I hope my posts recently have made sense. I am struggling with cognitive function and am delirious with fever and pain.
I went into the ortho office and saw his PA.
Side note: Ortho is off this week. He didn't bother to tell me that he was apparently going on vacation the week after my surgery that would have made a difference as to whether or not go the surgery when I did. If I could go back, I would not have had the surgery done with this group of doctors and it pains me to say that because he was the only doctor out of 6 who ordered an MRI which is how we discovered what was wrong. I took over a year and a half to get one dr to take it seriously and he's basically abandoned me.
First issue -he never checked on me after the surgery. The nurses kept saying he would be in but he never showed. He didn't call me either. He spoke to my husband but had he even poked his head in for a minute he would have known that the nerve block failed.
My husband and I had to call the after hours number twice this weekend. The person on the other end of the phone was the same person I saw today. We told him I was running a fever and in extreme pain that was getting worse.
He brushed it off because my fever didn't reach the "magic" number that apparently is required for doctors to take seriously. Apparently being over 3.5 degrees hotter than baseline is no big deal for an immune compromised patient that just had surgery.
The PA looks at the wound and says "just a little infection and extra inflammation". Oh just a little infection, eh? Fuck this minimizing bullshit. Remember I have been on anti-biotics for days -the fact that this was visible and still really hot and painful is concerning. At least it should be. How about a culture so we can see what it is and target treatment? nah, just leave it.
If I am complaining about pain, something is very ,very wrong.I am in constant severe pain 24/7 and have been for decades. I get no treatments for my pain. I have been abused by doctors my entire life and always avoid drs if I can. I knew something was wrong. I know what post op infections feel like still no one gives a shit.
Now that he confirmed that I do in fact have an infection and am dealing with post surgery pain they must have increased my pain meds, right? I mean I am basically on a child's dose. Surely they wouldn't leave a patient suffering for no reason.
No, they didn't. I still got 1.5 days worth of a small amount of meds on Sunday. I am in agony. I likely won't get the other refill because my surgeon is out all week.
Skin infections are incredibly painful. Skin infections after surgery are even more so. I should be getting enough pain medication to manage my pain. Untreated pain causes extra stress on my immune system.
They also had to reset my cast in the office today with no pain meds or even a warning that I would not only be in excruciating pain when the reset but I also had to hold my leg up waiting for the fucking plaster to dry.
I am being tortured.I don't think the anti-biotics are strong enough and no one cares. They never do. This happens to me all the time. Medical misogyny kills. Study after study shows women's pain is not taken seriously nor are other things like infections etc.
Apparently I need to go back into the office (I am 90% home/bedbound on a good day) to talk about the anti biotic continue or switch it in a few days. Like FFS give me a fucking break . I don't even know the doctor who I am seeing later this week. Also why tf can't they do telehealth?
They informed me at checkout the PA will not do any more refills (I got an emergency refill for a tiny amount this weekend)and since my dr is on vacation, I guess I am fucked. I was not given enough pain meds to help my pain anyway but still. Why didn't the PA mention this? I needed to talk to the doctor about how my pain is not being properly treated and then didn't bother to tell me my doctor is on vacation until after this appointment as well.
Over the weekend the PA agreed that I was not prescribed enough medicine considering the nerve block didn't take and now the proven infection on top of severe post op pain.Yet he just leaves me with no medicine, either.
Emergency rooms are useless for this situation.
They won't treat my pain. I can't get a hold of my doctor. I am just supposed to suffer needlessly.
I was promised my pain would be treated. I was promised they would take any post op fever or any symptoms of infection as a serious thing. Here I am suffering. I screamed in pain at the dr office earlier and still they do not care.
In other words a very typical encounter with doctors. I can't take this shit any more.
