Slipping through the Cracks in the World of Fast Food Healthcare - Part 3
Note: This post is a continuation from Parts 1 and 2 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.
Where we left off, was that my gastroenterologist and his nurse both urged me to go to a hospital ER. I did not want to sit in an ER at night when the creepiest of people come out, so I went back to the urgent care near my house on the way home from work. I told them my chest hurt and that it hurt to breath and that my gastroenterologist and his nurse thought it sounded like Pleurisy, which is an inflammation of the lining around the lungs. The urgent care took blood and did an EKG and the other usual tests, including a CT-Scan with dye injection of the chest. They said the only way to diagnose pleurisy is by ruling everything else out.
About 4 hours later, they concluded that it was pleurisy. They gave me a shot in the IV of an anti-inflammatory and released me telling me to take 400 mg of Advil every 4 hours for the next 2 days. I told them that due to my c. diff. infection, which had activated my ulcerative colitis and caused some intestinal bleeding that my gastroenterologist did not like me to take any Ibuprofin products, but the urgent care doctor said that he took that into consideration.
Unfortunately, the next night while sitting at my computer, I noticed that blood had began to come through the skin between two of my fingers. Ibuprofen thins the blood and this can happen. I got very nervous and stopped taking the ibuprofen. My chest felt slightly better, so I thought it was the best thing to do.
About four days later, I began to get bad "burpy" gas like pains that seemed to come from the chest area and not the stomach and a sharp pain in the lower rib area on the left side. The pain was much more intense when laying down. And sometimes I noticed I would involuntarily gasp for air like my body was not getting enough. Any deep breath, burp, or movement began to result in a very sharp stabbing pain in my left lower rib area that also felt like having the wind knocked out of me.
By then I was due to go back to the gastroenterologist for a re-check with his PA. The PA told me that the pain I was experiencing could either be intestinal pain or lung pain because they share a nerve center. He gave me a script to get a chest X-ray, but I was not able to get to the imagine facility because it closed that day.
That night, I planned to sleep sitting up because I already knew that laying down would be far too painful. As I struggled to get comfortable, I realized the pain had gotten to a point where I was uncomfortable doing nearly anything. I was also exhausted and wanted nothing more than to lay down and rest or sleep, but the pain would not allow it. I drove the 3 miles to the urgent care near my house, yelling loudly with pain every time I had to make a turn and my body moved the wrong way.
When I got to the urgent care, I told them I was having these pains and it hurt to breath and they immediately treated me like a heart attack patient. I looked at them like they were crazy because I do not have heart problems. The first thing they wanted to do was an EKG, but I told them that I was just there 4 days ago and my EKG was fine. I was getting nervous that my insurance would start refusing to pay for multiple EKG tests for someone that didn't have a history of heart problems.
I was there, as usual, for over 5 hours. They tried to do an abdominal x-ray but wanted me to lay down flat on a table. That resulted in my jumping off the table screaming and clutching my left side in pain. I felt like I was being stabbed to death. Eventually they gave me a shot of morphine to help me lay flat and did an abdominal CT-Scan with dye.
The doctor came in eventually and told me that the left side intestinal area was inflamed, but that "no organs had been displaced" - so I guess everything was okay in their minds, even though I was screaming in pain every time I moved or breathed the wrong way. They gave me muscle relaxer and send me on my way. Since I was exhausted and groggy from the morphine, I had to have my boyfriend come get me like 5:30 am and leave my car there.
When I got home, I managed to prop myself up on the couch and rest for a while, but around noon, I called my parents and asked them to drive me to the ER at "an actual hospital" like the gastroenterologist wanted. This was not the end of the journey by far, but a beginning into a whole new journey into the medical abyss known as hospitalization.
To be continued in part 4.... https://steemit.com/life/@sabrin514/slipping-through-the-cracks-in-the-world-of-fast-food-healthcare-part-4