Some questions

what symptoms is your husband having now?

is he on any oral meds for uc?

My GI talks to me right after the colonscopy and gives me scripts if i need them to take with me after the scope.  at the follow up appt then she can see how im doing on the new med, etc.   That is terrible that you had to wait for 5 weeks for a script! I dont blame you for switching.  ut you and your husband have to also be your own advocates. dont leave it up to the drs.  you cant sit and wait for them.

He's not on any medication now. The mesalamine enemas were the first thing the GI gave him.

Symptoms before enemas: 1-2 BM's per day, softer than normal. Never any blood. Never any mucus.

During enema treatments: (10 days): 4-5 BM's per day, very loose at first, eventually turning to diarrhea for final 2 days. Never any blood or mucus.

Stopped enemas: Returned to previous symptoms.

I am glad to hear others think our GI made us wait too long for everything. There have been other things about that office that just make us go, "?????" like not having my husband's last test results. I had to call because we had gotten the results from our GP and the GI hadn't yet called us about it. They said, "Oh, we haven't gotten them yet." I said, "The GP has them, that's how I know the results already. I'm looking at the Fax." So GP faxed them again to GI. Waited another day, no call. Finally I called again. They said they'd have the GI call me.

So then I get a voicemail that the GI nurse has a message from the GI. I call back, wait on hold for 15 minutes, only to get the message... "He can't comment on your husband's condition because he doesn't have the test results."

At this point, I was like, "!!!!!!" but still being nice, because I know you never get anywhere being snippy. So she says she'll call GP and get them to fax the results RIGHT THEN. I wait an hour, call the GP, they say, "Yes, we faxed them again an hour ago"... I call the GI, and guess what, no results. FINALLY after faxing YET AGAIN to a different fax number, they got them.

Stuff like this in addition to the waiting of 5 weeks, the GI not even remembering/noticing in my husband's chart the fact that we had an elevated liver enzyme issue going on (I had to remind him and ask about it)... well, maybe you can see why we are not terribly happy with him. I hope things will go better at the university medical center.

And I really don't want to even call local GI man to get him to prescribe something else... but if there's a danger of the UC spreading, then I'd rather be safe than sorry.

Frankly, I fired my first GI because of the "office issues". I wouldnt trust them with my health
if they cant handle simple office tasks and common courtesy.

My new Dr electronically sends my prescriptions to my pharmacy. I just go and pick them up on the way home.
My new Dr calls me personally with any labs, so we can adjust my meds right then. His office has also helped
me with my insurance company refusing to pay for a particular drug. They called, the insurance paid for a 1500$
prescription.

Carlie

I agree with i_love_coffee. The risk of UC spreading isn't something of an emergency, like you would think about an infection. It's a chronic illness that really must be treated every day, but a few days or even a couple of weeks or a month of no treatment is [probably] not going to be terrible. Of course, if he starts to see worsening symptoms while you wait for the next appt, be sure to call the new GI and see if you can get in earlier.

The GI you were dealing with so far sounds like someone I would leave at the side of the road and not look back.

Mercury7 said...
Thank you to everyone, again, who read and/or responded to my first thread.
I have a few questions today...

After the colonscopy and the biopsy, it was 5 weeks before they could schedule my husband to come back in to talk about treatment. When we came in, all he did was tell us, "Yes, it's UC, it's confined to this part of the colon, it's mild, and I'm going to put you on mesalamine enemas." That was it.

Is it normal to have to wait 5 weeks for that? Couldn't he (at the time the biopsy results were in) just have called in a prescription to the pharmacy? Was it really necessary for us to come in person, and to wait 5 weeks for that appointment? It had been 5-6 weeks before he could even get in for the initial appointment and colonscopy, so symptoms began in December and treatment began in March. Shouldn't the GI have been concerned the UC might spread or get worse?


Thank you for your input.

Its normal for a typical westernized GI doc, but then again not all of them are this way. It took 2 weeks until my follow up appointment, but yes he should have given you some direction after the colonoscopy. What dietary adjustments has he made? Have you considered seeing a naturopathic MD doctor instead? They get the root of the issue and treat with means, not ends. If you ever need a prescription for a certain drug that is usually one of their last resorts. If you and your husband are questioning things like this in the beginning I wouldn't be surprised to find you increasingly frustrated throughout the course of seeing this doctor.