Saturday, April 4, 2009

Doctors From Hell!

This week has been one from the deepest pit in hell. Are there only nine levels in hell? Surely there have to be at least thirteen.

On Monday I took my eldest son to the doctor for what we believed was Poison Ivy. He had it all over the right side of his face, his right eyelid and below the same eye and a few spots on his arm. He got a steroid shot and off we went.

Tuesday morning dawned with no improvements but he started SATs that morning at school, so I sent him off to school. That night he was still no better and had some spots on his legs, more on both arms and a couple of spots on his stomach.

I shipped him off to school Wednesday morning for his second day of SATs with the assurance that I was going to call his doctor because the Poison Ivy was covering him from head to ankle. So, about noon I get a phone call from the school nurse. From the time he left for school until then, his belly was almost covered in it. Off to the doctor we go again. She took one look at him from two feet away and refused to get closer, saying he had scabies. No tests, no close inspection, just an OMG expression on her face and it is scabies. I’m an educated person, but I had never heard of scabies, so I looked it up on the web. Damn, scabies isn’t fun. They’re little mites that dig into your skin and are highly contagious.

I discovered I am highly contagious to suggestion because as soon as I heard that, I started feeling itchy with little things crawling all over me. *laughs* Recently, I read that one in four people have a mental illness. I guess I’m the one in four. :D

Frustrated, that my son was misdiagnosed on Monday, we treat him for Scabies Wednesday night and he’s crying because the medicated lotion for scabies is burning so bad. Thursday dawns, he still looks no better and it’s spread worse. But, I disinfect the house from top to bottom. I spring cleaned with a new goal this year…that none of the rest of us would contact scabies or rather mites. Damn, I feel like a dog. *shakes head*

Friday morning…it’s worse still. Really frustrated now, I make an appointment for a different doctor and take him in. After a close-up look, this doctor’s opinion is that it’s Poison Ivy. *bangs head against the wall* He runs a scrap of his skin and guess what…it’s NOT scabies. *sharpening my mental razor to mutilate the first doctor in an upcoming novel*

This doctor gives him another shot and some oral steroids. And wow, just a few short hours later, his Poison Ivy is starting to go away. Amazing how a correct diagnosis and the correct medications do the trick every time. Wow! And I didn’t even learn that in paralegal school. *insert dripping sarcasm*

So, I invite you to share your medical horror story with us at Wicked Thorn & Roses. Hope you all have an awesome weekend!

6 comments:

Mark Alders said...

Oh, wow, Gracen, that's terrible. The poor boy! I haven't got a medical condition like that to report of, thank the Lord. The worst I've had is an allergic reaction to something making me come out in a bit of a red rash. Nothing major.

I can only imagine what your son, yourself and your family have gone through this week. Thank goodness the right diagnosis was eventually given and he's better now.

*hugs*

MJFredrick said...

How FRUSTRATING!!!! Glad it wasn't scabies, though, and he's getting better.

2 years ago, my brother fell out of a tree while trimming it, onto a concrete patio. He went to the ER, where the doctors treated his broken wrist, but didn't do any other scans or x-rays. My brother, an AC guy, continued working but his back hurt like hell. He went back to the doctor. "No, your back is fine." He went to a chiropractor, who told him his back was broken. Back to a doctor, had to raise hell to get an x-ray. Sure enough 3 broken vertebrae. This was in...April, I think. They didn't operate until JULY because they tried steroids first. Well, damage is done now. 2 years later, he can't lift what he needs to lift so he's teaching instead of running the business he'd started before the accident. And he can't do anything about malpractice, either.

Carol Burge said...

This is a heart wrenching story, but true nonetheless.

In 2000 my mother, who was 72 at the time, went to her Doctor complaining of breathing difficulties. After a brief examination, including blood work, the Dr. sent her homne, gave her a prescription for basically aspirin, and told her if she felt worse to come back the next day.

My mother went home and did as the Dr. advised. Later that night, she fell on the floor while trying to get out of bed and hit her head on the corner of her night stand. My sister, who lived with her at the time, immediately called an ambulance and they quickly whisked her to the emergency room. My three sisters and I rushed to the hospital, and after about an hour, the emergency room physicians came out and told us that my mother was having a heart attack, a slow onset he called it, and said she'd been suffering from it all day. But, because she waited so long to seek treatment, there was nothing they could do. Her heart valves were so badly deteriorated that he told us it would be like trying to sew a wet sponge. Needless to say my mother passed away after struggling to stay alive for almost a week.

You can bet I do not trust Doctors.

I have more stories similar to this one, but this story is by far the worst.

My sisters and I sued my mothers Doctor, but guess what? Apparently in Michigan Physicians are not required to carry Malpractice Insurance. Can you believe that? We won our case, but came out with very little. Needless to say this Physician is STILL practicing medicine. In the same office, they just changed the name of the clinic.

Nancy J. Parra said...

I hate doctors... won't even get started...

but *hugs* to you and your son!

Sierra Wolfe said...

Oh that poor boy! That sucks! I'm glad he's feeling better now, but it's terrible he had to go through all that just to get better.

I've got more stories than I could possibly mention, so I won't. But, hugs to you and the boy!

Alisha said...

What a terrible story. I'm so glad he's better. I have many horror stories, some happened to me and some to friends. Some are very tragic and even too horrific to mention here but I'll share one tiny example just to show you how easily things can go wrong in a hospital.

I had my son via C section a year and a half ago. In the middle of the night, the nurse comes and takes quite a bit of blood from me. This is not common practice for a mother that just lost a ton of blood during surgery and chidbirth. I had no idea so I just let the woman take it but my husband woke up and asked her why she was taking my blood. She muttered something and left with my blood. The next morning, the head of nursing appeared and apologized, saying they took blood from the wrong person and get this......I still can't believe this...they gave me a gift certificate for $25 to Chili's Restaurant for my trouble. Can you believe that? And this is the very best hospital in Dallas. We laughed about it later while we were eating our free dinner. It's scary isn't it?

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