We need help!

[redirish28]

I'm afraid to post anything on this forum since no matter what it is not respected but my wife and I are in corner and we could use advise:


Facts: Yes, my wife is over-weight. Yes, she hasn't been to a doctor in years because her last experience with a doctor was a terrible experience for her add to that she has had jobs with no insurance or if she did like now we can't find a doctor to take the insurance. She has called the insurance provider and explained the problems but still gets no where. Finally found a doctor who takes the insurance and saw him today has lead us to to come here.


Back Ground:

All last week wife has had shortness of breath and a couple days was extremely dizzy as well. She didn't go to work all week and well, we argued about going to a hospital or wait till she saw the doctor which she had an appointment for today. (This would be her first appointment with the doctor after trying about 1 year to find a doctor in our town)

Friday--She's really bad. I take her to near by city hospital (we don't to the hospital in our town anymore since you are treated like a drug seeker no matter the problem you have and terrible service. for the most part.) We take her to the hospital we are their for 6 hours they run blood test, chest x-ray, ekg, and even did a cat scan when one test showed an unusual amount of D-tyme(I think that was what it was called.) for fear she might have a blood clot in the lung. Everything came back fine. Told us to come back if she had any other problems. Discharge papers showed they could not find a cause for the shortness of breath and suggested it could be anxiety.

Saturday-- still having shortness of breath but we are saying if they didn't find anything than just wait till she sees the doctor on Tuesday.

Sunday-- She is really bad and she feels worse than Friday. Drives herself up to our local hospital and actually was seen by a very good doctor in the hospital (GAWD I wish this woman had a practice I'd do whatever it take to see my wife was treated by this woman. Again they did blood test chest x-ray EKG heart monitor. Doctor is really concerned tells my wife it is lung disease and her weight could be a factor in it. She was very professional and didn't make my wife feel worse than what she already did. Calls the doctor who is suppose to be her PCP because she wanted her in for a lung test soon. 4 hours later releases my wife. Wife wanted to go into work but ER doctor said no and said she could return to work Tuesday after she saw her PCP.

ER doctor even called Monday to check on my wife.

Tuesday-- Wife goes to see her new PCP. Goes in early to do any paper work. Doctor comes in weights her. take her blood pressure tells her to loose weight. gives her two scripts. One for an increase dose of a water pill the ER script (from 25 - 50mg) and gives her a script for potassium pill. She tried to ask why that pill and he just said yeah, potassium pill. She asked him what about her breathing problem. Loose weight was the repeat answer.
Never listened to her heart or lungs. Never talked to her about the shortness of breath what really happened or even seemed interested.

Never even talked to her about the results of the test. He got that paper. His back to her most of the time. Said she could go back to work.

I told my wife we are looking for a new doctor for her.

I'm just pissed that this happened. She is still having problems breathing. She finally took a couple of an inhaler she had from her last run with Bronchitis 3 weeks ago.

Should we give the doctor one more chance or should I take her to the ER if she has a problem and in the meantime save up $200 my doctor wants to establish her as a patient.

[w8liftinglady]

1. Respiratory distress is always an emergency.

sometimes it takes more tests to discover the source..I know the spiel-I had doctors try to blame every symptom on my weight,too.
1-if there is a county or teaching hospital-take her there.Insist she have a complete work-up,and explain that her health is at risk,and she needs to be observed-at least overnight.Insurance or not-they are OBLIGATED to treat a life-threatening illness...respiratory distress is a life-threatening illness.
2-I'm no doctor(just a nurse),but she needs to be on some kind of blood thinner prophylactically...you can try a baby aspirin until she gets back to the ER.
Here is info you can bring with you when you go back...hold your head high-we all took oaths to treat the sick-regardless of any other condition(money,drugs,disease,lifestyle)
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/pulmonary-embolism/DS00429

[mopinko]

2. pisses me off for them to just say- loose weight.

might as well say- breathe less. ferchrissakes, it ain't that easy.

as far as the doc, i had a little situation that taught me something recently.
my youngest has chron's disease. she sees a gi doc at the fabulous children's hospital here. she has had some pain problems, as well as some other stuff. her ped said she should see a rheumie. i talk to the gi, and say, which one should we see. "just not dr mc*^%" was the answer. so i call to make the appt. we are talking a 3 month wait. the first available appt is with....... dr mc*^%.
which is to say, there is a mechanism here for the availability of docs, and it ain't pretty. dump this bottom feeder. get her in to see your doc. or call the er doc, since she was so nice, and ask her for help.

good luck. life with the medical industrial complex is sometimes only bearable by constantly remembering the alternative.

[Altoid_Cyclist]

3. I have no medical background other than my wife & I both have had serious heart ailments.

I might have missed it, but have they done an Echocardiogram? That would give a pretty good indication of many heart related causes.

It might not provide an answer, but it could rule out some things.

Sending best wishes your way since I know what you're going through.

It shouldn't be like this in this country, but see if the providers will allow you to just pay a tiny bit each month. That's the only reason that we still have a house to live in because we can't afford to pay all of our medical bills off. If they get too pushy, we just tell them that their share each month will reduced to $1.00.

Peace and best wishes to both of you.

I just noticed where you live. If your wife does need to see a Cardiologist, Dr. Conrad Smith @ the UPMC Cardio Vascular Institute in Pittsburgh is outstanding and the whole staff there will talk to you and not at you. Everyone there treats you with respect and really listens to any questions. I was just there yesterday and they go out of their way to help their patients.

He was able to help a friend of ours after the local Altoona Cardiologist (the same one that I go to) sent him home to die. That was about two years ago and he's still doing well.

[Warpy]

4. Realize that people in corporate medicine are overworked

and rushed. While that Dr. Welby fantasy is what we all wish we could find, most of us are not going to be able to these days. He went out when the MBA guys looking at the bottom line came in.

Don't be so hard on the docs, in other words.

It sounds like the main thing they found is some mild left sided congestive heart failure. That sounds scary, but it just means her weight really is the issue and that it's overburdened her heart and fluid is backing up into her lungs, causing her shortness of breath.

The water pill is to dry her out and that will reduce the amount of fluid in her lungs and she'll feel a lot better. The water pill also flushes potassium out and that's why she needed a potassium pill with it, to replace it.

"Lose weight" is a great prescription but it's a lot easier said than done, as too many of us know. It's usually just not going to happen, and if it does, it all comes back. Until we have a cure for obesity, the water pill and potassium will help control the symptoms she's having.

That's the explanation you'd have gotten if the medical people you've been in contact with hadn't been rushed past caring.