Slobstyle

So here is the whole sorted story and I can tell you I’m pissed right now. So way back in late September I begin having horrible stomach pains from the bottom of my ribcage all the way down to just above my pubes. It is cramping, burning, stabbing…the works.
I immediately go to see my primary care physician and he is very concerned about the level of pain I’m having so he sends me for a CT scan of my abdomen. He has the scan down STAT (right effing now) because he is worried it is my appendix and tells me he’ll call when he gets the results later that day. In the meantime, he says he’ll find me a GI doc to follow up with.
I go home after the scan and hear nothing from my doctor. Finally mid-way through the following day I get frustrated and call his office. An hour after that his ASSISTANT calls me back and says everything on the scan was fine. I ask if I will be seeing GI doctor and she indicates she’ll speak to my doctor and call me back. No one calls. I call a week later, no one calls back. The pain subsides a bit, but continues to be present.
Fast forward to 3 weeks ago. I get a stomach flu, which much of my neighborhood catches, but I end up in horrible pain as the flu has re-ignited my stomach pain, twice as bad as before. I call and get right into my doctor to be seen. When I get there I’m pale, sweating and unable to sit fully upright due to the pain. I had mentioned to the nurse prior to seeing him that I was supposed to get a refer to a GI doc and no one had called me back. When the doctor comes in he apologizes for not getting me the referral and explains he’d been out of the office for a week and a half. I tell him to check the date on my last visit and he is alarmed to see it was early October. He is obviously worried seeing my state and is torn between sending me to the hospital or sending my home while I get more tests done. In the end I tell him I have no interest in going to the hospital, so he gives me vicodin and tells me to try that. He attempts to reach a GI doctor directly to get me seen that day but is unable to reach him. So off for more imaging he sends me. This time I am sent for an ultrasound, again STAT because of my condition and again I go home after the test not hearing about the results.

I call his office the next day and again get stuck talking to his assistant who merely reads his notes which say I have palyps in my gall bladder and a back up of sludge which is causing pancreatitis. She indicates I will need to see a GI doctor for a surgical consult to see about having it removed. She makes no attempt to get me in to see one right away, just gives me the number. I call on my own and make an appointment and the soonest I can be seen is one and a half weeks out.

Fast forward to last Friday…I have been on vicodin for nearly two weeks, going to work and struggling with eating the whole time. In addition I’m dealing with on and off again diarhea and horrible stomach pains. I finally get in to see the GI doctor and he pokes me and says “Well most of your symptoms point to a gall bladder problem, but some don’t fit…so it looks like your gall bladder needs to come out.” I stare blankly at him for a minute before asking “You think it needs to come out? Is there any conclusive way to KNOW if it needs to come out?” He looks at me and says “Well what else is there, it’s not this or that, etc. so it must be your gall bladder. Just to be sure, I’m going to get another CT Scan of your abdomen. In addition, I want you to get an upper GI scope as a precaution due to your long history of acid reflux.”

So off they send me for imaging again, completely forgetting to get me an appointment with a surgeon (they gave me his card only) and to schedule my upper GI scope (he does at his office). I go and get the CT scan and again go home and wait. No phone call. Finally mid-day Saturday he calls me back and said the CT scan showed nothing significant, so we are going to proceed with having my gall bladder out. WTF? Apparently he was looking for causes other then my gall bladder. Whatever, at this point I’m running out of pain meds and fucking miserable.

So he tells me to call the surgeon which I do. After explaining to the surgeon’s assistant the whole situation, she schedules me an appointment…for next Monday. So now I am waiting for that appointment, bringing my count to 3 weeks and 3 doctors. Even after I see the surgeon Monday, who knows how long it will be before I get the actual surgery.

So I call the GI doc back yesterday indicating I’m about out of pain meds, extremely uncomfortable and need to get my appointment bumped up. His assistant proceeds to tell me that the doctor doesn’t prescribe narcotics and that she can only TRY to bump up my surgeon appointment. I ask her about the upper GI scope and she admits she forgot to schedule it and puts me on the schedule for the next day (today). I hang up. She later calls me back and says there is a $500 co-pay for the procedure due at the time it is done. I immediately question whether it is necessary seeing how he indicated that test was a “precaution” and that I don’t want to shell out $500 for something that is just that. She goes all super-bitch on me ranting how he wouldn’t schedule it if it wasn’t necessary. I explain to her I’m not convinced and that if the doctor would like to call me and discuss it I’m open to that. She just removes me from the schedule, giving no indication she will speak to the doctor about it.

So, now I”m sitting here with a days worth of pain meds left, horrible stomach pain and a week to wait just to get in to see the surgeon.
Moral of the story: Go to the ER!