by NeuropathicGuy » 16 Jun 2010, 16:03
Thanks for asking, guys, he's getting discharged today with the usual, a Rx for antibiotics just for the hell of it plus instructions to take ibuprofen. Still no answers.
I guess it's not really intensive care's duty to diagnose illnesses, as their main job is to stabilize the patient. That I understand. But it's still baffling to me why they couldn't run 2-3 additional basic blood tests since he's in there and they've got needles in him anyway. Every time it's the same damn thing, give him IV fluids, antibiotics, and ibuprofen, wait a few days until the fever goes away, then go home with antibiotics but without any answers. Oh yeah, forgot the last step, send my health insurance a fat bill for $40k for the stay. I have good insurance so I don't pay a penny for any of it, but it all still smells crooked to me.
The only good thing is I already spoke with our family doctor and he's a much more understanding guy who actually responds to patient requests, and he says to bring my son in next week and he'll order the tests I asked for. I'm pretty sure they're all going to come back negative, but for the nominal cost to insurance, small amount of pain it causes a kid who's already been through hell, and ability to at least rule out some possibilities, it seems like a no brainer. But nope, doctors have seen it all, so apparently I'm just being a jackass who doesn't trust their infallible opinions. If I ever see the @ss of a doctor I had to deal with a few days ago in the street, it's gonna be pretty tempting to put a boot where the sun don't shine.
Just so I don't sound like I'm totally down on the medical profession, I should say that my family doc has been a pretty damn good guy so far. I spent an entire year complaining to my previous doctor about my recurring chest pain and all he did was tell me it was anxiety and to take SSRIs and ibuprofen. Finally I changed doctors to this current one. He immediately said "that doesn't sound like anxiety", gave me cortisone shots in my sternum, and voila, each shot gives me 2-4 months of pain relief. It's not a cure for whatever's causing the chest pain (most likely arthritis from overuse of a joint), but it sure beats the hell out of being dismissed by some pile of garbage who thinks he knows it all without doing any tests or treatments at all.
I don't know if doctors are like this everywhere or if it's just around here. Our area (SF Bay) generally considers itself pretty good as far as medicine goes (that might be the arrogance thing again), but I've seen a ton of doctors here over the last two years and truthfully have only found a very small handful that I'd consider decent. I saw some doctors when I lived in Los Angeles years ago and don't recall having the same ridiculous experiences, but then again I didn't have as many problems back then either, so who knows!
One other thing I will say is that I'm now on a couple other forums dedicated to people (both adults, children, and infants) that need different kinds of tube feeding. Most of the stories on those forums are totally gut wretching and heart breaking. I did some reading yesterday and was literally in tears seeing the experiences of those folks. No joke, real deal, in the flesh tears. I'm not exactly known for being real sensitive -- in fact amongst friends I've got a bit of a reputation for being kind of emotionless and unnecessarily cynical -- but seeing what so many others are going through on those forums really put a lot of things into perspective, that's all I can say.
