Finding a doctor willing to listen

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When I first became ill, I went through doctor after doctor. My surgeon was under possible indictment for reckless endangerment because it was alleged his drinking on the job was why 3 of his patients died after surgery. I was in pain, vomiting, and finally went to an ER a week after my surgery. (a gastric bypass)

The ER docs paged my surgeon repeatedly, he wouldn't call back. They finally caught a doctor who felt sorry for me and did an exam which led to finding a blood pocket the size of a fist underneath my skin.

I'd been left bleeding internally by the surgeon when he put me on a plane and sent me home with Vicodin liquid to, and I am quoting his nurses here, "pour down her throat to stop her bitching."

My health got worse. I was vomiting constantly, the pain was intensifying, and because of the media surrounding the case no other surgeon wanted to see me. I went from ER to ER trying to find someone willing to just find out what was wrong with me. I was someone who was very active, never took any medication for pain beyond a motrin, and this was my worst nightmare. One ER visit led to a surgeon deciding it must be my gallbladder. I was scheduled for emergency surgery to remove it only to find out that my gall bladder was the most diseased the doctor had ever encountered in his 30 years of doing surgery. But it didn't solve my problem and my health got worse.

My friend went to her surgeon one day, almost 8 months after the first surgery. She told him she feared I would die without help. He saw me less than 3 days later and had me in a hospital after that. He explained he wanted to operate ASAP as the tests showed conflicting results. He opened me up to find out my intestines were dying and some had to be removed. Scar tissue covered most of my organs and the rest had damage from a gastric leak. I would have died in a matter of weeks if I'd waited. He believed my pain, did his best, and while I'm terminally ill, I am still here

Tags:

terminally-ill, surgeon, surgery, gastric-bypass

Posted By:

Mandelion

11 months, 1 Week, 1 day, 18 hours, 6 minutes ago

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