people prior to me who actually came in after me. While I could understand taking the 84 year old woman with shortness of breath, there was no reason for them to take a man with a broken thumb or another man who tore open his stitches prior to me. I was buckled over in pain and practically rolling on the floor of the ER lobby.
Finally I get into the trauma area at around 1:15PM and explain the situation and severity of my pain. I am told they'll page my doctor who is in the hospital and then somebody will take me back to a bed. Now every time I've been to this hospital in the past they bring me to a private room; not this time. This time I got a bed in the hallway in a corner. I was told that I couldn't have any pain medication until the doctor sees me.
1:30PM ... 1:45PM and 2:00PM come and go. The nurse tells me she just saw my doctor and is sure he'll be back soon. At about 2:15PM I am told that both doctors from my practice have left and will not be returning. They even go as far as to tell me that the doctor they just said was in the hospital had actually left over an hour ago; which time were they full of shit?
I demand to see another doctor, any doctor, and a hospital administrator. I am told the ER doctor on call will be with me shortly and that so would a hospital administrator. Nobody came and we continued to ask what was going on. Finally at 3:00PM a doctor comes to the side of my bed. He asks me why I am there and I explain the situation to him, just as I had explained it to everybody else who had asked. He then asks me about the medications I am on.
I explain to him that I am currently not on any Crohn's medicine as my doctor and I had exhausted the oral prescriptions and had no remission with any of them. We had begone a treatment of Remicade however I had an allergic reaction to it. My doctor and I were exploring how we could overcome this; but due to their office holidays and my very hectic work schedule and lack of ability to get myself from point A to point B we had not been able to do so yet.
He responds with, "So you just stopped taking your medicine on your own?" I look at him and say, "No, that is not at all what I said. My doctor and I stopped the oral prescriptions in hope of using the Remicade. It failed to work for me and caused hospitalization and we have been unable to find an alternative at this time."
His response, "But why did you just stop taking the medicine the doctor gave you? You can't just self medicate!" This shows me two things. First and most importantly, this man is not capable of listening to a patient and that I can not tolerate. Secondly he knows NOTHING of my disease or the treatments for it as anybody with half a lick of knowledge knows Remicade is an IV treatment given in the hospital once every 2 - 6 weeks and is not something the patient takes on their own.
Again, and even more slowly, I explain the situation filling in this missing information. Again he tells me that I shouldn't have just stopped taking my medicine like that and that he should call my doctor to see what I should be taking. At this point I say, "Forget it, you're not listening to me and I've been here for 3+ hours without getting the one thing I needed; painkillers. I am out of here." and I began to get dressed. He tried to detain me by telling me that he can give me a pain killer now if I want as if that is going to make up for the three hours I flopped around in pain and the fact that he hasn't a clue of bedside manner or my disease. I tell him no thanks and I continue to get done.
I then storm out of the hospital, still not treated and still never seeing the hospital administrator I asked for. On the way home I swung into my doctors office and demanded to speak to a nurse or doctor. I pleaded my case and explained that I have an appointment on Monday to see the doctor but that I needed a way to make it through until then. I explained that the hospital was not a reasonable answer as I had already tried that. Finally I convinced the doctor to give me more pain medicine and I'll have to deal with the horrid pains I get on my own.
On Monday I shall see my doctor. I have a feeling this is the last time I will be seeing a doctor from this practice as scheduling appointments with them is a nightmare. The staff that manages the front office is less than competent and they all fail at effective communications. Had they explained to me the first, second or third time I called in early November that my usual doctor is on vacation for the rest of the YEAR, I'd have made an appointment with another. Instead they say, "He's on vacation currently." I say, "Ok, well I'll speak to my family to determine when I can get a ride next week and call back to try and schedule an appointment." They say, "Ok" and hang up. I get the scheduling information from my parents and Kate. I call them back and they tell me the office is closed for Thanksgiving for almost the entire week. Ok, again I go and get schedule information and then they tell me "Oh he's on vacation still." At this point I point blank ask when he is coming back and they say, "I think in January." I ask for an appointment with another of the doctors and they have nothing.
So now it will be December 18th, over a month since I was supposed to see the doctor. 5 weeks since my last treatment (which as we know didn't work). I've been in pain and agony almost every day since October and am at my wits end.
UPDATE:
Due to the amount of people who seem to think trolling me about my pain, or the fact that I expected service in an ER that promises quick service or that I even followed my doctors advice ... I am doing something I've never done before. I am no longer allowing comments by non-friends on this post.
If you don't agree with my choices, don't read my fucking page. This isn't a software review site; this is my life. If you do disagree and want to be civil about it fine. But get over your fucking selves being arrogant and rude to me when you don't even know the half of the situation.
Kate left for work very nervous about leaving me alone but I promised her that if the situation got worse I'd call my father and have him take me to the emergency room. The pain continued causing chills, shaking, and numerous other side effects. in 4 hours time I was able to take another pain pill. At roughly 11AM I took another pain pill and knew within 30 minutes it wasn't working. The pain was getting worse, not better. At this point I reached out to my father to get a ride to the ER. While I couldn't grab him, Kate was able to and he came to get me.
We arrived at the hospital slightly before noon and I checked in. Prior to leaving the house I had called my doctors office and found out they had two doctors at the hospital doing rounds. One would be there until 1:30PM and the other slightly after 2:00PM. Not an issue at all! Last time I went to the hospital I was signed in and hooked up to the IV with pain drip within 18 minutes. I expected no different this time around; but again as stated above "we know my life and nothing ever goes easy or as we hope it will".
At 1PM I was still in the waiting room waiting to even get into the ER. They had ONE trauma nurse on duty and she was slower than a Ford Tempo in the quarter mile. Not only that they took three people prior to me who actually came in after me. While I could understand taking the 84 year old woman with shortness of breath, there was no reason for them to take a man with a broken thumb or another man who tore open his stitches prior to me. I was buckled over in pain and practically rolling on the floor of the ER lobby.
Finally I get into the trauma area at around 1:15PM and explain the situation and severity of my pain. I am told they'll page my doctor who is in the hospital and then somebody will take me back to a bed. Now every time I've been to this hospital in the past they bring me to a private room; not this time. This time I got a bed in the hallway in a corner. I was told that I couldn't have any pain medication until the doctor sees me.
1:30PM ... 1:45PM and 2:00PM come and go. The nurse tells me she just saw my doctor and is sure he'll be back soon. At about 2:15PM I am told that both doctors from my practice have left and will not be returning. They even go as far as to tell me that the doctor they just said was in the hospital had actually left over an hour ago; which time were they full of shit?
I demand to see another doctor, any doctor, and a hospital administrator. I am told the ER doctor on call will be with me shortly and that so would a hospital administrator. Nobody came and we continued to ask what was going on. Finally at 3:00PM a doctor comes to the side of my bed. He asks me why I am there and I explain the situation to him, just as I had explained it to everybody else who had asked. He then asks me about the medications I am on.
I explain to him that I am currently not on any Crohn's medicine as my doctor and I had exhausted the oral prescriptions and had no remission with any of them. We had begone a treatment of Remicade however I had an allergic reaction to it. My doctor and I were exploring how we could overcome this; but due to their office holidays and my very hectic work schedule and lack of ability to get myself from point A to point B we had not been able to do so yet.
He responds with, "So you just stopped taking your medicine on your own?" I look at him and say, "No, that is not at all what I said. My doctor and I stopped the oral prescriptions in hope of using the Remicade. It failed to work for me and caused hospitalization and we have been unable to find an alternative at this time."
His response, "But why did you just stop taking the medicine the doctor gave you? You can't just self medicate!" This shows me two things. First and most importantly, this man is not capable of listening to a patient and that I can not tolerate. Secondly he knows NOTHING of my disease or the treatments for it as anybody with half a lick of knowledge knows Remicade is an IV treatment given in the hospital once every 2 - 6 weeks and is not something the patient takes on their own.
Again, and even more slowly, I explain the situation filling in this missing information. Again he tells me that I shouldn't have just stopped taking my medicine like that and that he should call my doctor to see what I should be taking. At this point I say, "Forget it, you're not listening to me and I've been here for 3+ hours without getting the one thing I needed; painkillers. I am out of here." and I began to get dressed. He tried to detain me by telling me that he can give me a pain killer now if I want as if that is going to make up for the three hours I flopped around in pain and the fact that he hasn't a clue of bedside manner or my disease. I tell him no thanks and I continue to get done.
I then storm out of the hospital, still not treated and still never seeing the hospital administrator I asked for. On the way home I swung into my doctors office and demanded to speak to a nurse or doctor. I pleaded my case and explained that I have an appointment on Monday to see the doctor but that I needed a way to make it through until then. I explained that the hospital was not a reasonable answer as I had already tried that. Finally I convinced the doctor to give me more pain medicine and I'll have to deal with the horrid pains I get on my own.
On Monday I shall see my doctor. I have a feeling this is the last time I will be seeing a doctor from this practice as scheduling appointments with them is a nightmare. The staff that manages the front office is less than competent and they all fail at effective communications. Had they explained to me the first, second or third time I called in early November that my usual doctor is on vacation for the rest of the YEAR, I'd have made an appointment with another. Instead they say, "He's on vacation currently." I say, "Ok, well I'll speak to my family to determine when I can get a ride next week and call back to try and schedule an appointment." They say, "Ok" and hang up. I get the scheduling information from my parents and Kate. I call them back and they tell me the office is closed for Thanksgiving for almost the entire week. Ok, again I go and get schedule information and then they tell me "Oh he's on vacation still." At this point I point blank ask when he is coming back and they say, "I think in January." I ask for an appointment with another of the doctors and they have nothing.
So now it will be December 18th, over a month since I was supposed to see the doctor. 5 weeks since my last treatment (which as we know didn't work). I've been in pain and agony almost every day since October and am at my wits end.
UPDATE:
Due to the amount of people who seem to think trolling me about my pain, or the fact that I expected service in an ER that promises quick service or that I even followed my doctors advice ... I am doing something I've never done before. I am no longer allowing comments by non-friends on this post.
If you don't agree with my choices, don't read my fucking page. This isn't a software review site; this is my life. If you do disagree and want to be civil about it fine. But get over your fucking selves being arrogant and rude to me when you don't even know the half of the situation.