Today has been a lesson in self advocacy.
The vascular surgeon I saw this morning was the same guy they consulted with last night. And he basically said the same thing: The clot is in a superficial vein, I don’t need blood thinners, come in for a follow up on Tuesday. He acknowledged that the ultrasound had missed part of a deep vein, but said they could check that on Tuesday. Well I wasn’t about to do the dance we did last night or settle for incomplete care, so I pushed for doing the ultrasound today. He wasn’t sure we’d able to since it wasn’t an emergency, but said he’d try. Well guess who got an ultrasound within the next couple hours? I also told him to contact my CF doctor. If he’s so sure this isn’t a big deal, let him convince my CF doctor of that himself!
A little later the ultrasound results came back… And found that the clot had spread from a superficial vein in my arm to 2 deep veins in my shoulder/chest. Which makes this officially a Big Deal. Dr. Vascular is lucky he wasn’t the one to discuss those results with me, because I was furious at his complete misread of the whole situation. Thank G-d my CF doctor stood up for me last night, so that I was able to stand up for myself today and get this addressed. I don’t even want to think about what we’d be dealing with if this was left untreated until Tuesday.
How many people would have just trusted the expert and jumped at the chance to go home? It’s truly frightening how much of medicine is dependent on the patient's knowledge and advocacy. Don’t be afraid to stick up for yourself if something doesn’t feel right. “Experts” aren’t always all they’re cracked up to be.
The big question now is can we find an open pharmacy and get a prescription for blood thinners filled on Christmas, or will I have to stay one more night. So far the quest has not been going well… Please send positive vibes (and, if you have it, open pharmacy info) my way!
The vascular surgeon I saw this morning was the same guy they consulted with last night. And he basically said the same thing: The clot is in a superficial vein, I don’t need blood thinners, come in for a follow up on Tuesday. He acknowledged that the ultrasound had missed part of a deep vein, but said they could check that on Tuesday. Well I wasn’t about to do the dance we did last night or settle for incomplete care, so I pushed for doing the ultrasound today. He wasn’t sure we’d able to since it wasn’t an emergency, but said he’d try. Well guess who got an ultrasound within the next couple hours? I also told him to contact my CF doctor. If he’s so sure this isn’t a big deal, let him convince my CF doctor of that himself!
A little later the ultrasound results came back… And found that the clot had spread from a superficial vein in my arm to 2 deep veins in my shoulder/chest. Which makes this officially a Big Deal. Dr. Vascular is lucky he wasn’t the one to discuss those results with me, because I was furious at his complete misread of the whole situation. Thank G-d my CF doctor stood up for me last night, so that I was able to stand up for myself today and get this addressed. I don’t even want to think about what we’d be dealing with if this was left untreated until Tuesday.
How many people would have just trusted the expert and jumped at the chance to go home? It’s truly frightening how much of medicine is dependent on the patient's knowledge and advocacy. Don’t be afraid to stick up for yourself if something doesn’t feel right. “Experts” aren’t always all they’re cracked up to be.
The big question now is can we find an open pharmacy and get a prescription for blood thinners filled on Christmas, or will I have to stay one more night. So far the quest has not been going well… Please send positive vibes (and, if you have it, open pharmacy info) my way!
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