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Gail in Ca

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 26, 2001
Messages
1,209
Location
Los Angeles, CA
Thought I would let you know what happened to me the other day.
I had my 2nd appt with a new Kaiser cardiologist as I am now a Kaiser member( yeah, it bugs me).
He looked at my echo and said "It looks like you must have a bio-prothsthetic valve and not mechanical, by the echo, because I don't see the leaflets like I would normally see on a mechanical valve. " What an ass!! He didn't even listen to my heart before announcing this or he would've heard the clicking!
Then he proceeds to let me know that my right chamber is enlarged and I would look forward to a-fib which would require medication to regulate even if I do get a mitral redo in the future.
Then, even though I had told him my mitral was NOT repairable as I had found out from my last surgery, he says it looks like a good candidate for repair! Aghhh. All this from a so called expert in reading echos.
And he kept me waiting 1hr 20 min after my appt time.
Needless to say , I called my new internal med dr and told her what happened. She has scheduled me another appt with a different cardiologist.
On a good note, my husband will be starting a newjob with a big company in April and so I will not choose Kaiser as my health plan, no big surprise there!
Gail
 
Gail,
I am not familiar with the Kaiser Health Plan but I am glad you were able to recognize this cardio was not first rate.
As frustrating as it was, it had to feel a tiny bit good to know that you are confident enough about your own condition to recognize a problem AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

Nothing frustrates me more than having to wait over 45 minutes for a scheduled appointment...AARGH!

Hopefully this second opinion will be more enlightening. :)
 
Sorry you got a bad apple, Gail.

I am also a Kaiser member -- so far I've had what I consider excellent treatment there. I don't find my cardiologist's personality particularly appealing (he probably returns the compliment!), but he's been thorough and careful & done right (so far) by me. I particularly appreciate that he got me in to see a surgeon early on after I was diagnosed. No dilly-dallying around about "monitoring" my condition, even though I was mostly asymptomatic. I haven't been back to cardiology so far since the operation; my first appointment is next week. I'll see how it goes.
 
Gail,
I routinely have to wait an average of 1 1/2- 2 hrs to see my cardiologist, with an appointment mind you. If she wasn't the best in town I would move onto another. There are times when an emergency, etc. can make for a long wait, I have no problem with that, but when I can predict with accuracy that my appointment will consistently be late by that amount of time, this is clearly an office management issue. When I've called to check on wait time I've been told I still have to come, sign in, and sit there to keep my place in line. The only good thing about this is that I get in more precious reading time and it forces me to work on my patience. I can "reframe" just about anything in a positive light, I sometimes just wish I didn't have to. Good luck with your next cardio and health plan choice.
Sue
 
The wonderful thing about the American medical system is, one can always seek out another doctor or join another health plan if dissatisfied. Patients in a "socialized" single payer system do not have this opportunity. Be careful though. I practised for 35 years in downtown Washington DC on K street where the highest class
"private" specialists had their offices. As a radiologist I had the opportunity to see a wide spectrum of doctor practise. Guess what? Some were outstanding and some were incredibly bad.
Now in retirement, I'm working halftime for Kaiser and I am pleasantly surprised at how good most ( not all) the Kaiser doctors are. I have heard horrid "waiting" stories in both places.
 
Let me tell you about Madison's mis-diagnosis.

Let me tell you about Madison's mis-diagnosis.

When my wife went in for her 20 week ultrasound, the tech told us it appeared the baby (Later to be known as Madison) had some heart problems. The clinic referred us to a "specialist" in pediatric cardiolgy at Duke University. We went to Duke for a level II ultrasound. After thirty minutes of looking at the echo, the cardioligist told us he could not find anything wrong with the baby, and in his words "Her heart looks perfectly normal" We were RELIEVED!

My wife went two weeks late, and her doctor scheduled another ultrasound just to check the babys size. The same ultrasound tech from before looked at the baby and told us "there is something wrong with your babies heart" at which time we became very defensive and told her "you said that at 20 weeks and we went to a specialist at Duke and he said everything was fine". She quite bluntly said "I know you saw the specialist, and what I'm telling you is that he was wrong". They then sent us to East Carolina University to see another Cardioligist, where he correctly diagnosed Madison with TGA, VSD and a coarctation of the Aorta. Madison was born and 2 days later was flown via lifeflight to the Childrens Hospital of Philadephia where she had her first surgery.

I shudder to think that if my wife would have delivered on time, our Madison would have been born at the podunk hospital in Goldsboro NC, where some nurse might have misdiagnosed her. If her arterial ductus would have closed, she would not have made it. At ECU they kept the ductus open with medication, allowing her to survive long enough to make it to CHOP for her first surgery.

Sometimes we feel like the doctors feel like we ask to many questions, but you know what, oh well. We could quite possibly owe our daughters life to that ultrasound tech at Wayne's womens clinic in Goldsboro NC.

I guess it was Gods way of getting us through it, if we had known of her problems during pregnancy, we might have gone crazy. God is handling everything, and has made sure Madison has gotten the care she needs. After her surgery on March 5th, the surgeon told us he could not understand how Madison was thriving with no noticable symptoms, with an aortic valve that was virtually missing one leaflet. I know how, she was in God's hands....period. Trust in God, not in the doctors ;), they are after all, only human with huge variances in expertise.
 
PS Madison has been covered by Kaiser since 9-99

PS Madison has been covered by Kaiser since 9-99

and we have had nothing but great care. With all her heart problems, we have only had to pay for medication. Kaiser in Atlanta is awesome.
 
The wait at my urologist's office is horrendous, too. I was ready to walk out at the first visit when someone sitting beside me said, "It is shorter to wait here than it would be to drive to another one as good as he is. Everybody wants to see him, so they just keep adding on to his schedule." The key to me is how you are handled after you get past the waiting room. At this place you never feel rushed. Everyone, including the doctors, sits down and talk things over with you.
 
Now waiting for say a hair appointment bothers me. Not for a Dr!

It is caused not by the Dr. but by the administration. Dr. make there money based on how many pts they see. A fundament failure in our system.

Furthermore there are emergencies!!!!!

I have waited as long as 8 hrs and as short as one minute.

Med
 
MadsDad, thanks for sharing your story.

I have a seven-month-old son, Coulson who'll be seeing a pediatric cardio soon. I had a very tough pregnancy from heart/lung-related complications. The appt. is more for my own reassurance that his ticker and lungs weren't affected. Although Coulson's thriving now, he had pneumonia recently which raised the concern of his pediatrician.

I feel for you and your wife -- what a ride. Glad Madison made it through with flying colors!

Best,
 
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