Evil stomach VS Gastroenterologist! Who will prevail?

5:54 PM Posted In Edit This 3 Comments »
This morning at had an appointment with a new gastroenterologist. My old one was a doof, a big ol' doofy doof. He apparently liked "open and shut" cases. Way to go for discrimination and being an underachiever. Isn't part of life is to challenge yourself and expand your horizons? What about continuing education? Doctors should continue with their education throughout their career in order to be up to date on the latest and greatest techniques. I think my old gastroenterologist was the dunce of the class. Or maybe he was really smart, too smart for his own good? Who knows, he's not one of my doctors anymore, thank goodness!

Anyway, I was very, very impressed. First of all, they have early morning appointments, like 7:30 AM. I hate waking up early, once I'm awake I'm usually OK, but it's the part of getting out of bed that takes a while. I am not a big fan of the middle of the day appointments because by that point everything is running late. That means I am waiting longer than I should, my appointment time is being cut short, and I usually end up leaving frustrated for being rushed. The receptionist and nurses were so nice to me, I was surprised. Over the phone they didn't seem too amicable. My gastroenterologist was amazing! He managed to get a hold of the records from my old gastroenterologist. That's something I've been trying to get a hold of for years but no one ever contacted me back! Apparently my old gastroenterologist also messed up quite a bit when it came to my case. He's a bit concerned about some of my blood work too. Hopefully this will get all straightened out soon!

I have an appointment for a
esophagogastroduodenoscopy (try saying that five times fast) on Monday morning. In normal people terms it's an upper GI endoscopy. On a side note, my primary care physician just called about some extra lab work that my insurance won't cover. He said "Insurance usually covers it if you have the right code." My answer was "I called my insurance, they don't cover it, I'm not paying for it out of pocket, you have tons of my blood work on file." He wants to work something out, I was hoping the other doctor I'm going to try and see next time would call me, not the sloth man. Back on track, I've had an endoscopy done before but this time they are checking for tightening in my esophagus which is a symptom of scleroderma. Scleroderma is another one of those lovely auto-immune diseases that I'm at risk for developing.

The upper GI endoscopy will make Monday not so fun. I'm hoping they don't overly sedate me, last time I had horrible side effects and they never told me what they gave me. I'm hoping to only be lightly sedated, especially with my heart problems, too much sedation could be very dangerous. Of course I'm sure my fabulous gastroenterologist will keep this in mind. On a side note, he is jealous of my rheumatologist because he uses a tablet PC and he does all of his medical charting electronically. I didn't know it was so expensive to do until today! Heish! I wonder how my rheumy pays for it considering it's just him and his practice. I hope the receptionists are getting paid.

I think these past few weeks have been a bit serious. I've also done a lot of doctor switching. Maybe that's why this little piece of humor makes me chuckle so much! You might consider switching doctors if...
  • He calls you at two in the morning "just to talk."
  • Instead of rubber surgical gloves he wears oven mitts.
  • He keeps accidentally referring to himself as "the defendant."
  • He thinks Eastern Medicine was developed in Long Island.
  • He keeps accidentally referring to your legs as "drumsticks."
  • His examination room is Room 201 at the No-Tell Motel.
  • He introduces you to his anesthesiologist, "Doctor Jim Beam."
  • Before surgery, he asks if you want this "to go."
  • He tries to color your X-rays with crayons.
Bisous!
Loverly Lupie Me


3 comments:

Unknown said...

Oven mitts are bulky.

Anonymous said...

Ha what a funny coincidence! When I broke my toe, my doc tried to give me pain pills. I told him about my not so happy side effects and that I would rather not take them. He gave me a great referral to Dr. Jack Daniels.

Loverly Lupie Me said...

That's what happens when you go to Glenside Medical!