My leukemia's back.

[Ol Grey Mare]

Have to brag just a little..... my daughter built this, all by herself minus a few minutes of muscle in lifting the heaviesst pieces into place from her husband, in just three weekends of work

It attaches in the back to a hoop coop the previous home owners had built which is now the run. Windows on each side and she has since planted herbs in the little beds she made. That's my girl!!!

 

[Alaskan]

Impressively snazzy!

 

[N F C]

Good morning Team Rachel, wishing you all a sun-filled day

 

[getaclue]

Rachael, and Blooie, how are you doing?

 

[sourland]

Good morning, folks.

 

[getaclue]

I went through that. After the second check, when they told me to return again in an other 6 months, I said no thanks. Told them that if it was important enough for them to be watching, it was important enough to get a definitive diagnosis with a biopsy. Now, let me tell you.... that was no picnic, but far less traumatic than going for an US every 6 months.

I had been fibrocystic for years, and faithfully went for my yearly mammogram. When I was diagnosed the first time with breast cancer, it was after that yearly mammogram. They told me to go to a breast cancer surgeon. I chose the best in the area, and went in to see him. The intern working with him, insisted she was going doing needle biopsies on all the lumps. I told her no. We argued, and it got a bit loud, then my doctor came in. He and I talked. Eventually he got upset with her, and sent her out of the room, but I learned something. I already knew that with the ultrasound, CT scans, and PT scans, and MRI's the doctors can positively identify whether you have cancer, or not, and those tests are not so invasive, and far less traumatic. It's the insurance companies that demand the biopsy.

The insurance companies won't approve further testing, and treatment without the biopsy. I had 6 lumps. I gave him the option of doing 1 needle biopsy, after all they only need one positive biopsy to confirm, or doing all of them surgically, while I was asleep under anesthesia. He chose the latter, but it was scheduled as putting in my port. Insurance companies will approve to have a port put in, without the official diagnosis from the biopsy, but the insurance companies won't approve surgical biopsies as a lone procedure. He put in the port, and while he was in there, did some surgical biopsies. I never got a needle biopsy.

 

[bobbi-j]

I had been fibrocystic for years, and faithfully went for my yearly mammogram. When I was diagnosed the first time with breast cancer, it was after that yearly mammogram. They told me to go to a breast cancer surgeon. I chose the best in the area, and went in to see him. The intern working with him, insisted she was going doing needle biopsies on all the lumps. I told her no. We argued, and it got a bit loud, then my doctor came in. He and I talked. Eventually he got upset with her, and sent her out of the room, but I learned something. I already knew that with the ultrasound, CT scans, and PT scans, and MRI's the doctors can positively identify whether you have cancer, or not, and those tests are not so invasive, and far less traumatic. It's the insurance companies that demand the biopsy.

The insurance companies won't approve further testing, and treatment without the biopsy. I had 6 lumps. I gave him the option of doing 1 needle biopsy, after all they only need one positive biopsy to confirm, or doing all of them surgically, while I was asleep under anesthesia. He chose the latter, but it was scheduled as putting in my port. Insurance companies will approve to have a port put in, without the official diagnosis from the biopsy, but the insurance companies won't approve surgical biopsies as a lone procedure. He put in the port, and while he was in there, did some surgical biopsies. I never got a needle biopsy.

Good for you for standing up for yourself! All too often, patients either don't realize their rights, or get bullied or talked out of their decisions by medical personnel. I get it - Doctors and nurses are far more trained and supposedly knowledgeable than I am, so I feel I should trust their judgement.

But DH and I learned our lesson last November. He had been complaining about a stomach ache for about 3 days. Loss of appetite, just not feeling right. So I finally asked him exactly where his discomfort was. Lower right side. I took his temperature - 99.5. I googled the symptoms of appendicitis, just to be sure. Lower right-sided pain, no appetite, low grade temp. Of course it was about 7:00 pm, so I called the ER and said, "I think my husband needs to come in to have his appendix checked" and proceeded to tell the RN his symptoms. She said, "It can't possibly be his appendix. If it was, he'd be in excruciating pain, and a temp of 99.5 is nothing to worry about. Try giving him some ibuprofen and a heating pad. If he's not better, call the clinic in the morning. Of course, we're open 24/7 if you feel you have to come in." Well, he took the ibuprofen, used the heating pad, and felt better after a while. (We were told by a doctor friend of ours that this was probably when his appendix ruptured.) My husband doesn't go in for just any little thing. He's not a frequent flyer. I could understand her response if he was running to the ER every time he had a hangnail. For an entire week I would ask how he's feeling, if he thought he needed to go in etc. Nope. He was fine. Then one morning, he got up early after being up most of the night, and told me he should probably go in. We did, got sent to a bigger town with a surgeon after CT showed his appendix had ruptured. After 3 1/2 hours of surgery, the Dr. came and told me that DH had had an abscess that had eaten a hole in is abdominal wall, the appendix had been dead for so long it was rotting, and that had eaten a hole in his colon so he had stool spilling into his abdominal cavity. (And, they saw that DH's gallbladder was full of stones that were beginning to show signs of infection, so they took that, too). It took two full months of recovery, and he will likely never be as strong as he was before this ordeal. During those two months, he had two abscesses drained and 5 courses of heavy duty antibiotics. Had I followed my gut and dragged him in when I first called, he probably would have been recovered in a week. We wouldn't have had to pay a couple of thousand dollars to hire someone to finish our harvest and fall field work.

All this to say, patients need to be as informed as possible before going in, and stand up for themselves when they can.

 

[getaclue]

bobbi-j, glad you understood the gist of my post. Not only doesn't the medical profession always get it right, but they have to follow the dictates of insurance companies, and hospital policies as well. I'm not saying that some of the policies are not warranted, but there should be exceptions allowed at times, not used as a one-size-fits-all type policy.

 

[sourland]

Sadly, medicine is not an exact science and hospitals and insurance companies are in the for profit business. Tighten your belt, folks, it's about to get worse.

 

[getaclue]

Having lived in the "big city" until recently, and having experienced first-hand what the Affordable Care Act has done to medicine, hopefully it won't be too long before some of the insurance issues, and medical care can improve, or at least go back towards what it used to be, which was much better.