FRUSTRATED!!!

It is amazing that when you live in one city and your specialist is in another that you cant get your local hospitals to take care of you!!!!  Husband has orders for endoscope and paracentsis, having issues getting either of them done.  Then our family doctor says he will not admit him for short stay because he doesnt understand fluid replacement.  Makes you really wonder what kind of doctor you have.  Now that i vented, i can explain.  husbands meds were changed when we had our last visit.  The new meds did not work, now we have a large amount of ascities.  Spoke with UPMC yesterday and they faxed orders to the hospital that we go to, now no one will put him in short stay to get the procedure done.  The GI doctor here is not in the office & the staff will not bother him. 
This is the same doctor that will not do the scope even though we have orders for that too.  It is amazing that our local hospitals say they want to work with the big boys but they just cant get over the "sandbox" syndrome.  Sorry to vent, just needed to let it all out, I feel a little better now.  Hope everything is going good for everyone else

I agree with David! Fire that doctor. If they have faxed orders for the procedure to be done, then I don't know what the problem is. By fluid replacement, did the doc mean the albumin that is given at the time of paracentesis? They are taking fluid out, not putting any in, except for albumin (I think that's what needs to be given...never had a paracentesis myself.)

However, I wouldn't want that doc working on me!

Good luck with it!

Hugs,
Connie

Trust me, the GI doc is gone, the heptatologist is the one who wrote the orders that no one wanted to accept.  Finally have the procedure set up for thursday, but it is at a different hospital.  The good thing is that this hospital is an affiliate of the one in Pittsburgh.  Spoke with our docs in Pittsburgh and they are baffled by the treatment that we are getting here from what were supposed to me our doctors.  What a Joke!!!!

Im not sure if we are looking for one, if the new hospital will deal with the orders from Pittsburgh we may not have to... I will have to check when we are back in Pittsburgh next week.  I did forget to tell everyone, we have finally got the clearance from the insurance company to go ahead and start the transplant eval.  This is something else the old GI doc said that my husband would not need, boy was he wrong!!!!!!!

Medic , I had similar problems with a local hospital and G.I . Eventually resigned myself to traveling to another county to have paracentesis done . This is a good example for others to not just always take things without questioning , Communication and personal research is the key to fighting this disease .

Back before Doppler imaging the older docs and those who didn't have access to imaging tools used to do the procedure for Paracentesis " Blind " ( Insert the needle and tube without verifying obstructions ) . Archaic in today's medicine with large radiology labs but the practice is still being done .

Luckily the original G.I informed me that he wasn't that familiar with paracentesis and only performed it rarely with the blind method . I thanked him and found another doctor . Yes , He could have done it but why risk your life over him possibly inserting the needle too far in , Missing the fluid cavity or hitting a organ . I had refractory ascites and had the procedure done 2 times a week removing 6 to 9 liters each time .

I became good friends with the radiologist there , He explained the imaging and what they looked for . He new precisely where to place the needle and what depth to remove the largest percentage of fluid . The sonogram details showed fluid transferring from one cavity to another as they had me slightly tilted to one side , Kinda like a hour glass .

I can't stress enough how important the details of having even the most minor things done properly , Particularly when one is so weak and prone to infection . It's the difference between life and death .


A. Ziffle