http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7014616#7036102
Oh my.
The worthless freeloading bum wily primitive, father of so many taxpayer-raised childen by so many different mothers.....
Wiley50 (1000+ posts) Sat Nov-14-09 12:43 PM
Original message
I am not asking for medical advice. I'm asking for advice saving the careers of two kind dedicated medical professionals who are trying to save my life
A gastrointestinal nurse practitioner and my primary care physician who
also handles my pain management.
I was a carpet layer for 25 years. Carpet layers work with very sharp double edged razor knives and we worked very fast, as we worked sub-contract. Someone got cut every day , in varying degrees of seriousness and we always had open cuts on on our hands. When someone got cut badly, he took off to get sewn up while the other stayed behind to clean up the blood because if we didn't we not only didn't get paid for the job but we also had to pay for the carpet.
These were the days when no one had ever heard of Hepatitis C and didn't carry rubber gloves. We cleaned up the blood bare handed. Somewhere along the way one of those helpers was infected and in cleaning up his blood, I was infected too.
I was diagnosed in 2001. I had my first liver biopsy then. There are four stages of Hep C. The fourth is cirrhosis and when you get there ,there is nothing they can do for you but find a good hospice. In 2001, I tested 2 and they weren't too worried. It turns out I have the easiest form of Hep C to cure , if, and that's the big if, you can handle 6 months of peg-interferon-ribovirin treatment.
The first 6 weeks of therapy aren't so bad, some body aches and chills, kinda like the flu. Then it hits and hits hard. The first day you throw up everything in your system. From there on out it's dry heaves, day and night. You can't eat or sleep (for fear of aspirating stomach acid cause that's all that's down there. Nothing most states let doctors prescribe works to stop the vomiting. I lasted 9 days after the vomiting set in and then I hit the Emergency Room. Only 13 states allow a doctor to prescribe the only thing that works: Marijuana. Unfortunately, mine isn't one of them. Complicating matters, I'm on SSI disability and Medicaid. I can't go anywhere where I can be treated properly.
Two months ago, I had my second liver biopsy. This time I'm Stage 3. Either I find a way to handle the interferon or I have 6-8 years to live. I am 54.
I have a good nurse practitioner. She tried to get me Marinol, but in this state Medicaid won't pay for it except for cancer. To pay out of pocket is $400/month and my income from SSI is $628/mo. Scratch that.
Also I'm a pain management patient subject to regular drug screens.
Luckily, my doctor agreed to suspend the drug screens for the 6 months I'm on interferon.
Here's the catch. I've had a catheter in me since Oct 15. Two Fridays ago ,on exploratory, they found a bunch of big bladder stones. Yesterday they were supposed to bust them up with a laser and flush them out. So I checked into the hospital and they took a urine sample, easy to do through catheter. Two hours later the nurse came in and told me the doctor refused to operate because I tested positive for pot. (just a sample joint some 19 year old dealer gave me and it was not at all medical grade. The urologist is a crabby old bastard but very few here will take medicaid. So I'm still pissing in a bag and don't know what to do.
I'd love to tell the urologist the whole story but he's just the type who might turn the primary care doctor and the nurse practitioner into the medical board or even the cops. As good as they've been to me, I would never do that.
I'm in a real dilemma and I want this damn tube out. Anyone have any ideas?
Suck on the tube, worthless freeloading bum wily primitive.
The cyanide primitive:
cynatnite (1000+ posts) Sat Nov-14-09 12:47 PM
Response to Original message
1. Can you get a referral for another more compassionate urologist...
I'm so sorry for all your heartache and I wish there was something I could do.
Wiley50 (1000+ posts) Sat Nov-14-09 01:15 PM
Response to Reply #1
8. Few will take Medicaid. Finding one is the problem
create.peace (1000+ posts) Sat Nov-14-09 12:51 PM
Response to Original message
2. is moving to another state an option?
Wiley50 (1000+ posts) Sat Nov-14-09 01:17 PM
Response to Reply #2
9. No Money. $628/mo SSI Medicaid won't move me out of here
Vincardog (1000+ posts) Sat Nov-14-09 12:52 PM
Response to Original message
3. Stay clean for 2 weeks and ask to be tested again. Tell Dr. Quack that you went to a concert and mus have got into some "second hand smoke".
Wiley50 (1000+ posts) Sat Nov-14-09 01:21 PM
Response to Reply #3
11. That old bastard would never believe it
Chan790 (1000+ posts) Sat Nov-14-09 12:55 PM
Response to Original message
4. Unless I'm misunderstanding...you do have a script for Marinol which was never filled.
Ask the original Dr. to write you a shorter script, for as needed...3 days or something. (The out-of-pocket hit would still be there but be closer to $40 than $400) The Marinol would cause a "false positive" and you'd be able to avoid the issues with the urologist.
You're already approved for the medication...you're just seeking a more manageable solution for filling the script. You're not drug-seeking.
Wiley50 (1000+ posts) Sat Nov-14-09 01:20 PM
Response to Reply #4
10. No. Medicaid wouldn't grant a "prior approval" I have no prescription
CaliforniaPeggy (1000+ posts) Sat Nov-14-09 01:06 PM
Response to Original message
7. How I wish I could help!
All I have are these:
I hope with all my heart that someone here can help you...
The California piggy primitive has a really big house, almost a mansion.....
Wiley50 (1000+ posts) Sat Nov-14-09 01:28 PM
Response to Reply #7
12. Thanks Peggy Can I come live with you for 6 months?
No answer from the California piggy primitive.
renate (1000+ posts) Sat Nov-14-09 02:05 PM
Response to Original message
19. k&r to help keep this on the radar
I'm so sorry.
Can the doctor really refuse, on medical grounds, to carry out a procedure that has nothing to do with whether or not you've been smoking pot? You may be able to contact the hospital ombudsman or hospital social worker, explain your situation to someone whose job it is to actually listen, and (gently and politely) explore the possibility that the doctor is behaving unethically.
Can an ER physician refuse to treat somebody who's been in an accident after driving drunk? No. He can't even refuse to treat someone who's hurt other people as a result of driving drunk, no matter what his personal opinions on driving drunk might be. So on what conceivable grounds, other than assholery, can the doctor refuse to treat you?
Wiley50 (1000+ posts) Sat Nov-14-09 03:48 PM
Response to Reply #19
23. The Name of the Hospital says it all. It's BAPTIST HOSPITAL
A good pal of the worthless freeloading bum wily primitive:
nashville_brook (1000+ posts) Sat Nov-14-09 05:15 PM
Response to Original message
25. since when do docs refuse to provide potentially life-saving treatment based on a secret piss test?
since when is pot use any of their ******* business. i ****ing hate doctors, i really do. i've had experiences that are almost as bad as this -- well, yeah, as bad or worse. and, i get it about the medicaid problem. you've got the worst of the worst in that pool of docs.
do you have a tip jar or a PayPal where we can send money (would that even help?) -- i'd gladly pitch in for the Marinol to follow Chan's idea. Or whatever. and yes, Baptist sucks. St Thomas isn't much better...but it was better in my experience than Baptist.
What if you go in to the ER in a crisis with the stones? would that bypass the crappy doc situation?
Wiley50 (1000+ posts) Sat Nov-14-09 06:40 PM
Response to Reply #25
26. Thank You Brook
I just got off the phone with my primary care doctor who also does my pain management. He understands about my Hep C and needing something that will keep me from throwing up. Even though, as my pain Doctor who usually does drug screens, he has secretly agreed to not do drug screens on me for the 6 months I'll be on interferon. He's a real friend as well as my doctor.
He was obviously upset about my surgery being canceled yesterday.
He said, unless I start having great pain (in that case call an ambulance) come in as early as possible Monday morning and he'll try to find me a urologist at Summit Hospital (the one I prefer). I just hung a florescent light above my bed and noticed that the bottom 6 inches of the tube going into the bag is clogged with a pasty calcium goo. Intermittently my bladder feels very full and I have pain. If I have solid pain I'll call an ambulance, if not I'll wait until Monday morning.
I always need money being on SSI and will need a lot to pay for the herbs I'll need for 6 months on interferon so if it's not against the rules my paypal is my email: wiley54@hotmail .com But I'm not soliciting donations, its up to you since you offered. My Gastrointestinal nurse-practicioner is in on the secret as well as my dr. Just the three of us.
**********SUBWAY CAT ALERT!**********
undergroundpanther (1000+ posts) Sun Nov-15-09 01:56 PM
Response to Reply #27
34. wiley,wish I could do something..
This quote from Nashville Brook says it all!
"something that people need to understand with the entire health care situation is that between the insurance problems (or inability to pay), and the war on drugs, people who are seriously sick and in pain are treated like criminals. and it's the worst thing in the world that can happen to you -- right when you need support the most, someone is invading your body chemistry to determine if you're moral enough to deserve medical treatment. god, it's a difficult, unfair world we live in."
Question is how do we get selfish comfortable people that don't care to care?
Add mental health issues to the mix and you get treated worse than shit.People supposed to help are so sure I must be an addict,when I am not.They gave me tylenol for neuropathy pain ! I just whimpered and writhed as I waited for hours for no help with the pain. They sent me home telling me to take tylenol. When I left I could barely walk.
Another time I was injured by falling down a flight of 12 stairs. The EMT's put me in a collar and strapped me to a board for transport..After I was off the ambulance,in triage I told the nurses restraints trigger me and to please take them off ASAP. But did they listen? No because I have PSTD they just kept me tied down. If you come in with a psych history,even when the problem has nothing to do with your psych history,they'll treat you like a rabid dog. Never mind I had a neck collar on and was in a lot of pain, and warned them the restraints were freaking me out...nooo I had to totally lose it before they bothered to take the restraints off.I have PSTD and medical assistance so they can justify all sorts of neglect and cruelty to themselves.
I hope that dickhead urologist gets kidney stones and no one helps him.
Why are there so many assholes in "caring professions"? Or do I run into the assholes because of having medical assistance?
Wiley50 (1000+ posts) Sun Nov-15-09 01:28 PM
Response to Original message
33. It's Sunday Morning and National Guard Fighters are doing fly bys over me every 3 minutes
I slept well.60 mg of morphine and 10mg of valium tends to guarantee that. But I was up until 3 am trying to clean the silt out of te catheter in a very unorthodox way:
I cut off the straight part at the bottom of a wire coat hanger, washed it well with antibacterial dish soap, wiped it down with isopropal alcohol, let it air dry so it wouldn't burn, coated it with Bacitracin with pain relief, and fed it up through the valve at the bottom of the catheter bag all the way to the flared out part at the top of the bag where it becomes the tube ( getting it through the flap thingy was the hardest part) and stirred up the silt in the flared out part (which let a lot of urine through giving me a lot of relief.
From there the tube was too narrow to go any farther as it was just packing the silt tighter into the tube so I stopped there. But, it really let a lot of urine and back pressure out and off. Then I took my bedtime pills and that was the last thing I remember.
This morning there was only about an inch of urine in the bottom of te bag, but after a couple of cups of coffee it started filling and I felt well enough to bake a pear cobbler. It's in the oven (a toaster oven, this is a sailboat after all.)
I think I'll be able to survive until 8 tomorrow morning when I'll be at my primary care doctor's office when his office girls can find me a new urologist and hospital.
I have bearable pains every now and then but they go away in a few minutes. I swear, I've never rubbed myself down there so much and it didn't feel good.
Wiley50 (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-17-09 12:20 PM
Response to Original message
35. UPDATE TUESDAY MORNING
My primary care doctor sure was pissed (probably the wrong word) when he saw the catheter almost totally silted up, barely anything flowing. His girls are trying to find me a new urologist.
I've been up since 2 am doing the coat hanger treatment and working my way through a 12 pack. Switching to coffee now both of which make me piss like a horse, flushing out white flecks of silt and the occasional large one with blood in it.
My primary care doctor did a piss test too, but not the drug screen this time. 5 minutes later he came back in to tell me I had a serious urinary infection. Funny the urologist didn't find the infection, only the pot I smoked 3 weeks ago.
He prescribed Cipro. Remember Cipro? That was the drug Cheney put everyone at the White House on a week before the Anthrax Attacks that only got sent to the Bush administration's enemies, Dan Rather, a couple of senators who were about to kill the Patriot Act. Killed a few people including a writer for the National Enquirer who had just done a derogatory story on Bush's daughters.
They never found out who did it.
CIPRO!
Doug's really stupid ex-wife:
EFerrari (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-17-09 01:06 PM
Response to Reply #35
38. Can't you lodge a complaint against Dr. Hack Urologist who is obviously trying to dump you as a patient? If he didn't "find" the infection, I mean?
Wiley50 (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-17-09 03:17 PM
Response to Reply #38
39. Well Beth, If I sued him it would involve the primary care and gastrointestinal nurse-practicioner
Doing that in a state that doesn't have MM laws would ruin their careers.
They have been good and loyal to me and I'm gonna do the same for them.
But I sure wish I could sue the old fart
But I just can't. It would ruin not just their careers but also my treatment, treatment that could save my life.
Wiley50 (1000+ posts) Tue Nov-17-09 07:40 PM
Response to Original message
42. Just Had The Most Wonderful Phone conversation with my Primary Care Doctor.
Wish I could tell it all here but, it's much too public. Suffice to say that I was told I didn't have to worry about urine drug screens from now at least until I finish the therapy and probably as long as he's my doctor. I had asked if he had to turn in positive results to anyone and be forced to discharge me as a patient. His answer: " No, my records are my records and they are completely private and the results are between us only. Boy, having your primary care doctor do your pain management is MUCH BETTER than having to go to a Tennessee Pain Clinic!
I had left word for him to call me ( he ALWAYS does) to tell him that 3 doses of Cipro, Lots of liquids and some helping clear my catheter by greasing it with antibiotic ointment. holding it firmly as high as possible so it doesn't pull out completely and with the other hand pinch it as high as possible between my thumbnail and forefinger and slowly sliding it all the way to the bag, pushing the sediment ahead of it into the bag where lots of liquids flush it on out. I have been doing that several times a day and the urine in the tube is almost clear.
I was so happy, I smoked my last bowl ( just ordinary everyday but fairly good bud.
Now all I need is a six month source of med grade bud at a price I can afford. It's harvest season so it shouldn't be too hard. (Hint Hint)
Yeah, yeah.