Multiple docs

[sylviayasgur]

hi zazzy!
joey's fine... he's on a golf trip this week with the guys down in fla. last time he played, he limited his range of motion for fear of hurting himself and said he played the best 18holes of his life!!!
hopefully,he's having fun. so far, so good.
it worries me, though, when i read threads of ross procedures (especially when done by his same surgeon) failing.... oh well, gotta take each good day as it comes and pray that they will all (well mostly) be good ones coming up. i often tell my daughters that when life is good, it's really rich and great and full. when life is bad, it s--ks!
hey, you sound good and i hope you do well with these upcoming tests. i'll be rooting for you!
all the best,
sylvia

 

[Ron K]

Another Good PCP

Another Good PCP

Hi Zazzy,

I got a kick out of your "multiple docs" posts. I'm glad that everything worked out for you after you got to see your PCP. You have a strong advocate there, which you need to negotiate the medical system from time to time.

I've got a great PCP too, especially for my heart problems. It turns out that he had AVR and MVR about 6 years ago. He had the Ross procedure done at Temple University Hospital in Philadelphia, but it didn't hold, so he had to go back in for additional care. The second time he flew out to the Cleveland clinic.

On a routine physical exam, he picked up a heart murmur and referred me to a local cardiologist. I went to him twice over the next year and learned that there had been some deterioration, so I went back to the PCP and asked for a referral to Univ. of Pennsylvania, which I had learned was one of the best hospitals for cardiatric care on the east coast.

My PCP fully supported this choice and made the arrangements without any hesitation. I had been worried about the HMO not wanting me to go out of state, but it wasn't a problem.

I went for echocardiograms every 6 months for about 4 years and follow up consultations with an excellent cardiologist at the U of P, who wrote to, and talked with my PCP several times.

When I went to see the PCP last month and discussed the upcoming surgery with him, he was extremely supportive. It meant a lot to me that he too had been in my shoes and he wasn't just saying the nice things PCP's sometimes say when they turn you over to a specialist.

I go back in a couple of weeks to get some of the pre-op testing done and I look forward to talking with him again. It's nice to know that he will go to bat for me if I hit any snags along the way.

He's one of the people who told me he felt much better after the recovery period than he did before the surgery.

When I read your quote from Thomas Jefferson, I thought about my PCP as well as all you nice folks.

Take care and stay healthy.

 

[Zazzy]

Hey Ron!
Glad to hear that your PCP is as great as mine! My doc suffers from bouts of ego from time to time.... and I am particularly in tune to his periods of stress. When this happens I find that a batch of cookies, truffles or some other goodie will sweeten him up for at least two months!

I had an interesting thing happen with my pcp after my mastectomy. I developed a fever of 102. Went to the ER and my pcp was on duty. He was in a bad mood... it was Memorial Day weekend and he would rather have been fishing (hee hee). Plus he had been extremely busy with (as the nurse put it) silly little things that could have waited. Anyway... when I went to the ER the thermometer they used was faulty and registered my temp as 98.6 (unusual as my temp is always low). When I got home I took my temp again.... 101! Since this was on Sunday and I had an appt. with the surgeon on Tuesday for checkup, I decided to suffer through Monday. At my appt. on Tuesday the surgeon took one look and told me I was being admitted to the hospital! I had a staph infection in the incision. This was like a slap in the face to my PCP... woke him up you might say. Since then, if I say that there is something wrong with me he listens!!! lol He always listened before, but now he doesn't let his stress get in the way of my care. A valuable lesson for him.... more valuable for me as it gave me some leverage.... ah... isn't guilt a wonderful thing sometimes? hee hee

I know what you mean by having a doc who has experienced the same thing... my pcp has horrible sinus problems (as I do) and had surgery. As a result he is constantly on the lookout for signs of infection.

I told a tech at the hospital yesterday when I went in for my Holter that I would volunteer at the hospital (since I am there so much)... but that there are just TOO MANY SICK people there!!!

Take care,
Zazz