Healthcare — Page 7

Surgery Day Has Been Canceled

June 2, 2011

Today was my last-ditch appointment with my ENT before my scheduled pre-op on Tuesday. To say things went great would be the understatement of 2011. I’d like to celebrate with another one of those Pink’s hot dogs.

He started off by asking me how my symptoms have been and I had to admit that, though I have a headache nearly every day still, they are not debilitating like they were before Christmas. It’s definitely controllable with my Ultram and I’m very able to function with that, even more so than I was with Vicodin, as that at least made me a bit sleepy and has a distinctly more narcotic effect. He reminded me that the surgery he had scheduled was going to have a “prolonged recovery” compared to the one in January, too.

So, up my nose he went (after numbing, of course) to take a closer look at how things had been since I got the PARI Sinus (note I didn’t say SinusStar) and vancomycin to see how that took care of my infection. Last time, he immediately mentioned a polyp. This time, he went in both sides twice with no mention, so I asked, “how’s the polyp look?” “I don’t see one,” he replied. He checked his dictation notes from my last visit and saw the mention of a polyp, but let me know it was gone!

He kept saying how great things looked, too. I had quite a bit of crusting, and the smell burst forth as he dislodged one. Both sides were pretty crusty, even by my standards, but he insisted that my tissue was looking much healthier and he wasn’t at all enthusiastic about operating on me in this condition.

We decided then and there to cancel surgery and keep me on a 3-week on, 3-week off schedule of vancomycin and go back in a month to see if things have improved even more.

In an effort to shame Tampa General Hospital (TGH), they have instituted a campus-wide “no free valet parking” for patients. What was once a pleasure to be treated with such respect as a patient who was often there 2, 3, 4 times per month, we now have the privilege of being charged $5 to use valet or $3 to park in the garage and walk to the building through the hot, muggy Florida air. Thanks a lot, suits. You suck. Needless to say, the valet did not get a tip from me, as they usually do.

To Operate or Not to Operate? THAT Is the Question

May 19, 2011

We’ve both been eagerly anticipating my sinus appointment today for a couple of weeks now. It’s been almost 7 weeks since my last appointment with Dr. Tabor when we scheduled my surgery for June 13th. I’ve been on vancomycin for over a month using the pulsating Pari Sinus machine that precious few people have. On a side note, that device is a dream, and I’ll be writing up something about it very soon.

We scheduled the visit today to determine if the abx were working enough to avoid major surgery. He’s not entirely certain that operating will relieve my headaches, but is “willing to give it a try.” I have to chuckle at that as a services professional myself. Of course, it will help some, but it might not be an all-in-one relief. I know what he means, which is why I am willing to go for it, but not if we see clear improvement with meds.

Interesting phenonmenon

Then something interesting happened when I was in Chicago for 4 days: I didn’t have a single headache, at least until the last morning… but that may have a pretty traceable cause. I was talking to Sue one day after I got back and told her about that strange lack of head pain and she immediately said, “allergies.” There seems to be enough of a reason to believe that our location here in piney, grassy North Tampa has been causing my extreme headaches due to allergies. We will soon see if that theory holds true as we head to So Cal on Tuesday for a week. If I don’t have any headaches for a week, we’ll have to figure out an allergy-related cure to my pain.

Back to the appointment. Yesterday morning while I was still doing my treatments, I got a call from a blocked number. It was the doctor’s office saying that won’t be in clinic [today] and will take my pre-op appointment on the first Tuesday in June as a appointment before sending me over for labs for surgery. First, I was really, really mad that after weeks of waiting, he tells me the day before my last chance to get sucked out before vacation that I can’t see him. I called the scheduling nurse and left a message to call me back if I could be seen Friday or Monday after his surgery time.

She called back in the afternoon, but I was on a call with a client, so Beautiful took the call for me (Thanks, Babe! Having you around is awesome!) and told me that he had already left down for a family emergency and would be back in time for surgery Monday, but would be operating all day. Alright, at least it was an emergency, so now I don’t feel bad about it, because I was fuming earlier that I could have gone any day this week or last week and been better off. We were even debating calling Dr. Seper to see if I could slip in for a sucking since it wasn’t really my decision to switch doctors as much as it was clinic’s choice to work with a doctor out of their hospital. I don’t think it’s necessary, given how much work I have to do before we leave, but maybe Monday would be a good shot in the dark.

So, all of that said and done, we are thinking we should call scheduling and cancel the surgery because we were supposed to have an opportunity to inspect my progress on abx. If we decide I still need to go under the Black and Decker, then we can do it as soon as he has an opening because I don’t have any travel plans for the rest of summer.

What would you do in my situation?

Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) for CF

April 25, 2011

Today’s guest post on a technique called osteopathic manipulative treatment is brought to us by Jill Roberts. She is a UF alumni just up the road from me, now living in Oklahoma. We “met” on Facebook via the CF connection many of us have as mutual friends and she told me about osteopathic manipulative treatment this week. I was intrigued, so I asked her some questions I had and offered her a guest post. I asked my doctor about it and he didn’t have any info on it for CF, but he didn’t warn me to not give it a try. Ask your doctors at clinic and check it out if you’re interested. That’s how it happens, so I hope you enjoy the topic as much as I did.

Recently, a friend of mine was devastated because the OB-GYN who delivered her first child was now considered out of network and she couldn’t continue to go to him for her second pregnancy. She was frantically trying to find a new physician as she was 3 months pregnant. Another friend said, “Do you want to go to a MD or a DO (osteopathic physician)?” She said, “I would really prefer a MD as I have never been to a DO.” I quickly pointed out to her that the physician that she was crying over was in fact, a DO. Most people do not know the difference between a MD and a DO. The fact is that both DOs and MDs are fully qualified physicians licensed to prescribe medication and perform surgery. Where a DO differs from an MD is that DOs “combine today’s medical technology with their ears to listen caringly to their patients, with their eyes to see their patients as whole persons, and with their hands to diagnose and treat patients for injury and illness.”

OMT and my experience with it

I have CF and had a double lung transplant in 1997. When my health started to decline, I was hospitalized a lot for “tune-ups.” The CF center I went to was a teaching hospital for a large medical school. I grew up with MD physicians, residents, and student doctors. One time when I was hospitalized, an osteopathic resident was doing his pediatric rotation at the Children’s Hospital. He was the lone DO among a whole bunch of MDs. He developed a special interest in me and he asked my mom if she would be willing to let him try OMT (osteopathic manipulative treatment) on me. She agreed and he snuck me into a treatment room. [Read more…]

Sick and Tired – CFers Down!

April 20, 2011

I think 80% of my CFer friends have been working too hard, stressing out too much, or hanging out with the “sick crowd” this spring. It seems like every time I look at Twitter or Facebook, someone is going to the hospital, getting IVs, or wiped out and laying in bed.

It appears that my transparency about compliance yesterday resounded with quite a few of you who are busy. Starting my treatments back up has started a plan to not work until after lunch because getting my treatments done around 11am and then working for an hour before lunch is really no way to go about your day, so I’m using the mornings to completely take care of myself. Relaxing and doing my crap.

Doing night treatments are as big of a pain because we usually watch TV, which we can do while I do my Trio and Altera stuff, but it’s out of the question when I’m doing my Vest, although Beautiful can watch shows while I do my sinus neb if she is up by the TV.

I’ve got one more episode of Lost to go before I jump back into “24” Season 2. Everyone said to ditch Heroes after Season 2, so I can wait before finishing that season if it’s going to be my last. If ALL of my friends say it stinks after that, I have to question those who watched it until the end… maybe those are the ones not to take TV and movie advice from, eh?

So, that’s what I’ve done to completely rearrange my life to get/stay healthy. I feel a little better now, but I still feel junky in the morning. What steps are you going to take to both have a life and keep your life?