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:)
Showing posts with label medical mismanagement. Show all posts
Showing posts with label medical mismanagement. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
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:)
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:)
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