Navigation

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Doctor #4

February 2007….Armed with my Creighton Chart… (which now has 2 ½ years of charting, a year and ½ with pain, all documented)…. all my files from pervious doctors (ultra sounds, bloodwork, etc), and my husband, I head off to my appointment at Texas Tech. I had such high hopes. Here is a facility that seems to pride itself on attention to WOMENS needs and issues. RIGHT! This was the worst experience on my journey. First the doc was over 45 mins late, George had to leave me and return to work, and when the doc finally does see me, he takes me into a conference room. He explains he doesn’t need to exam me because we are just going to talk. He has a student join him on this visit (poor girl). I start to tell him my story from the beginning…. Showing him the chart, when things started, how the pain has increased over the year, the concern I have over the cyst and more importantly now, how relations are starting to be too painful for me. After listening he goes into saying that I am not sick, I am making this all up in my head and I am perfectly fine. WHAT?!?!?! Did he not just hear what I said? I start to ask questions, he says I look healthy, I am having normal cycles and that I just need to settle down and that I should start trying to get pregnant. He kept me in his office for over an hour! No plan of action from this appointment, no solutions….just go home and get pregnant! Well now I am really upset. Doctor #3 said he would help me… but no such luck. Not to mention they tried to charge me $275 (extensive consultation) for this appointment. After calling the billing office to tell them this was ridiculous and we would be more than happy to pay for this “extensive consultation” if there was a plan of action that formulated from it …but I am still in pain and nothing came of this appointment. They moved the charge down to $65. Interesting…see you have to fight for yourself!

1 comment:

the misfit said...

I DO NOT BELIEVE that an actual medical doctor told a woman with endometriosis that she was inventing the pain in her head. This person should have his license revoked (in fact, you could suggest that to the medical licensing board...).

My stepmother, who is now 42, was diagnosed with endometriosis at something like 18 (let's see, that would be in 1985!), because she had severe pain with her period. Of course, you can't really diagnose endo that way, and she didn't turn out to have it at all (and she's fertile); I do have endo, BTW. But apparently doctors - in Rochester, NY, which concededly has some impressive hospitals - were aware that endo existed and causes pelvic pain TWENTY-FOUR YEARS AGO. How does this man not know?

Moreover, even if he missed the boat on endo, what kind of doctor would listen to a woman describe severe pelvic pain and not even do an ultrasound? You could have had cancer. You could have been DYING. And he didn't care? Seriously, see about getting his license revoked. That's absolutely not within the bounds of even basically competent practice of medicine. He is a hazard to the health of his patients. (I get a little worked up.)