This is post 600 for this blog. After 6 years, that would amount to around 100 posts a year. I guess I'm not as much a negligent blogger as I had imagined myself. That's one way to look at it. The other is to understand that I have whined for almost a third of the year for the past 6 years...sobering. But the intention of this blog is to dump here so I'm not constantly expressing these feelings to everyone around me. Still, that's a lot of whining.
I saw Dr. S yesterday. It was pretty much a dash through office visit. One of the beauties of taking the last appointment of the day is that everyone is wanting to get done and go home. Unfortunately D. from the cardiology office called as I was being called in for blood work. Dr. S after listening to the medical mayhem that the past 5 months have been, was willing to let things play out. He said that my B12 level in December was 1330 and wondered about the diagnosis. A month later it was 201. How does that happen? He agreed with the cyanocobalamin shots and the aspirin therapy, and explained that many people develop hypercoagulable states after cancer treatments. Besides that brief interaction he rushed me out and wants to see me in 6 months. Six is beginning to be a theme here. I was relieved that he didn't want to follow anything up. I'm done, really done with medical testing.
After leaving Dr. S's office I called D back to find out what was going on. She just wanted to convey the same information that I got from L when I called in about my appointment with Dr. K. They want me to keep my appointment on the 26th and the EP who will be in the office then will see me if L thinks it's necessary....schreech....um, I want to be followed by an EP, not an RN no matter how well I like the RN or how well she knows my history. I also want a dedicated EP, not to see whomever is in house when I'm at my appointment. I signed up to a practice, not a clinic. I have a congenital heart condition and hypertension and I'm a cancer survivor who was given cardio toxic drugs and radiation to the left chest wall...I think I need a doctor. But discussing this with D would have been moot, so I asked who was going to be in the office on the 26th. She told me Dr. W would be. When I told her that I hadn't heard of him before, she said that he is new to the practice. Yeah, this wasn't giving me that warm, fuzzy "Valued Patient, We're here to help you - and your heart - stay healthy for years to come" feeling. So I Googled Dr. W. He actually looks pretty good. He's been in practice for 14 years, not a fresh off the the campus newbie by any means. No malpractice suits, no disciplinary actions, board certified, went to the Big Medical University that Coke built all the way through his fellowship. i guess that's good. Then he taught and practiced there...hmmm, I wonder what made him recently jump ship and go to Heartbreaker Hill? He looks pretty good, but everything published by him is about Afib, nothing about Vfib at all. Unlike Dr. K he hasn't participated or published in anything about LQTS. And how much does he know about the late effects of chemotherapy and radiation on the heart? Is he really going to look at a months worth of ECG data to be ready to discuss it with me when he will being seeing a day full of new patients? If we follow up on the telemetry results will there be time for him to answer my questions regarding how knowledgeable he is about my situation. He looks pleasant enough but his ratings on communications and bedside manner were only so-so. Will he even be interested in addressing my concerns? I'll give it one appointment, but I just am not liking the way this seems to be washing out.
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