FORT Koffee Klatch

[norealityhere]

QueenB,

Thanks again so much!
I am going to meet with the Dr. next week - Friday.
I had already met with another Dr. in the office, but he was an *ss and I would definitely not go to him - he couldn't understnad why I even deigned to ask him questions about the surgery. Yeesh!! Awful.
Am going back to the initial Dr. I saw - the one who had already seen me and given me the injections in the past. He's very nice; just tends to be available a lot less.
On the other hand, the other surgeon who was so rude is actually also a hand transplant specialist who's been written up all over the Internet. I'm sure he's a good surgeon, but he's a truly awful human being, IMO.
I think so many of the surgeons start thinking / acting like they're G*d, because of the work they do. Very sad.

[norealityhere]

I managed to avoid it by using a wrist brace at night and doing exercises. I also elminated processed foods from my diet. I don't know how much each change effected my CT but its pretty much completely gone. Surgery scares me completely...

Livin,

Thank you for responding.

You are very lucky, as well, but I did everything you did and none of it worked for me. It worked for a bit; but then got bad again.
Hope yours continues to do well.

[prhoshay]

Went to the doctor yesterday for a regular visit. The doc, of course, wanted to do bloodwork. I told her "No, because my technician is not there!" I have a certain lab tech that I will deal with, and she is the only one! It will be worth it to me to drive across town, again, when she is. You know...sometimes you want what and who you want and nobody else will do! I am soooo over putting up with just any-ol'-body!

Ladies....never be afraid to say "NO!"

[angelic_one2002]

I always request a certain dental hygienist at my dentist's office too, Shay. We are allowed to do that. It's kind of who you grow comfortable with. It's nice that we get to specify who we prefer there.

[KatesMom]

norealityhere, I hear you on the surgeon being an *ss. Just another perspective, which my brother (a doctor) gave me. Surgeons are not people-people. They are surgeons so their patients are always unconscious. You don't want to like your surgeon, you want to trust his abilities. According to my brother, you want a cocky, *sshole, because he is good and he knows it. Now for your regular doctor, yep, bedside manner is very important. I was a bit taken aback when he said it - but my experience since has pretty much confirmed it. Now, I don't really care if they are jerks. I can be pretty persistent and don't really care if they give me attitude - I will keep at them until they answer my questions. But generally, the bigger jerk they are, the better they tend to be.

prhoshay, I can totally relate. I have very deep veins and have had more than one nurse blow a vein trying to start an IV or draw blood from me. Now, whenever I have to have an IV or blood drawn, I tell the nurse right up front that they need to call someone from the lab to come up and do it. No discussions. I noticed they used to look at it as a challenge - like "I will be the one who will get the vein" - always with disasterous results. So now I don't even give them the chance!

[prhoshay]

And there's nothing wrong with telling your doc if you think they are being a jerk. I don't think that people say enough to these people. My doc now asks me what we are doing, instead of tells me. If it is something she feels strongly about, she will let me know, and I trust her, but I also know that she allows me to decide. We "get" each other.

And, about lab techs, I've discovered the easier draw of the hand vein, and quite a few people can't do hand veins; they usually have to go get somebody else, like their supervisor. I will not be their test dummy and educator! I have told them exactly what to do and where to go, and they tend not to even understand the terminology. These people are scary.

[pikachu]

It is odd how some lab technicians get the vein right away, no problem, and others keep thumping my arm all over, looking at one arm, then the other, and complaining that my veins are so hard to find. I don't have to get blood drawn very often so I don't know the techs and don't ask for a particular one. I figure even if it takes awhile, they'll find a vein or get another tech who will be able to find it.

I had a bad reaction to having blood drawn once. The lady stuck the needle in further up my arm, away from the inside of the elbow where most of them take it, and I got a bruise around the needle mark. When it disappeared, it turned into a red ring around the needle mark. I went back to the doctor and he didn't know what it was so he measured it, took a photograph of it, and gave me antibiotics to be on the safe side. It did go away but I still have a scar from the needle.

[norealityhere]

[QUOTE=KatesMom;4379132]norealityhere, I hear you on the surgeon being an *ss. Just another perspective, which my brother (a doctor) gave me. Surgeons are not people-people. They are surgeons so their patients are always unconscious. You don't want to like your surgeon, you want to trust his abilities. According to my brother, you want a cocky, *sshole, because he is good and he knows it. Now for your regular doctor, yep, bedside manner is very important. I was a bit taken aback when he said it - but my experience since has pretty much confirmed it. Now, I don't really care if they are jerks. I can be pretty persistent and don't really care if they give me attitude - I will keep at them until they answer my questions. But generally, the bigger jerk they are, the better they tend to be.

I usually do agree with that.
However, when I go to a DR. and he basically does not answer questions, just says to me - "Why are you even questioning this when you must do it?" - my radar goes way up and I run as fast as I can.
If a DR. cannot answer my questions, then I will go to a DR. who can.
Life is too short and I will not put up with *ss*oles!!

[Eastcoastmom]

Re: drawing blood-- I also have had problems in the past with very deep veins and unsuccessful needle draws...no way am I going to let them dig deeper and deeper looking for a vein. I always ask them to use a small needle- the kind that they use for children. That usually works. If they can't get it after one try, I ask them to stick me in the vein of my left hand. I once was given a rubber ball to squeeze and that helped a lot, too.

[Gutmutter]

I have difficult veins and many chemo-related stories about them, but my favorite is one old Nurse Ratched who, stymied by them, reached into the back of her cupboard and whipped out a leather strap with metal fixtures and choked my arm so tightly all the veins popped out begging for the needle. She was old school, sure enough.