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The Medical Two-Step
Sep. 12th, 2008 11:55 amMy great sinus exodus continues. As has been my experience in the past, if you don't have a very simple medical problem, you're usually going to face a long, long time before resolution with many, many doctor visits. At least this time I've felt like the doctors knew what they were doing the whole time and were taking the appropriate steps at the appropriate times.
In any case, on Wednesday I went back to by GP for visit #4. I had to see yet another doctor, because there's been increasing problems getting in to see my regular doctor (or the PA) in any reasonable amount of time at my practice. He looked at me a bit, and somewhat reluctantly told me that he didn't think more antibiotics were the answer, but rather that he wanted to refer me to an ENT.
I don't know if many patients would feel pushed off, but I was already on board with that as the next step. I usually try and research before I visit a doctor to have a good understanding of what's going on. I don't interfere with the doctor's diagnosis; I don't want to prejudice it. But this time I was ready to dig my heels in and tell them it was time to refer me to a specialist if I had to. But, as I said, we were on the same page.
So today I took the next step, which we can call medical visit #5. That was a trip to an office in Oakland to get some x-rays. Both the office and Chris H. had suggested I get there early, so I was out of the house before 9am and there just 15 minutes after they opened. I think I probably waited 5-10 minutes at the office, which was totally acceptable, and now I have some x-rays of my sinuses. The right maxillary sinus indeed looks like it's got crap in it, which has been my diagnosis for at least the last month.
I'm hoping the 7-mile round trip to the x-ray shop and back doesn't knock me on my ass. I've had some worsening of symptoms a few times when I physically exerted myself since I got hit with this problem ... but I can't keep sitting on my butt forever.
I've got an appointment with a specialist scheduled for next Thursday, which will be visit #6. K. has been to the same office (thought not to see the same doctor) and she's often had to wait for hours, so I'm expecting that I'm going to lose a good portion of my workday next Thursday, but hopefully it'll get me closer to a solution. I have a lot more faith in an ENT looking at x-rays than a GP glancing at my nose, throats, and ears.
In any case, on Wednesday I went back to by GP for visit #4. I had to see yet another doctor, because there's been increasing problems getting in to see my regular doctor (or the PA) in any reasonable amount of time at my practice. He looked at me a bit, and somewhat reluctantly told me that he didn't think more antibiotics were the answer, but rather that he wanted to refer me to an ENT.
I don't know if many patients would feel pushed off, but I was already on board with that as the next step. I usually try and research before I visit a doctor to have a good understanding of what's going on. I don't interfere with the doctor's diagnosis; I don't want to prejudice it. But this time I was ready to dig my heels in and tell them it was time to refer me to a specialist if I had to. But, as I said, we were on the same page.
So today I took the next step, which we can call medical visit #5. That was a trip to an office in Oakland to get some x-rays. Both the office and Chris H. had suggested I get there early, so I was out of the house before 9am and there just 15 minutes after they opened. I think I probably waited 5-10 minutes at the office, which was totally acceptable, and now I have some x-rays of my sinuses. The right maxillary sinus indeed looks like it's got crap in it, which has been my diagnosis for at least the last month.
I'm hoping the 7-mile round trip to the x-ray shop and back doesn't knock me on my ass. I've had some worsening of symptoms a few times when I physically exerted myself since I got hit with this problem ... but I can't keep sitting on my butt forever.
I've got an appointment with a specialist scheduled for next Thursday, which will be visit #6. K. has been to the same office (thought not to see the same doctor) and she's often had to wait for hours, so I'm expecting that I'm going to lose a good portion of my workday next Thursday, but hopefully it'll get me closer to a solution. I have a lot more faith in an ENT looking at x-rays than a GP glancing at my nose, throats, and ears.