It never ends!!!

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Registered: 11-09-2001
It never ends!!!
3
Thu, 07-15-2004 - 10:33am
This is to commiserate with Kelly's post about her doctors. I have been going through something with my son's doctors and it's driving me nuts! I called his pediatrician 2 weeks ago and arranged for him to have a blood test that his doctor would then consult with my new endo about in order to get Josh's medication increased if needed. Josh is hypo and my new endo agreed to see him but his appointment isn't until October. So Josh goes for the blood test. And the results come in but no one calls me. When I follow up, the PA gets on the phone and tells me Josh's results are "normal", 4.67!!! When I say "Wow", because I was surprised at high it was - his last results were 3.6 - the PA asked me if that seemed high for Josh. I told him it wasn't just high for Josh but it was high, period. I explained to him that the results were not really normal since the range for normal had been changed. He hadn't heard about that.

Then I had to contact his pediatrician to ask him to call the new endo with the results. He happened to be at the other office and wouldn't be back to our office for a full week. I had to got through the whole explanation with the receptionist as to who I was, who Josh was, what the test was for, did Dr. Draker see them, has he talked to the new endo????? I lay awake at night practicing what I'm going to say and how I'm going to say it! :) I really do. Because it's so complicated and no one has the patience to deal with things anymore. So I want to be as nice as possible but still get my point across.

Of course, Josh's Dr. hadn't talked to the endo. So I waited a day and didn't hear anything. Waited another day and called the pharmacy to see if his new prescription was in - Wishful thinking!!! :)So I called again and found out he still hadn't spoken to him. The endo wasn't returning his calls! Then Josh's doctor finally called me last night to tell me he hadn't spoken to the other doctor and besides, it didn't matter because Josh's results were normal!! I told him Josh's results were absolutely not normal and I could hear him sigh because he's tired of dealing with me on this! LOL! He said they were because they were well within the range of 5.5. So I told him the range was lowered to 3.02 and so Josh's results were well enough OVER normal!!!!! GRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

So he apologized! LOL! And said he didn't know that. Big surprise. So I said I would call the endo and see what was up. Called the endo this morning and she said, "That's funny, Josh's paperwork just showed up on my desk this morning!" I told her it was an answer to prayer. I explained the whole sordid story of who I was, who Josh was, etc and so on. And it turns out they've been waiting to receive the lab results from Dr. Draker's office!! They waited 2 weeks for the results!! Could Dr. D's office thought to have sent the results? Could someone at the new endo's office thought to have called Dr. D's and asked for them? OMG!!!!!!!!!!! So one last phone call - I hope - to Dr. D's office and she promised to fax the results over to Dr. L within a few minutes of our conversation.

And that's just how stupid it is to deal with this stuff!!! Hope you all appreciated my story! LOL! Cathy :)




Edited 7/15/2004 10:34 am ET ET by cl-cathypem

iVillage Member
Registered: 08-20-2003
Thu, 07-15-2004 - 2:45pm

Oh boy---how stressful!


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Registered: 06-28-2004
Thu, 07-15-2004 - 6:05pm
Cathy, I know what you mean about docs not being on the ball, my daughter's previous pediatrician (notice I said previous) wasn't aware that if you have a child with a heart defect, that they need antibiotics before they have their teeth cleaned, otherwise they can get a serious heart infection called Bacterial Endocarditis. This is pretty basic stuff for pediatric cardio patients. She said that she had several other patients that had heart defects and had never heard that or told them to do that! So she called a cardiologist and was amazed that I was correct! It just bothers me when I feel like I have to really do my homework and can't trust that my docs are even informed on this basic stuff. And let's say that it is an unusual condition - I expect my doc to read up on it if they are going to continue to treat me. I don't think it's expecting too much.

Cathy

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-16-2004
Thu, 07-15-2004 - 10:16pm
OH MY GOSH! I can't believe the pediatrician didn't know about that, even DENTISTS--DENTISTS know that! grr! I have mitral valve prolapse--found out when I was 15, and my dentist knew right away what to do! hey, my dentist prescribes it for me. You might want to ask your dentist if they can prescribe the RX for you.

Now I understand why it is important that we educate our own doctors. I'm thankful that my docs are open to communicating with each other. My endo asked me if I wanted my MD to have a copy of my test results--just like my MD gave me hard copies to take to my 1st endo appointment.

You poor girls. I'm just glad I don't have kids b/c I would be a raving lunatic if someone treated my kids like that. Well, maybe not "raving" lunatic, but definately assertive.

Keep on keepin' on, CL Cathy, you might want to print out that journal article review on shoman's site about the changes from the national endo society.

--Lisa