Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Back on the Bicycle

Thanks to all for prayers and responses. They are much appreciated, and much needed.

Today Jim saw the pulmonologist. There appears to be a disagreement between the emergency-room doctor and the pulmonologist. The ER doctor thinks the mass in the right lung is an infarction, that is, dead tissue that has necrotized over a very long period of time. The pulmonologist thinks it's cancer, and wants to do a broncoscopy, as well as an endoscopy and a colonoscopy, because after all, These Blood Clots Must Be Coming from Somewhere, and apparently, Hidden Cancers Can Cause Blood Clots.

The operative word, as far as I'm concerned, is "can." As in, maybe it is and maybe it isn't, but why not go for broke and assume it is until we find out it isn't, at which point, why, we can do more vivisection, what fun!!! The ER doctor's point is, there are absolutely no risk factors for cancer: This guy isn't overweight, doesn't smoke, doesn't live with smokers, doesn't work in a carcinogenic environment, and lung cancer doesn't just show up for the hell of it!

Ya know what scares the living daylights out of me? Of course, all the nurses are pulling out the Sympathy Card that says, "Oh, yes, These Things Are Scary." Yeah, they're scary, all right, but not for the reasons most people find them scary. I find them scary because I can't escape the impression, based on my own rather vast experience, that my husband's life is in the hands of a HATFUL OF INCOMPETENT BOOBS WHO DON'T HAVE THE FAINTEST CLUE WHAT THEY'RE DOING!!!!!

To top it all off, when I walked in this evening, my brother was visiting my husband, and regaling him with his own hospital experience, which involved walking into another hospital's ER with severe pain in his right shoulder, and being kept overnight for cardio observation because he had Risk Factors (i.e., he's fat). The next day, they gave him a stress test and an echo-cardiogram, both of which he passed with flying colors, so he was discharged -- with his right shoulder still killing him. His own doctor diagnosed tendonitis. See, this is what gets me: The docs go into overdrive on their own pet theories, and completely ignore what's actually going on.

As I said to Jim, I can't advise him on how to handle this. I know what my own response would be, but that's not his response. He's inclined to let them do their vivisectionist thing. So all I ask is that he conduct his business with them without me anywhere in the vicinity, because if there's one thing I love for dinner, it's Doctor Stew.

Grumble, grumble, grouse, curses, kick the cat...

5 comments:

Susan said...

Oh Meg, you sound scared. Doctors arent always wrong. (I work in a medical setting so I might be biased!)
I hope an pray its nothing!!

Elizabeth @ The Garden Window said...

Meg,
at least all the "oscopies" are non-surgical procedures.

Pretty much every orifice will be invaded, and they are not particularly pleasant, but at least at the moment it isn`t actually surgery.......
Prayers continue for you both. And for the doctors !

Meg said...

Scared? No. Angry? Very. Didn't you read my brother's experience? That's about typical of my own experience with doctors.

And to me, any invasion of the body is surgery. Don't forget, I went through this myself last year, with not very wonderful results, and I had two of the "best" doctors in the business. All I can say is, if that's the best, I think I'm entitled to my skepticism.

FWIW, I do think the nurses are fantastic, and *vastly* underpaid. But I still get angry every time I remember that these doctors are supposed to KNOW WHAT THEY'RE DOING?!?!?! AND THEY SO OBVIOUSLY DON'T?!?!?!

Mimi said...

Prayers. Hugs, hon. Let me know if I can do anything.

Anonymous said...

Prayers keep going up for you and Jim. Please let me know if there is anything I can do.