Are Two Quacks Better Than One?.

Today my faith in medicine took a big hit. Not that I was ever a blind follower but I expect more from practitioners than what I saw today.

Not to long ago I mentioned that my mom’s latest results showed marked improvement from her baseline. Zometa appeared to be a wonder drug and a big weight appeared to have been lifted from my mother’s shoulders. Or so I thought.

Thursday found her making another trek to the land of Sinatra and Hope in order to visit the oncologist that was touted to her as the best the desert has to offer. If he is the best I shudder to think what kind of care the patients of lesser physicians must be receiving.

Expecting more good news my mother was informed without ceremony that the doctor had mistakenly passed on bad information when his office informed her of the marked improvement she had experienced.

The jackass did not bother to check the dates on her test results. Meaning he read off her most recent results as if they were her baseline and her baseline as if it was the most recent test results. Bottom line is that all of her counts continued to rise despite the treatment. She is actually doing worse than she was before beginning treatment.

Now she is back at square one. Increasing pain, lack of pain control and not a hell of a lot of options as far as treatment goes. She is supposed to see a radiologist on Tuesday to discuss localized radiation treatments in an attempt to reduce the level of her pain.

As for mom she is very frustrated, depressed and angry. She has already ruled out chemo and a bone marrow transplant because her heart is probably not strong enough to survive them and she believes that all those options would do is reduce her quality of life.

While my mom was riding the merry-go-round of misdiagnosis I was visiting with an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist. After reviewing my case a few weeks ago he felt that he needed to take a look at my upper respiratory system despite having already undergoing a bronchoscopy with my pulmonologist.

Nothing could have prepared me for the excitement of having someone insert a long wire into my nose and taking an intimate look at my innermost nasal secrets.

He did not find any lost pirate treasure but he did find polyps in my left nasal cavity. I have always been somewhat of a mouth breather and the blockage explains why. Of course it does not explain away my cough and respiration problems.

He also found that my larynx was red and inflamed. His diagnosis: my cough is caused by acid reflux.

What?

He is an ENT not a gastrointestinal specialist. I already saw one was tested and informed that I do not have acid reflux. Who to trust the ENT or the UGI?

I asked the ENT how acid could be irritating my larynx while I remain a symptomatic; he looked at me like I was an idiot and told me that not everyone with acid reflux has any symptoms.

What, no heartburn, no sour stomach, nothing. I am absolutely symptom free. So how could acid reflux be my problem?

That may be true but how could acid reach high enough and be strong enough to irritate my larynx without me feeling a thing. My step dad had that problem and he would throw up blood when the acid rose that high.

All in all he was a waste of time. He wants me to take prescription strength antacids for six weeks and repeat the test. He believes that by than I will be cured. I attempted to explain that I had already tried that with the stomach specialist for a month. His answer: the stomach guy does not know his stuff a month is not long enough.

He also wants me to take steroids for the polyps in my nose. I vainly attempted to explain that steroids and my panic disorder do not play well together. He blew that off to. So I gave up talking and let him listen to himself speak because I sure was not listening.

I may not be a doctor but I am an informed patient and I expect my doctors to meet me halfway. Listen to my concerns and work with me in planning treatments not dictate to me and ignore my concerns.

All in all a rather poor ending to a rather poor week. And when I look in the mirror I cannot even rationalize that at least I have my health.