Thanks for all the prayers and comments, they are much appreciated and much needed. Keep them coming please.
Sooooo before I sink into yet another drug induced stupor and have no idea what I’m saying or in this case typing…..I’ll tell you what happened today.
I woke up this am writhing in pain. Yep writhing. After watching my misery for about an hour Stud insisted I go to the ER. Remember we have no health insurance. Ok. That’s important.
We get to the ER right around noon, no biggie, we wait, I get a room, and the doc eventually comes in. Now, just to describe, I had been crampy and achy since this past Friday,and had called my doc every day since then trying to get an appointment. My appointment is for this coming friday. Yep, un huh, that helps tons.
Back to the symptoms… achy pain since friday in the pelvic, right ovary area… but this morning…. oh this morning, it was new, severe, harsh pain that honestly rivaled labor pains. Coming from a chick who has birthed 5 younguns, that’s bad. The pain was in my lower back and right side radiating down to my knees. Serious pain. There was no getting comfy, or even any position that would relieve it in any way. I was in tears.
ER doc comes in and pokes around gently, he taps my left side, I jump, because THAT hurt my right side…huh? He decides its ovarian related, seeing as how I have a history of ovarian issues. Off to ultrasound I go for a vaginal ultrasound. I made quick friends with the tech, as we discussed all the things that can go wrong in the female body vs the things that go wrong in the male… our list is a lot bigger.
Now, the doc had already gotten me a good shot of dilaudid… that’s good stuff, the stuff that Stud fell in love with when he had kidney stones. I was still in pain. Even with the pain meds, the ultrasound about killed me. as soon as I got back from ultrasound I asked for more meds. It had only been 1 hour since the first shot. Yeah, I was in pain.
Now, the Doctor Dolittle (as he will be known from now on) comes in and says, well, the ultrasound was fine, but you have a UTI, I’m giving you antibiotics, and pain meds, and you are going home. NOW… I had already discussed with the tech the fact that the ultrasound was normal, and that the pain that I was in meant there was SOMETHING going on, the tech said she guarenteed I would be back for a kidney ultrasound.
I mention to DR do-little that maybe its a kidney stone, or kidney related… his response…”oh yeah it could be, but we would do the same thing for that as we are doing for the UTI, so go home, and if you aren’t better in a couple of days, come back and we will do a kidney scan.”
huh?
I asked why he couldn’t go ahead and scan the kidneys while I was there…. he again said well if this doens’t work, then just come back. I requested the kidney ultrasound. Told the doc I wanted it today instead of having to come back. His response:
“well, you’ll have to wait awhile then”
Now tell me, I’m laying in a hospital bed for a reason, I’m in extreme pain, and he is wanting to send me home because he finds a UTI, which I’ve had dozens of, and NEVER hurt like this before, so I request the kidney scan, and his response is you’ll have to wait. LIKE I CARE AT THIS POINT IF I HAVE TO WAIT. Gees. Just do the scan ok.
Within an hour I’m back at US getting a kidney scan. The first tech sees me in the hall, grins and says told ya, I tell her nope I had to request it….
2nd tech comes in to do the scan, she does it, I say “did you find a stone” she says “OH yeah, its a BIG one, 1 cm, or rather after I convert it, 9 mm”
9mm is not a passable size stone. We know this from Stud’s foray into kidney stones. Tech lady asks me not to mention to the doc that she told me, as tech’s aren’t supposed to tell you what they find. I’m glad she told me.
Next thing I know, I’m back at ER, a nurse comes in and says “ok, we are releasing you, the kidney scan was FINE”
WHAT?
I say sooooo no kidney stone? He says oh, yeah you have a stone.. but its small, only 5 mm. I ask to speak to the doctor and the nurse leaves.
Nurse number 2 comes in and says Ok, you are going home, you just have a UTI, we got ya meds and stuff, that’ll take care of it……….. all this while removing my IV.
AGAIN WHAT??????? I just have a UTI?
yes he says, I said NO, I was told 2 times I have a kidney stone…. He hadn’t seen anything about a stone. I ask for the nurse I had when I first came in.. a girl… who knew what she was doing. Oh, and the doc, nurse 2 tells me, has left.
SOOOOO girly nurse comes in and she says “yes you have a 5 mm kidney stone, follow up with this urology place” I ask for more info on the kidney stone, she tells me the discharge dept will go over all that when I leave, that they will have a print out for me, and will go over all instructions and things at discharge, in the nurse’s words “that’s their job”
At this point, Stud and I are both thinking the bum rush out the door we are getting is because I have no insurance. Because instead of talking to me about the fact that I have a kidney stone, and my options for this stone… they are pushing me out the door. Literally.
This brings us to the discharge desk. Oh. My.
DD woman hands me my papers and reads my diagnosis as UTI and prior ovarian issues, and tells me to sign it, and starts showing me the instructions on UTI.
I ask about the kidney stone… her reply “you dont’ have a kidney stone”
WHAT?
Nope she says the doc doesn’t mention a stone anywhere, so you don’t have one. By this time, my drug induced haze is receeding, and an angry is taking its place.
I told them I’m not signing those papers until I get the correct diagnosis on them. I raised my voice in a calm, not yelling manor, Stud slightly raised his, I was so proud of his control. And then I put on my work voice, my voice that I use when I have unruly customers that don’t want to listen to what I’m saying, and want to talk over me, and I let her know what exactly I need from her, and also let her know it is nothing related to her, because she is just reading what the doc wrote, but I need some clarification. She pulls up my record and says yep, you DO have a kidney stone. And once again tries to get me to sign the papers. Once again I let her know I want the correct diagnosis on my discharge papers. She tells me she can’t put it on there, because the doc didn’t write it.
SO, I sign it, but I add a note myself that the doctor did not put the kidney stone on my sheet. Then ask her to please go get them fixed.
A few minutes later, she comes back and says “so and so added the kidney stone to the diagnosis” I look at it she gives me one paragraph of info and tells me I’m done. Oh, and my doc, LEFT 3 hours before. so the discharge papers she was going off of were discharge papers the doc wrote before he left. Papers that were completed BEFORE my kidney scan was ordered.
So now, I will be filing an official complaint at the hospital and the county board of health. And quite possibly an attorney to see what we can do about this doctor.
What doctor writes discharge papers before the testing is completed?
What hospital doesn’t have a doctor talk to someone when they request it?
What hospital tries to discharge someone knowing the papers have the incorrect/incomplete diagnosis on them?
Like Stud said, it just keeps getting worse.
