Iamwhomiam » Tue Mar 30, 2021 1:16 am wrote:Goin off topic for a moment to share my thanks to my well-wishers. Thank you all.
Monday, today, sorta, even though it's now 1am Tuesday, it's been two weeks since my surgery was scheduled on the 15th. I'll tell you what's been going on with me lately. Some time around February of 2019 I noticed some unusual swelling in my groin. My inguinal groin, which is the area where your leg joins with your torso. Couldn't get supplemental insurance until December, which I did, but then took two more months to find a primary physician, from whom all things medical must flow, it seems. I certainly didn't want to wait in a waiting room with sickies and asked for the preliminary paperwork to be sent to me by mail, which was refused to me. Next time, a month later, in March, their practice was not accepting new patients at that time. And so, I waited and finally got to see a doctor; a new doctor, brand new.
I told him my concerns and he told me I had a hernia. I knew I didn't have a hernia. I have been an EMT and have had nursing education. The doctor told me we could just leave it be. He called back a few days later to tell me about my blood work, the results were back from the lab. I mentioned to him I didn't want this thing hanging off me and let's get it tucked back in, if it is as you say, "fatty abdominal tissue." It is a bit uncomfortable. "I have high confidence it is a hernia, but if you're uncomfortable, I'll refer you to a surgeon." Which he did.
Off to see the surgeon! She, a young and new to practice surgeon, assured me It was a hernia and I told her I was pretty sure it wasn't. She ordered an ultrasound and discovered a mass in my groin! Surgeon wanted to cut it out, as much of it as she could get, she told me during a follow-up call to discuss the results of my ultrasound. I said a verbal conversation over the telephone was not enough for me to make such a decision, that I wanted to be able to meet with her and point at things shown in the ultrasound and ask questions. I also insisted on having a cat scan to see what exactly was involved before making my decision. We really had no idea if major blood vessels, muscles or intestinal tissues were involved. So I had a cat scan. I didn't have a mass, I had two grotesquely enlarged lymph nodes that appeared to be isolated, with no intrusion into any other tissues. Oh, and I didn't have a hernia! Still haven't seen the cat scan, but decided to approve surgery proceeding on the Ides of March. (The woman calling from the hospital two days before surgery to give me pre-admission instructions blew out my left eardrum and now I've gone deaf in that ear!!)
Earlier, a few weeks before surgery, my primary physician cleared me for surgery, meaning I was healthy enough to survive it. I had an electroencephalogram and my ticker looked good.
Maybe a few of you read about my adventure running out of gas in a mini blizzard across from an open field? That was a few days after my doctor gave me a clean bill of health. And now it's Monday and I'm prepped for surgery and hooked up to a heart monitor. But I didn't have surgery.
As it turned out, the anesthesiologist noted some marked difference between the eeg reading that cleared me for surgery a few weeks before, and the constant readout he was getting from me then. Of course, this calls for a cardiologist! who tells me I recently had two heart attacks! Doctor tells me I'm and old fucker who's smoked and my arteries are probably clogged, so he's going to catheterize me and install stents, if necessary, at the same time. Either before or after, I can't recall which, I had an echo-cardiogram done that showed my left ventricle was "ballooned and its ejection is 25% of normal" (that got better, to 45%.)
The doctors believe that with medicines they will soon repair my heart. My surgeon wants to pursue obtaining a core biopsy (like a needle biopsy) of the lymph nodes and I've turned into an old man who looks like he shouldn't be riding on that handicapped grocery cart, one that takes 5 pills a day, two, twice a day and one more at bedtime. Seems that I had a heart attack the night of the momentary blizzard after running out of gas!
Sure hope I made that legible
What a journey. Unfortunately, this is not isolated, as I have family members with similar anecdotes.
JR summed it up well:
You're telling us about the limits of science, of applied medicine in an assembly line system, of the unexamined workaday arrogance of authorities, of a system with wrong incentives.
I will add, however: your dogged pursuit to get to the core issue -- despite doctor recommendations/diagnosis, which turned out to be inaccurate, at least with respect to the would-be hernia -- have no doubt helped your outcome. How many others wouldn't have the instincts (or prior related training) to have done the same?
Sobering and somewhat disturbing to ponder.
Thank you for sharing this, Iam.