If I Went To Med School, Maybe I’d Get This.
December 19th, 2006 by Kevin
I was put back on the full dosage of the medication that was making me feel worse before because I’m still passing out.
I would like very much to gain entrance into the universe in which this makes sense, just for a few minutes, just so I can understand this for a moment so as to avoid going completely fucking insane.
If the medication (medication that has not thus far been working) doesn’t start working by the date of my next cardiologist appointment, which is in four weeks, it’s pacemaker time.
I am not allowed to go back on the medication that actually seemed to be helping, for reasons that will not be explained to me by either this cardiologist or the other cardiologist, even though I have asked about ten times. The working medication is a no-no. The shitty, non-working medication is what we are sticking with.
I asked whether it would help if I stopped drinking caffeine and quit smoking and the doctor said (and this is a direct quote):
“Actually, no, because they’re raising your blood pressure.”
Jesus Christ, maybe I should gain some weight, too.
I had suspected as much about the smoking and caffeine and have joked about being authorized to be as unhealthy as I’d like, but I honestly didn’t think any doctor would actually tell me so.
I feel really fucking old sometimes. Sitting there in the cardiologist’s office with all the geriatrics, listening to them talk about Medicare and their fucking pills and their transportation problems and their fatigue their constipation and realizing I’m dealing with a lot most all of the same issues was just as depressing as hell.
I’ll be thirty-three in nine days, and I should not feel this old.
I should not feel this old.
Tallguy wrote on 12/19/06 at 2:12 pm :
Good grief. For all the medical miracles they’ve come up with, sometimes I really think they’d do as well by shaking chicken bones and dancing in circles. Good luck, and our love to you and yours.
dom wrote on 12/19/06 at 2:58 pm :
lots of people have pace-makers. if it’s a cure-all, why are you so scared of it? i would have asked for it the first time my heart made me pass out. problem solved. no?
Michele wrote on 12/19/06 at 4:17 pm :
completly off topic but i thought these were funny and you could use a laugh
http://demotivators.stores.yahoo.net/incompetence.html
Michele wrote on 12/19/06 at 4:18 pm :
i thougt maybe you should buy this one as a holiday gift for your dr. http://demotivators.stores.yahoo.net/incompetence.html
Kungfukitten wrote on 12/20/06 at 12:25 am :
I hear you. Do you have enough money left over from SS to get a second opinion from another heart doctor? You could save some money by getting copies of your medical records and hand delivering them to your new doctor before your second opinion appointment. That way if the second doctor also recommends a pacemaker you’ll be assured it’s the right thing to do. Also, you can ask the same questions you’re asking here: Why did he put me back on this crappy mediction, isn’t there something else or have I tried everything?! You have an “interesting” condition it seems someone may be interested to treat you and write a paper about it! Maybe they wouldn’t charge you. Take care.
Cosmic wrote on 12/20/06 at 9:42 am :
I feel so bad for you. My daughter (turned 33 last month) is going in for a procedure today. They are injecting cortizone into bot places in her back that has the degenerative discs. IF that offers releif, they will do it again. If it is still helping, they will use something more permanant. Pain management is a joke. It manages nothing. All it does for her is keep her on the damn drugs. I hope this helps her. And as for the pacemaker, though it sounds awful, it is really safe and will hopefully help.
Trish wrote on 12/20/06 at 2:15 pm :
What kind of a quack doctor would tell you to keep smoking, and that it is actually helping you.
dataslave wrote on 12/20/06 at 8:21 pm :
I keep telling you- PIZZA! Pizza, beer and cigs- raising blood pressure to unhealthy levels since 1943! Accept no substitutes!
Go for the pacemaker. If you ask, “Why, kind physician, is drug X (working drug) so bad for me that I can’t use it?”, do they cuff you on the back of the head and laugh?
Kimberly wrote on 12/21/06 at 12:25 am :
Call me cyncisist or at the worst a crack pot conspiracy theorist, but is it possible that financial fuckery is afoot and that were you a private paying patient you would get a different and better response? It’s late and I have had way to much redbull to be more articulate than this but you do have the right to refuse a pacemaker and be kept on your old meds. Is it possible they want to fuck you up to the point that you need a pacemaker so that they can use their fancy equipment and thus be able through even the shitty insurance that you have to pay off some of the cost of it….I warned you I would sound like a cynical crackpot but that is my best thought
Kimberly wrote on 12/21/06 at 12:30 am :
and also I am not spelling very well. please forgive. it’s finals time.
Kimberly wrote on 12/21/06 at 6:29 am :
Forgive what I wrote above as it is not very helpful and more the product of the line of thought that regarding the overuse of hospital machinery as an aveune for profit, the insanely high medmal insurance fees for OB?GYns and midwives and trying to devise a way to help the latter defry costs
Smash wrote on 12/21/06 at 9:35 am :
You might suffer the same problems as those in the waiting room but at least you don’t smell of stale piss and sit round discussing how utterly delightful brown interior furnishings are and how the youth of today are all bad mannered glue sniffing drunks. At least, I’m assuming you don’t… Smashxxx
Erika wrote on 12/21/06 at 9:59 am :
I can feel your pain regarding being the youngest in the room. My husband recently had a kidney scare and sitting in the waiting room at the Urologist, we were the youngest by 50 years it seemed. We took Larry’s dad with us to one appt, and the doctor actually mistook him for the patient. I’m so sorry you’re not getting the answers you need and deserve.