Medical bias post-op

[mousecat88 2,279]

Let me tell you a tale. lol.

9/21/19 - I wake up and immediately experience sharp, stabbing pain in my abdomen. It extends from my stomach down in a straight line. Soon after, I develop severe muscle soreness in my back. The pain is superficial; clearly muscular. It is tender to the touch. I decide MAYBE it is related to the gastric so I spend a few hours trying to go about my day. By 3PM I decide I need to go to the ER.

I go to the closest ER to where I am. After 5 hours, they tell me they can't treat me because I complained of abdominal pain and they "don't treat bariatric patients". They have me transferred to the hospital that did my gastric bypass. - Cue $150 copay for no reason.

9/21/19 - Different ER. I get several doses of Dilaudid, to no effect. They do a CT scan and see my pouch and organs all look fine. Again, I express I have severe BACK pain and superficial abdominal pain. They call the bariatric surgeon on-call (not my surgeon) who says it's an ulcer. They do no diagnostics to confirm it's an ulcer. They discharge me with $100 in ulcer medicine and "a shot of Dilaudid to get me to my bed, at least". Cue 100$ in meds and $150 copay.

9/23/19 - I call my bariatric office and they fit me in as an emergency visit. The NP says it's definitely not an ulcer. DUH. He orders a back xray and abdominal xray. He prescribes me prescription NSAIDs and says to keep taking the ulcer medicine "anyways". Cue $50 copay.

9/24/19 - The bariatric office says no one is around to read my xrays. I have to sick my mother on them. LOL. They call me back immediately and say "they don't know what's wrong" and I could schedule an endoscopy to rule out bariatric issues. I tell them that is idiotic because I already have all the ulcer medicine. They agree.

9/25/19 - I attempt to go to work. I end up bursting into tears from the back pain. My PCP fits me in in the afternoon. She looks at my xrays and says I have degenerative disc disease from osteoarthritis and a thoracic hairline fracture, which may be more noticeable in an xray performed a week out from the injury. I do not need ulcer medicine. She sends me for a back brace, prescribes a strong muscle relaxer, and prednisone.

9/27/19 - I am back at work with no abdominal pain, but still excruciating back pain. I notice I have a gigantic red bruise straight down my spine and numerous purple bruises. No one has even looked at my back until I did this morning, so no doctor has even seen this. I call my PCP just to give her a status update. She is, of course, out of the office today. I continue to be in pain. BACK. PAIN.

It is concluded that I likely injured myself with weight lifting at the gym on the 20th. None of this is bariatric-related, and I was pigeon-holed into a diagnosis without ANY diagnostics being completed because I happened to mention associated abdominal pain which was MUSCULAR but since I said "abdomen" no one wanted to touch me with a 10 foot pole because I am a bypass patient.

I spent $500 for literally no reason, and had multiple hospitals and practitioners insist this was somehow bariatric related despite nothing lining up with any bariatric issue. Completely absurd. I should have insisted other diagnostics but I was in SO much pain for this past week, I wasn't even in the mindframe to argue. At first I thought MAYBE this was some freak ulcer thing, despite having ulcers before and knowing this ain't it.

Anyways, I guess this is something to look out for in the future - that any remote mention of abdominal pain will trigger a complete shutdown of all common sense from medical providers that, hey, this isn't necessarily because this patient had gastric bypass and COULD be a f**king SPINAL FRACTURE.

[ProudGrammy 8,322]

40 minutes ago, mousecat88 said:

mention of abdominal pain will trigger a complete shutdown of all common sense from medical providers that, hey, this isn't necessarily because this patient had gastric bypass

@mousecat88

hey bud

OMG - you had quite the busy week!!!/year/life!!!!

If it wasn't for bad luck - you'd have no luck at all!!

I remember as a newbie you had a lot of problems, had to stay in hospital tooo long,🙁

more problems over the year - now this too!!! - no more no more!!

hope things get straightened out sooner than later, and you feel as good as you look

love the comment about calling your mom for reinforcements!!!!

take care my friend

kathy

GOAL REACHED - CONGRATS @mousecat88

[Serengirl 176]

It really bad how Drs dont listen to patients and basically at times i feel like I know more than the Drs I see. Always fight to be heard and you know your body. Dont let them Poo poo your intuition and pain and just shrug it off. Its shouldn't be a battle but it often is and the squeaky wheel get the grease. I hope you feel better soon.

[Lynda486 783]

Poor Mousecat!

I am so sorry to hear you are going through this. I have a "bad back" and I understand the pain, it is awful. I hope you feel better soon. Use heat and ice ( I prefer ice it works better) take care!

[elcee 3,340]

It does sound like you were given the run around. Maybe your first port of call should have been your PCP as it sounds as though she is the one that eventually figured it out anyway

[New&Improved 1,780]

Is this a pre existing issue or is it related to Vitamin deficiency post op

[rs 1,473]

Oh gosh, I'm enraged just reading this. You are so strong to have persevered through all that crap. So impressive. Here's wishing you a speedy recovery from this point forward!

[Bastian 458]

ugh as a back pain sufferer I totally get your frustration at no one listening.

I was in agony with my back post op but everyone thinks because you can still move it is 'nothing'.

I too have degenerative disc disease, arthritis and 3 ruptured discs, and it is no fun! So ridiculous that no one even ran a finger down your spine to see if you had any tender spots!

[mousecat88 2,279]

Is this a pre existing issue or is it related to Vitamin deficiency post op

Neither. I injured myself weight-lifting. I hadn't lifted for 3 weeks since my skin removal and went a bit too hard on my first day back. I have arthritis so I have some arthritic changes in my back from over the years, but nothing that would randomly cause this except trauma (like a sports injury aka me being dumb at the gym). I told ALL the doctors I did circuit training and weight lifting and they all ignored that bit.

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[mousecat88 2,279]

bruises running down my spine I noticed just yesterday. no doctor had even looked at my back. I told my PCP yesterday i was still in a lot of pain and she said to go back to the ER. um, no. i am so disaffected by my medical care this past week. i am taking some leftover meloxicam and tramadol, as needed, and the prednisone and i will persevere without any more BS.

it is a *bit* better, i think. or it could be the prednisone helping. i have a short window in the mornings where it doesnt hurt so bad i can function. i missed almost all week of work last week so I can't do that again.

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[Frustr8 7,886]

Lord A Mercy, they are mean to you, my 🐭🐺 Down in Mountaineer- land, do you NEED me to come thrash them within a inch of their lives? Got Time, OSU doesn't play until 7:30 pm tonight, suspect Nebraska is plotting to Not Extend the Welcome Wagons at Memorial Stadium. Watching the Northwestern- Wisconsin game , it's W7- NW3 and I suspect Pat Fitzgerald is not having a Quiet Nervous Breakdown on the sidelines. Funny, I did used to watch Rutgers on National TV, now they have joined the Big10 they seem to have lost themselves. All the years of watching, it recently finally sunk in that they ARE the State University of New Jersey, never registered before! Hey that spinal bruising is WEIRD- anybody come up with an answer for THAT? Looks almost like somebody snapped you with a metal ruler all the way down! Be sure to fill me and the others in on the Next Chapter.📝

[mousecat88 2,279]

Had an emergency MRI done. Turned out the stress fracture was actually a thoracic disc herniation. I sent a scathing letter to the hospital administrator about my experience, but I don't expect anything to come of it.