Too Many Health Care Visits

This is not been a good year so far mentally and physically. Mentally taxing because of the several medical visits we have had to make, and physically taxing because my husband is having some inconvenient and annoying health issues. Unfortunately these issues are not clear cut, and he is not used to being sick or ill or uncomfortable. Since January we have been seeing health care professionals for annual checks, acute care checks, lab work, video calls, prescription fills, etc. It is giving me a taste of what the future will hold. And of course I also had routine visits and more are planned for next month, adding to the fatigue. We have never had to deal with so much at one time - without a resolution. And since my husband is a retired surgeon, he isn’t happy until there is a definitive answer - which may never happen. So there was blood work on Monday, and a test yesterday in the outpatient department that was very uncomfortable. With that comes all the inevitable discussions and nightmares about getting old and dying. Neither one of us has had a decent nights sleep for quite a while. It is difficult to think about. It makes both of us irritable and cranky - even though everything so far has been negative. You know you are seeing the doctor too often when you know the password to your patient portal by heart. Next week there is another appointment. Since the pandemic out lives just haven’t snapped back to the way they used to be. I miss the old days. 

Colonoscopy and EGD Prep

Unfortunately it’s not a routine screening test. This time the colonoscopy AND EGD are being done because of symptoms. Luckily the blood work all looks good, there is no pain, and the symptoms come and go. But my husband has not experienced any significant health problems in his life - except a horrible flu we both contracted after our visit to Iran several years ago. He landed in the emergency room and needed to be hydrated and checked out. So today is the day when the prep starts, and also the day that he feels most hungry - how ironic. He’s lost his appetite for a variety of reasons and has dropped a few pounds. It’s been a distressing few weeks from the time we first spoke with the internist, then the GI specialist, and several more days to get the test scheduled. It’s the waiting that can drive anyone nuts - like bobbbng on the water. And my husband needs to have an answer now - as he did when he was a practicing surgeon. His analytical ability was unrivaled. But it’s on overdrive now. So we are hoping for a relatively mundane diagnosis. Whatever it is we will need to deal with it. It sounds like GERD, so I am keeping my fingers crossed. Since both of us were health care providers we know what it’s like to be on the other side. I much prefer that to this. 

Getting Medical Test Results

When we moved two years ago we threw out a lot of papers. Unfortunately, one of them was a colonoscopy test result. I usually keep copies of the latest medical test results. A lot of them are on line on patient portals, but we also switched to new doctors who don’t have our fifteen year history. I have never seen my new doctor because of Covid, but we did meet virtually last year and I had annual blood drawn. So this year will be the first time for an annual physical and I want to bring along the latest copies FYI. It’s taken three months to finally make contact with the GI center in Chevy Chase. I left about six emails requesting medical records without a response. I called several times and no one picked up the phone. When I finally talked to someone, no one picked up the phone when I was transferred to medical records. Finally last week I talked to someone - and they said I needed to open a patient portal - just to get one report!? So I did. When I looked for my document, they said I had to call the doctor’s office because he was no longer with that clinic. What was the point of setting up a portal? So I asked for his phone number. Before long someone called me from his office and asked when I wanted to schedule an appointment for a procedure. I said I wasn’t interested in scheduling a procedure - I just wanted a medical record. Finally, after fooling around with this, she uploaded the document to the portal where I could finally access it and print it. I really just wanted to know when I had the last test because I’m not looking forward to scheduling another one until it’s absolutely necessary. What a hassle. Since both my husband and I had health cate careers we do get a bit flabbergasted over things like this. I suppose I could have not bothered, but I like to be prepared.