holy **** (literally) - glad you are ok. You cheated the hangman for sure.

 

Thats no good, not at all! Get better man!

 

Hope you heal quickly Steven! My wife just went thru a similar experience. After a couple yrs of dealing with diverticulitis, she was scheduled for surgery & 5 days in the hospital this past July. Ended up being 41 days in the hospital, 3 surgeries due to complications(all within 23 days), infection, etc. She's finally back at work pt the past 2 wks & still recovering. Scary stuff, thought a couple times I might lose her. Especially with the last two surgeries on an emergency basis, even thought she might have to have a 4th! Never heard of diverticulitis a few yrs ago, realize now its a very serious condition.

 

Steven,

Thank you for sharing your experience, and the GOOD results along with the possible bad ones as well. Information like this is extremely valuable for all of us, and could be helpful to several in the future, as you indicated.

Best wishes for prompt and full recovery.

Gary-

 

Retired healthcare provider over here. You are super lucky you didn't get sepsis in your peritoneal space. Jesus god didn't they do a two view abdomen flat and upright and if so who read it? Dr. Steven Wonder? Glad you made it! Perhaps you should call Dewey Cheetum and Howe, might be a GT3 in this adventure of yours!

 

yes, they saw all the gas buildup in my abdominal cavity with the CT. The ER doc was smart enough to order the CT... thank GOD...


thanks for all the kind words from everybody.

 

Flat film radiography is very effective at finding "free air", in fact that's exactly why they do a KUB (flatplate) and an upright, so the Radiologist can judge if the air has changed position. Sometimes they do a four view with decubitus films for the same reason. CT of course is far more revealing but it's also more than four times the radiation and in an area known for high scatter events.

 

I was at a rheumatologist the Monday prior and he did a two view...
the local MD never ordered anything. just prescribed myrolax every three hours. then if nothing overnight, senna....

I was told I was extremely lucky by the surgeon..


I can totally see someone dying from this. I thought I was just constipated... had it not been for the wife insisting on an ER visit, I would not have gone, I would have tried to "man up" and suffer through the cramps/pain... I really believe that my wife saved my life.

 

glad she is doing well. I hope it continues in that direction.

I also had no idea about diverticulitis..

 

lol...

love the RMB comment..

on that note..


my family has found great humor in the fact that I now have NO control of flatulence... while I have the colostomy bag, I will "fart" at random times.... My son who is 11 will die laughing.

 

You said: I was at a rheumatologist the Monday prior and he did a two view...


If that was a private office visit you can count on the technology being lesser than a full functioning Radiology department in a hospital. Furthermore, some of these shysters just ring the cash register with the x-ray. If he isn't having the films read by a radiologist and is simply relying on his own experience, the exam is pretty worthless, there's a reason Radiologists exist a really good reason!

PS Your wife likely did save your life, septic infections are sometimes caught by patients in hospitals and I can tell you first hand many die from them.

 

Steven: wishing you a good full recovery.

 

Docs are getting worse by the day, I almost died at 31 due to a simple apendicitis. Seems that the fear of lawsuits clouds their judgement.

Hope you get well soon, all the best and can tell you that in my case that day changed my life forever, to the better. Changed my eating habits, how I deal with people, how I take chances, everything. Life is too short we have to enjoy it while it lasts.

 

[QUOTE=Augustomf;10829179]Docs are getting worse by the day, I almost died at 31 due to a simple apendicitis. Seems that the fear of lawsuits clouds their judgement.



In the times we live in, it's dangerous to have nobody to go to the hospital with as an advocate. One also needs to do their own research keeping in mind fact and fiction need to be sorted. As for the docs, some of the problem lies in hospital management who have turned medicine into a business that advertises on TV and focuses on profits. It's also true that the people with the highest grades are not always the people with the most empathy, compassion and drive. I worked for a group who were the biggest A hole general practitioners I ever saw. They even advertised ear piercing at the front desk, talk about tacky! I saw one general practitioner improperly reduce a humerus fracture. He then dissuaded the patient from seeking proper orthopaedic care. In reality, an orthopaedic should have reduced the fracture. The kid is sixteen, now his left arm is screwed till death. This same doctor was out of control, he often threw devices and desk trinkets at nurses making them cry, kept them all late on Christmas eve and told them they didn't work hard enough, just a bully who passed med school and puts women down becuase he's too afraid to stand up to his own bride, what a world!

 

All you say is true.
Inaddition, even if he were only at a 'private office' the differential was straightforward. Older fellow with a Hx of 'tic' disease, significant abdominal/L flank pain, the Dx of a UTI in a male is far down the line unless due to ureteral stasis from a stone or urologic anomaly and males get urethretic/cystitic symptoms far more than 'pyelo' symptoms. My differential in the 'private office' would have been 1, 2, & 3 'tic' issue without even any imaging modalities used. A decent FP/IM should have had him imaged forthwith. Steroids/laxatives was embarrasing.