New Years Resolution

Well tis come that time of year again when we think about what fool hardy ridiculous idea we come up with for a New Years Resolution.  And being a fool hardy brainless person I have decided to do just that. So here are my list of suggestions:-

1. Lose weight- Yeah like that's ever going to happen.  Anyone that has ever taken long term prednisolone will know what I'm talking about.
2. Exercise more- For someone who has a peripheral nerve problem, I exercise plenty thank you.  Next!
3. Stop drinking coke- No way!  You've gotta have at least one vice in your life and that is mine.  With a heavy year coming up (SCT and all) I'm going to need all my creature comforts.
4. Give up smoking- Seeing as I don't smoke this one may be a little too easy.
5. Have an AFJ (alcohol free January)-  Now that's just silly.
6. If I can't lose weight at least get in shape-  I am in shape.  Round is a shape.  If you don't believe me ask a five year old.
7. Do something dangerous-  Does SCT count as dangerous?
8. Learn a foreign language-  I hated languages at school so no.  Besides I will be in Chicago for three months so I'll probably learn to speak American while there.

But I think the winner would have to be for me to go back to school and train to become a surgeon.  I mean how hard can it be?  I've watched Grey's Anatomy.  Scrub hands, cut here, sew there, perform carnal sins in a store room and job done.  I've even picked up this required reading for Dodgy Bros Medical School:-

Ok.  If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm joking.  Seriously, I think that my new years resolution will be to make sure I drink at least three litres of water a day to help battle the old kidney stones and seeing as though I have had such amazing feed back on my blog (and I enjoy writing it) to keep posting regularly.  

Well, this will be my last post for 2011, so I hope you have a very happy new year and a healthy and rewarding 2012.  Stay well:)

Is there anything the internet can't tell you?

I know how to use the internet, maybe I should become a surgeon;)

Stay well:)

We learn from our mistakes

When I wrote the post "My Biggest Mistake" I neglected to go into detail about what I learned from it.  It was a really important lesson that everyone who is consulting a health care professional should know and I learnt it the hard way.

NEVER let your doctor call the shots without querying him.  I see it all the time where people blindly follow their doctors instructions with total blind faith, whether the doc is right or wrong.  In my case, the doctor thought he was right but he was wrong and it cost me big time.

When ever I have a procedure now I know exactly what is going to happen during the op and post op.  If the doctor looks like he is cutting a corner I will pull him up on it.  Fortunately it has not happened again, but, pre-operatively I am so obsessive about it I don't think the doctors would dare.

When I had my very first kidney stone my parents were over seas, but I was lucky enough to have a close family friend stay with me while I proceeded through the zoo, which is more commonly known as emergency.

As a youthful 18 year old I was almost embarrassed by the way he assertively placed himself in the way of the doctors and nurses, writing everyone's name down and making sure they were doing their job properly.  It was amazing how quickly everyone started jumping around looking after me.

Looking back, he did exactly what I would do now.  He wasn't rude or aggressive, but was very assertive and certainly taking no nonsense.  If only he had been there when I had my first perc?  If you are reading this, you know who you are, and thank you.  Until next time stay well:)

My biggest mistake

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:)

The Surgeon

You have to hand it to the surgeons, to have the guts to cut into someones flesh and tinker with their vital organs take something special.  You could call it guts, confidence or arrogance, but the job really would take nerves of steel.

However, the two biggest problems to look for with a surgeon are arrogance and complacency.  Unfortunately, given the nature of the type of person that is attracted to becoming a surgeon these two character traits are extremely common.

Don't get me wrong, a small amount of arrogance can be a good thing.  It is a fine line between arrogance and confidence and you do not want a surgeon who isn't confident, second guesses everything he does and ends up mucking up your surgery.  Alternatively, you don't want a doctor doing surgeries that they are not competent doing because they think they can.

Some of this can be up to you.  Whatever doctor you need you should always do your research, and make sure they are not just a competent specialist, but competent in doing the surgery you are having.  For example, I heard from an extremely reliable source in the medical fraternity that any orthopedic surgeon can perform hand surgery, but hand surgery is almost a specialty within a specialty.  So make sure you get an orthopedic surgeon who specialises in hand surgery.

However, there is no room for complacency whatever!  Whether you are having a triple heart bypass or a mole removed your doctor needs to be thorough and cross all the T's and dot the I's.  If you think that your doctor is complacent, get another one.  I have been a victim of this before but that is a story for another time.

Aside from looking for a surgeon who is not arrogant or complacent it is a good idea to look for someone who is old enough to be experienced but young enough to still have a sharp eye (late 30's to early 50's).  Also check their credentials and do your research.  Most important is to have a good gut feel for the surgeon.  The last thing you want is to go under anaesthetic feeling nervous about your surgeon.  You will be under enough stress without having to worry about that.

One last thing I like to do just before surgery is to look my surgeon in the eyes and make sure his head is in the game.  So far I haven't had a problem, but for my own piece of mind I like to do it.  Always remember you are well within your rights to ask for a second opinion or change your surgeon.  Next blog I will give a specific example of a mistake I have made with a doctor. Until then stay well:)