Slipping through the Cracks in the World of Fast Food Healthcare - Part 2
Note: This post is a continuation from Part 1 of the same title. I will try to make this post as stand alone as possible, but it will make more sense if you read the other posts first. This is a true story of a medical odyssey that serves as a reminder that mistakes are made and sometimes you need to be your own advocate and not blindly trust any doctor when it comes to your health and well being. Knowledge is power and a little skepticism could save your life.
By the time I had been correctly diagnosed with a Clostridium difficile infection (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clostridium_difficile_infection) in October 2017, almost 7 months had elapsed between the time I entered my gastroenterologists office first complaining about severe diarrhea of 7+ times a day and a feeling of pain and abdominal/intestinal bloating. I was initially misdiagnosed and given a steroid, which is one of the worst possible things for an infection.
Even the urgent care facility that initially had diagnosed the issue as being an infection during the onset of the symptoms back in April of 2017, did not bother to run any further testing to determine the type of infection as a stool test is needed. Unfortunately, an urgent care facility does not do stool tests as it takes around 5 days to perform and patients are short-term at these facilities. Because the urgent care prescribed antibiotics that did seem to resolve the issue at the time, nothing further was done by my gastroenterologist until several months later when the symptoms returned with a vengeance. C. Diff has a very high rate of occurrence so looking back, everything makes more sense.
By the time I had the correct diagnosis and was given the best course of treatment with a powerful antibiotic called Vancomycin, a fairy large colonization of this bacterial infection had developed. Upon picking up this medication, which was to be taken 4 times per day, I took one when I got home from work. Almost immediately upon taking the first dose, I began to get an intense cramp in the ball of my right foot. As the night wore on, my right knee felt a little stiff or sore, as if I had bumped it and gotten a bruise. By the time I went to go to bed, I was little yelping in pain when trying to bend my right knee to climb in bed.
In the morning when I woke up, I literally could not bend my right knee. It was swollen and felt painful. I was not able to walk or drive a car. I also had an odd tightness in my chest area and a sensation almost like scratchy sandpaper when breathing. I had never felt anything like this before, but I did not think too much of this at the time because my swollen knee was my primary concern. Only later would I come to learn how serious this strange pain in my chest actually was.
A trip to the urgent care and a few hours later, I was out the door with a compression wrap on my knee and told to keep it elevated and put ice on it. They asked me if I had fallen or been in an accident and I told them no. I informed them of the start of Vancomycin for the C. Diff infection. I asked if it could be an allergic reaction to the medication, but the medical staff dismissed this theory immediately, as did my gastroenterologist who had prescribed it. I also mentioned the odd sensation and pain in my chest, but was told by the attending physician that this was "just GERD". Later, I would find out that my theory was closer to being correct than any of these professional doctors realized.
The next day, my knee felt better and I went to work as usual. The knee was a little stiff, but nothing horrible. However, I began to notice that the pain in my chest was worsening. It was especially painful when bending over to pick something up off the floor. It was like a cross between a heavy crushing pain and a charlie horse type cramp. Breathing had become a little painful when lying down in bed and very tiring. I was not worried because the trained medical doctors told me it was "just GERD".
Over the weekend, it had gotten bad enough that I decided to call the gastroenterologist on Monday morning and ask if this medication was causing very bad GERD. I told the nurse that it hurt to breath and I wondered if it would go away when I was done with the medication. The nurse informed me that GERD should not make it hurt to breath and told me to go to a "Real ER" and not urgent care.
Needless to say that the pain was NOT "just GERD". To be continued....