Large Scale Central

My health update.

General Discussion
#121

David Maynard said:

Devon Sinsley said:

Well I do wish I got better care. thats the worst of this who thing is the marginal care. This would be a lot more tolerable if I had proactive instead of reactive docs. I mean I have excellent insurance, there is nothing that my insurance does not approve or payout on. So I really do not understand the hesitation to give me the best care.

Dude, I know its easy for me to say from the sidelines, but if you aren’t being treated the way you think you should be treated, then go find someone who will treat you the way you should be treated. Its your health and its your body dam it! You deserve to be on the path to wellness, not in the endless cycle of “well, lets see what happens.”

I let a doctor talk me into not getting an MRI for my rotator cuff injury. So we never found out how bad it was injured. Now, nearly 30 years later, and its still not right. I should have grown a set and demanded proper investigation of the injury. My fault, so I still get to suffer, especially when the weather abruptly changes. My point is, don’t let this drag on indefinitely just because you want to be a nice guy. It’s time to demand action, or go find another doctor.

Dave,

Three different medical groups. Three different hospitals, Two different brain surgeons. I am looking for my third different family doc. Two different ERs. I have seen so many different docs over this thing its not funny. I would think I was a hypochondriac if I didn’t have an open wound that drains puss and blood for almost a year now. This is why it is so supremely frustrating. And all of them have complained that I have seen to many different doctors and that I am self treating. Well no shit. What would they like me to do? They can’t or won’t effectively treat me. So I am not sure what they would suggest I do since they are ineffective. It is a real struggle.

If I don’t get results soon, I am going to move to another medical group and another set of doctors. Or start taking matters into my own hands.

#122

Craig Townsend said:

Steve Featherkile said:

That has to be frustrating.

Are you volunteering to take Devon’s sterile #11 blade to his abodomen? Give him a stick to bite down on, and start digging the mystery out? :wink:

I told him he could. I trust him more than the docs. He was a Navy Corpsman who treated Grunts. He could take care of me with a K-Bar, some Ibuprofen, and a hand full of dirt and I would be better by now.

#123

I have had Xrays, CT scans, MRIs, blood drawn by the gallon, IV lines everywhere they can stick them, been cathed four times, four or five spinal taps now, swabbed like a ships deck. I have had electrodes stuck to my chest and to my brain. I have had a tube in the center of my brain that ran to my guts and then had it removed again. I have had more staples than a hardware store and I look like I was the subject of a ghinsu knife commercial. Five total surgical procedures now. This has been since July 2017. I am still fighting for surgical procedures #6 and #7. I have taken more pharmaceuticals than a hippie from the 60’s.

And guess what. I am actually worse than I was. I have all the same symptoms with all the same severity, plus I have this festering wound. Its been a hell of last couple years. Sorry for the rant and the complaining. I am just a little sensative about it.

And I still managed to get my track laid for my RR (http://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)

#124

Devon Sinsley said:

Craig Townsend said:

Steve Featherkile said:

That has to be frustrating.

Are you volunteering to take Devon’s sterile #11 blade to his abodomen? Give him a stick to bite down on, and start digging the mystery out? :wink:

I told him he could. I trust him more than the docs. He was a Navy Corpsman who treated Grunts. He could take care of me with a K-Bar, some Ibuprofen, and a hand full of dirt and I would be better by now.

Some times old school medicine isnt that bad after all…

#125

Craig Townsend said:

Steve Featherkile said:

That has to be frustrating.

Are you volunteering to take Devon’s sterile #11 blade to his abodomen? Give him a stick to bite down on, and start digging the mystery out? :wink:

I’ll need the stick to stir around in his gut to see if I can find the problem. (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)

#126

Steve Featherkile said:

Craig Townsend said:

Steve Featherkile said:

That has to be frustrating.

Are you volunteering to take Devon’s sterile #11 blade to his abodomen? Give him a stick to bite down on, and start digging the mystery out? :wink:

I’ll need the stick to stir around in his gut to see if I can find the problem. (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)

Steve, if Devon decides to take matters into his own hands and you volunteer to help out, let me know and I will bring a good bottle of bourbon or two and we will get him snockered before the surgery and I’ll hold him while you do your magic (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif). Whatever it takes to get him well.

#127

Knob creek

#128

Devon,

It sounds to me you are a qualified candidate for the University of Washington Medical Center. (Seattle)

A couple guys in the club have been there and had problems solved that the local quacks couldn’t handle.

#129

It’s times like this that I wish there was a real-life “House, MD”. A team of docs who specialize in diagnosing the tough cases no one else can solve.

#130

Dan Hilyer said:

Steve Featherkile said:

Craig Townsend said:

Steve Featherkile said:

That has to be frustrating.

Are you volunteering to take Devon’s sterile #11 blade to his abodomen? Give him a stick to bite down on, and start digging the mystery out? :wink:

I’ll need the stick to stir around in his gut to see if I can find the problem. (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-foot-in-mouth.gif)

Steve, if Devon decides to take matters into his own hands and you volunteer to help out, let me know and I will bring a good bottle of bourbon or two and we will get him snockered before the surgery and I’ll hold him while you do your magic (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif). Whatever it takes to get him well.

I’ll need Maker’s Mark, to steady my hand. (https://largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-tongue-out.gif)

#131

A large part of Devon’ s problem is that radiologists are not clinicians, and the clinicians do not usually read the images. I can’t count the number of times I would find pathology in a film that the radiologist had read as “normal.” There’s that word again, Craig. I always read my own films. An early mentor impressed that on me while I was still a 3rd Class Hospital Corpsman.

The radiologist will spend perhaps 5 seconds looking at an image. Unless something jumps out at him, it’s read as normal. That has been my experience as I have observed them at work. I would spend as much time as needed, correlating my physical exam and patient history, with what the images are telling me. I would never read the radiologists report first, as I didn’t want to be influenced.

Devon, when you see the wound doc, ask her to bring up the images on her computer, and go over them in your presence.

#132

Knob Creek, Maker’s Mark … got it (https://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-wink.gif)Devon, I do hope you get some relief soon.

#133

Wow, I lay low for a couple of weeks dealing with my own medical issues and come to find out you’re dealing with all this … again and still. So, so sorry, my friend. I just know from my experience and that of my daughter that in both cases it took a lot of time, a lot of “I don’t know what the hell’s going on” from the doctors, and, finally, another surgery to clean it all out before we got relief. But neither of us had the issues to the extent you have endured.

If you are looking for second opinions or alternative providers, I do think we can help you out here. I have personally seen every episode of Grey’s Anatomy, Code Black, ER, House, St. Elsewhere, MASH, Medical Center, and Marcus Welby, MD, most of which twice or more. I used to drive by the fire station they used on Emergency almost every day and my retina surgeon’s name is Dr. Rob Lowe, so I think we’ve got this.

As for me, I’m almost embarrassed to say this but my eye is pretty much recovered. I saw the optometrist yesterday and got a new prescription for glasses so that saga is coming to an end, although I will always see wavy lines instead of straight out of that eye. My wife had her deep brain stimulation surgery on March 5 and is recovering nicely, shaved head and all. So I guess I can say, hang in there, my friend, there is a solution out there for you, too.

Blessings and peace,

Greg

#134

John Bouck said:

Devon,

It sounds to me you are a qualified candidate for the University of Washington Medical Center. (Seattle)

A couple guys in the club have been there and had problems solved that the local quacks couldn’t handle.

If I don’t get anywhere soon I will take this to the Swedish hospital in Seattle where they are going to do the brain surgery. I don’t think what is going on with my side is all that big of a mystery. I think its more of a situation of not wanting to do what need to be done which is open me up and clean out what ever is causing me to not heal. the problem is it heals over then the say “great we got it” then it comes back and they treat it as if it is a new problem instead of the old problem resurfacing. tomorrow will be telling on what I do after I see the wound doc again.

#135

Gregory Hile said:

As for me, I’m almost embarrassed to say this but my eye is pretty much recovered. I saw the optometrist yesterday and got a new prescription for glasses so that saga is coming to an end, although I will always see wavy lines instead of straight out of that eye. My wife had her deep brain stimulation surgery on March 5 and is recovering nicely, shaved head and all. So I guess I can say, hang in there, my friend, there is a solution out there for you, too.

Blessings and peace,

Greg

Glad you are doing well. I will get there. I have faith this is not forever. Just need to find the right people who are willing to fix it. So far that has been a challenge. In part, I believe I live in a small community that does not have the depth of resources that a Seattle or some other large area has.

#136

Dang, sure wish I had the power to fix it.

#137

Surgery #6 will be going down sometime in the middle of April. The surgeon agreed to borrow Steve’s stick and root around and remove a bunch of tissue and see if he can find the problem. He agreed that sometimes imaging doesn’t explain things and you have to just go look. He also agrees that having a reoccurring abscess is not normal. So this will push my shunt surgery back but it is a necessary step to getting me the shunt at the same time. I need to get this healed and I think/hope/pray this will do it.

#138

Great to hear that some progress is evolving …

#139

Devon,

I hope this is the way to the healthy end to all your suffering.

#140

That’s a long time to just sit and suffer Devon, but hopefully it will be the glint of light at the end of the tunnel (to put a train metaphor onto this).