Kvetch of the Day

[Dave's Not Here Man]

I apologize (sort of) to my friends in the medical field, especially with what you all are dealing with right now but I have a bone to pick with some of you. When a patient comes to you with their problem, please listen to them. If they tell you that the problem is something they've experienced several or many times in their lives and a certain treatment that they received worked for them, please don't start waving your medical degrees at them and telling them things like "that's the older doctors.... and not the way we do things anymore" or, "that doctor just wanted to get you back on your feet and out of his ER" (Well FUCKING DUHHHHH!!! THAT'S EXACTLY WHY I'M HERE!!!) or even worse, take one line from their story, OUT OF CONTEXT, cut them off, and lecture them about it- "using that afrin can cause rebound congestion you know..."). okay, can we get back to the thing that's boring a hole in my brain now?

We come to you to get treated, not lectured. I had all of the above happen in a "televisit" yesterday by a PA that knows nothing more about me than I did about her. When I said that I had a 40 year history with migraines, my migraines, not anyone else's, and knew exactly what has been used in the past to break the cycle, she basically ignored me. I didn't ask for the MOAB solution (dilaudid, phenergan, toradol) that I know for 100% fact and have documented proof that it works, BUT, this problem has not gotten to that point and I would've had to go to the ER, which I was trying to avoid because I know they are swamped with covid. What I wanted, because it worked the last two times to break the cycle at home, was a 5 day course of prednisone, amoxicillin, and phenergan. AND TO ADD, that if this wasn't a migraine but was instead a sinus infection, the same combo of the above was just as useful for me. First thing she says is "Prednisone is bad for you". Well, so are cheeseburgers. Both are less bad for you than a .357 lobotomy, but only 1 of these things is designed to calm inflammation, which is key to breaking the cycle without ventilating the entire cranium. You can't say this back to them because they'll send the "uppity police" and suicide prevention police to kill you. But I digress. 

So ultimately I wound up with scripts for amoxy, zofran, and Imitrex. I guess it beats going to the hospital and having some jackoff giving you IV organic vegetable juice and whatever tea leaf of the month along with 500mg of bullshit that keeps you in the hospital for as long as it takes to rape your medicaid (or you know, bank account) until they can get serious about fixing the problem rather than fucking around with the new and improved protocols.


If this persists, you can bet I'm going to go have a face to face with my doc and ask if this is going to be an ongoing issue.


OHHHHH and by the way, I went to the dermatologist last week that prescribed a topical chemo thing for my arms. Guess who wouldn't cover the cost of this, even though it's supposed to help prevent my dozens of pre-cancerous spots (actinic keratosis) from becoming cancerous? You betcha.,... my insurance doesn't.

[minx]

At the same time, I can see the other side of the coin.

There are medical professionals in the Dakotas who are putting people on ventilators and pleading with them to do a facetime or zoom with their families - they have COVID and may die. Responses - COVID isn't real. This is just the flu, and you're not giving me the care I need! This despite how they are feeling physically, and being shown test results clearly showing they don't have other ailments.

But yeah, too many medical people are too quick to diagnose without listening to the patient. I'm sorry you got stuck with one of them.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Yeah so I'm not drawing, not even attempting really, any parallels between the front line doctors and covid patients. No one has ever HAD this virus, so no one can tell the doctor what worked for them the first time. Sure, there are people literally about to be intubated that are screaming for hydroxycloroquine because that's what Hannity said "cured" Dear Leader... I get that. but was 100 miles from my point.


My rant goes back to last year when my daughter had her months-long bout with debilitating migraines and she was wasting away like a terminal cancer patient. I was SO SO SOOOOO pissed at the "new modern 'proven' protocols" for migraines. Which was tantamount to a fucking Capri Sun and some herbal supplements. I went off on her doctor, out of turn but anyway, and said that when she was in the ER 5 or 6 years prior, they tried the same snake oil that didn't work and I got irate there too. They asked what "Doctor Dad" would prescribe. I said IV Dilaudid, Phenergan, and Toradol. The ER doc said "okay, DOCTOR DAD, that's what we'll give her" and they did. She walked out of the hospital after being brought in on an ambulance, a stretcher, after having lost consciousness at the primary care doctor. How did I know that would work? Because I had teh same issue and treatment about 5 years prior to her problem. I was down for 2 weeks, unable to function in any capacity, barfing and pissing on myself because I was eventually too weak to make it to the bathroom. The ER doc at MWH said "we're going to break the cycle NOW" and that's what he gave me. I left the hospital a mere couple hours later and didn't have another migraine for several years. So yeah, they made me feel better and got me/us the hell out of the ER in no time, vs last time she was in the hospital for a week!

So just saying. When something you know works FOR YOU, because you have the experience and the proof right there in their computer, how about fuck that new "only junkies get the good stuff" and take what the patient says as gospel. My mom was an er nurse and she's always said that if someone is willing to go through all of that, for a shot of demerol, give it to them.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Ugh.... I think we talk a lot about healthcare from the "access" and "affordability" end but not enough about the moving parts and the rx pad. Sometimes it makes me wonder if I really do want the government doing design-build-maintaining-etc because what we're likely to see, in this country especially, is one way and that's the only way. Not that protocol is bad, just that we used to do quite well when decisions were being made by the doctors and patients instead of the government, insurance companies, accountants, and lawyers for all the above.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Oh and I'm back on my feet today. well, about 72.5%. Still have a little ghost headache (that I'm 100% sure would be gone if they gave me the medrol pak), didn't sleep for shit again, but I'm up this morning, no nasty episodes last night- today, and in my morning routine (this shit). I did go and get the covid test yesterday so we be quarantined until the result comes back today or tomorrow. At least that went super smooth and the test wasn't the one where they get a grey matter sample from your brain. No line/wait either. 

[minx]

I do apologize - you are right in saying I missed your point.

It's been a looooong week.

And I'm glad you're feeling partially better, but you are right - if you have an issue that is chronic or re-occurring, the first question should be - what WORKED for you in the past? And the follow-up question should be "How long did that bring you relief?"
Because while there may be a more effective treatment now, there should be more than lip service given to what was tried before, regardless of if it worked or not.

Sorry you had such a crappy experience.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Test -Negative.

So I got that goin for me.... which is nice.


Maybe I'll be less onry now. But don't bet on it.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

A week since the doctor televisit and a little over two weeks running, and I'm still in a cycle of headaches, some nausea that accompany, as well as some "episodes" as I call them that also accompany. A little pissed off about not getting the medrol, so I'm going to set up an office visit for early next week (can always cancel if this resolves before-hand). Having been down this same path a couple or half dozen times over the last few years, I'm confident that regardless of what is causing my problem would have been about resolved by now with the course of steroids.

I noticed that since I did some searches on various maladies recently, the advertising on my pages is now producing a lot of ads for medical treatment, including some rx meds, completely online from companies that have been set up outside the normal and traditional methods. The way it looks to me is you "sign up" and pay some sort of membership fee, which is at least on the surface what most would consider reasonable. Once a member, you can order certain things without an "evaluation" (those are like $60-$80 average) or get the evaluation in order to receive the rx for those type of meds. So far I've seen this for migraine sufferers and one other specific issue, possibly anxiety-depression type stuff. Just an FYI if you all know people that might benefit from this kind of thing. No opioids or benzos, not sure about the roids.Yet.

[minx]

Sorry things aren't resolved - hoping the second office visit fixes things.

As for the online places, I'm a little leery. I did look at one that advertised something like $10 for your first visit.
After that, you need to pay a monthly subscription fee of $130/mo and it wasn't clear what you were getting for it.
So right now, I'm putting it in the category of too good to be true.

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Side note: We went to UVA today, finally, for her to start care there. Holy mother of medical school, what a difference between one visit there and what we've collectively dealt with for 10 years.

[k9krap]

I love UVA hospital. My husband was there, in and out of ICU for about a year. He eventually died there, but it wasn’t because of their lack of trying! While at MWH, he had a horrible bed so oh the top of his foot. The treatment he received there was ineffective. The first night at UVA, they applied maggots, and the spot healed up in about 10 days! Top shelf, A-one medical treatment!

[minx]

I've heard a lot of good things about UVA. Glad the missus was able to get in there!

[Dave's Not Here Man]

Kaiser was really the best we had experienced up to this point but lost it when medicaid picked us up. Her last Dr... which I had done a thread about a while back, basically told her last time that there was nothing left to do outside of what we were doing.


The wheels are already in motion to restart everything from the meds to other specialists, tests, and therapies. They are even going to manage things from there and coordinate with providers here wherever possible. A real vision of what health care should be, especially compared to what we're used to.