Today, I have decided to give you an example of the biggest mistake I, and my medical team ever made with my medical management. I think that this is important as it is incidents like this that I draw my knowledge on how to best manage oneself medically. The incident I am going to refer to was in 2001 when I had my very first perc.
Percutaneous nephrolithotomy, or PCNL or perc, is a procedure for removing medium-sized or larger renal calculi (kidney stones) from the patient's urinary tract by means of an nephroscope passed into the kidney through a track created in the patient's back.
So before I had the procedure my surgeon ran me through everything and also said that afterwards he would order an x-ray just to check he had got all the stone. Three days after the procedure he did not order the x-ray but did order the removal of my nephrostomy tube which would allow access back into the kidney if needed.
When I quizzed the surgeon about the x-ray he said that there was no need as he was confident that he got all the stone. So the tube was removed and along with that easy access to my kidney. Three weeks later I had a follow up appointment and an x-ray and to my surprise he missed a bit.
That mistake landed me back in hospital for a further four operations, eventually ending in another perc a year and a half later.
So what did I learn from this? First, you must take charge to some degree for your own medical management. Second, even when you are feeling terrible, you still need to be assertive. Lastly, I should have sued him. A lot of the time I think that we sue to often and there are other times I could have sued and won but I didn't think it right. However, in this instance the situation was caused by my doctor being complacent and negligent. It cost me four more operations and seven days in hospital and who knows what it did to my mental health.
Next time I will talk about other mistakes I have made. There are a few of them, but I have to admit that some of them I would even make again as in hindsight with the information available to me at the time I would make the same choice. Until then, stay well:)
That certainly could have gone better, had he acknowledged the mistake earlier. The negligence has caused you so much trouble in your health. You could have been cured after the surgery if it was done properly. It was too bad that you did not think of suing him back then. But then again, you were quite busy with having to cope with his negligence in the first place. Anyway, I do hope you're feeling well now. Take care!
ReplyDeleteSabrina Craig @ Medical Attorney