Had A Urodynamics Procedure Today

Yeh, the journey ain't over. I did not get a call back yesterday to schedule the flush and the CT scan, so I called at 2:30PM today. The person who answered the phone saw the procedures in my profile but had to send a note to my doctor's scheduler to contact me to set stuff up. I've yet to receive a call back.

My larger concern now is if the CT scan is gonna find stones; hopefully, if there are any, they will be small enough to remove with a flush. I've already had one operation to remove a stone, and then was before the cath.

I tell ya, this is the worse of professions at a time when you need maximum support. I am on Practice #3, Doctor #7. I hope I did not piss this doctor off too much last time. Perhaps seeing that I pushed stuff in the right direction will redeem me...and I've not heard anything back about that second failed urinalysis that hit the system Saturday.

 

I mentioned my Tuesday follow-up to the previous Friday's "we'll call you on Monday" conversation. I've yet to hear back, so I called again this morning (Thursday.) I am communicating through a centralized appointment call center that has to reach out to my doctor's scheduler via internal texting (this practice is scattered in 5 different facilities.) They told me there is nothing in my records to indicate the antimicrobial flushing and the CT scan have been put on hold, and they sent another text. This is uncharacteristic of these people...I wanna get that flushing process started ASAP!!!

 

I got a message from the scheduler today but let it go to voice mail because she called from her personal cell phone, and I didn't recognize the number. I immediately tried calling the office back but could not get through because Friday afternoons are carved out for emergency appointments and it's a constant busy signal...and the Friday PM automated attendant removes the option to call the appointment center. So I texted the scheduler and she told me that she only works 1/2 days on Fridays and will call me back on Monday. I think she had been waiting to call me in the first place because the doctor has yet to put in the order for the CT scan.

On a different note, I found a Good Rx coupon for my antibiotic. I had paid $40/month for a 90 day script, and with the coupon I paid $40 for the entire 90 day supply. I had looked before and all that was available was a coupon for 14 days of the 100mg capsule. I'm taking 50mg indefinitely.

After I deal with whatever the CT scan shows, I'm gonna find the right moment to ask my doctor if the antibiotic flush might work without me taking the nitrofuratoin. Chances of side effects are not high, but the side effects are nasty (nerve & lung issues.) The chances of having nerve damage are higher if you're on a statin as I am.

 

I've been on Lipitor for the longest time. At one time my GP switched me to Crestor and it immediately gave me shoulder pain, so I switched back. I've always tolerated Lipitor well. For a while, 10mg did the job. Then it got increased to 20mg.

In January of 2020 I had a "diagnosis-by-exclusion" transient ischemic attack and a cardiologist increased it to 40mg because Lipitor (unlike other statins) "prevents your platelets from sticking together" at that level. Now, the previous summer I had a Community Vascular Screening and things were 100% clear. When I had the supposed TIA, the hospital did a Doppler vascular screening and things were 100% clear. The cardiologist later make the offhand comment "I'm not sure you even had a stroke," to which I replied "Then put my statins back down to 20mg." He told me that the primary risk was incurred just by being on them, and that doubling the dose incurred just slight incremental risk. I've been tempted to cut the pills in half (self-revert to 20mg) and not say anything.

 

I had some stuff going on when COVID hit, and I think I was taken advantage of during that time. For some reason I was someone the cardiologist and the then-urologist felt they could get a high number of appointments out of. I would go in and be one of 5 patients in the waiting room.

The cardiologist saw "vegetative growth" on my aortic valve (this is not uncommon) and wanted to do an ultrasound on it (trans-esophageal) as an outpatient procedure, but no one wanted to go near hospitals at the time. He had me coming back every 90 days or so (maybe it was monthly) to do an EKG (I do not have heart issues) and take my blood pressure, then tell me "COVID is still here, we'll wait to do the procedure." I got tired of it and told him "I can watch the news and tell that COVID is still here. My heart has always been fine, my BP has always been fine, what's the medical need for me to make the trip in here?" He got snooty and said "Well, we wouldn't want to inconvenience you. How about every 6 months?" I agreed, and never went back. The kicker was when the nurse took my blood pressure and said "Your top number is up." I said "I can't recall...is that top number systolic or diastolic?" She said "I don't know...it's your top number."

I guess Lipitor is doing me good. My numbers are WAY down on the 40mg, and my liver enzymes have always been OK.

 

Apparently such growths are common and nothing to worry about. While it's "possible" a pic broke off and gave me the TIA symptoms, the doctor did not think it was likely. I had never heard of such a thing. I doubt I'll go back, mostly because of today's environment.

 

Yup. I was testing her when she said "top number." She failed. Or maybe she was told to not engage in diagnoses and just played dumb.

 

Certainly part of this stuff is the hiring process. The intolerant part is people being bereft of any motivation or intellectual curiosity. "Twenty years of experience" is sometimes nothing more than repeating Year One 20 times. We've all seen it in our work lives. It's not a smart/dumb thing...it's a motivated/lazy (or sometimes "stubborn") thing.

Being a patient in a 40 doctor/multiple facility urology practice has exposed me to a bunch of doctors and nurses who all have different experiences. I've mostly had issues with the nurses who have been around a while. The younger nurses have all been top-notch. And many of them have come from the same regional hospital system, so I assume there is good training there.