What's Your Ailment?

[avz]

No not unreasonable. Just no one has time these days
Some manager/accountant type has probably given them a target of how many procedures to squeeze into the day.

This is just an example of a "double headed eagle" concept where the target vector of keeping people healthy does not align with a target vector of making a profit. It is done by design as you can't make money on a healthy people.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

Regarding my recent experience with Urolift. The last 2 days have been uncomfortable but maneageable except for one thing, a spasming bladder, which gives about at most a 20 sec warning and I am peeing. What I noticed is that as my bladder gets not very much urine in it, it will spasm and I better be close to the bathroom. Yeah, I once ended up peeing on the kitchen floor. I’m supposed to travel to visit relatives on Saturday in the car and at one point this seemed to be highly doubtful without wearing adult diapers. OK the spasming has seemed to pass, but I’m writing this post because I’m irritated with my urologist. Here’s the sequence:

• I have an appointment with my urologist for “urgency of urination”. Now my definition of this is from the time I start feeling you have to relieve yourself, I’ve got about about 10-15 minutes to find a a toilet. Does that seem urgent? Anyway…
• The doctor tells me “sure we can look into this here are some pamphlets to read about different procedures.” I’ll take them home and read them one’s a laser, ones a steam therapy, something else, and Urolift. It’s the less invasive and I go for the latter.
• I go in for the procedure, I sign an authorization saying I consent and acknowledgeable I know enough to enough to give consent. I’m simply told there’ll be some pain, burning, and urgency that can last several days to a week, there’s no sitdown consultation. It’s just something mentioned in passing.
• At the end of the procedure, I’m still loopy with gas, the Dr pats me on the shoulder on the way out of the room and says see you in two days. He may have said to remove the catheter, but anyhow, I assumed in two days there would be a post procedure consult but after I dressed the assistant ushered me out of the room and said good day.
• The assistant says “hey if you wanna take the catheter out yourself, you can, this is how you do it do it tomorrow morning. On the way out of the office at the checkout desk, I’m set up with an appointment in two days which I assume is to remove the catheter (in case I decide not to do it mysel) and a post procedure “how goes it” and then for another, four weeks follow up.
• On the way driving home, I noticed a pretty intense sensation, an ache pain as I urinate. And I who had a catheter before for a previous condition then hardly even noticed when I was peeing. This was different. I was encouraged to drink liquids to get my plumbing working again properly and so the spasm were this concerning cause I had no idea what they were.
• So I looked it up bladder spasms are common with prostate procedures. The only reason I knew they were bladder spasms because my son suffers from them from being an air crew and holding his urine for too long, which can apparently lead to that condition.No one said anything about it as a distinct possibility
• This morning I go in for my 2 day check up, I’m ushered to a room. The assistant walks in and announces he’s ready to remove my catheter. I tell him “I took it out just like you said I could.” He said “so why are you here”? I said “for my two day check up.” “Oh we don’t do those, so you can leave and come back in four weeks”
• I said I want to “talk to the doctor” After driving 20 miles to get there, I was aggravated, asked him “did I miss one part of this procedures consultation. I been having bladder spasms that I didn’t even know what they were until I looked it up online and nothing was mentioned about this.”
• His reply, “I gave you all the info and plenty of opportunity to be informed.” I said “you never mentioned bladder spasms, and how acute they could be which I didn’t even know about”.
• His reply, “There’s the Internet and as an adult, you have thr responsibility to research. I said “you’re the professional, and I’m coming to you for guidance. All I got were some pamphlets that mentioned options did not really go into post procedure conditions. I came to you complaining about urination urgency so being told I’d have urination urgency after the procedure left me with a certain impression that was not accurate, and it did not give the an accurate impression regarding how acute post conditions might be.”

Anyway, he acted like he was irritated that I was taking up his time and from a customer service standpoint it was all wrong. He was somewhat diplomatic, but basically he was talking down to me and putting responsibility on me to inform myself, and then he mentioned signing a consent form. I said “how about a pre-and post consultation and printed information about what to expect and just how acute the symptoms can be”. He said “with the number of people we run through here, we don’t have the time. Some patients want us to go above and beyond to explain details to them.” While I was thinking in his mind, “above and beyond” as providing consultations about specifics of a procedure and what to be ready for afterwards. He did say urination;urgency, pain, and burning, that covers everything, right?🤔

How I long for the good old days when I competent doctors had the time to advise you before and after. You get an operation and they come by right after and tell you how it went and I would expect if they were postoperative procedures these would be presented in writing, including a description of what to expect as possible side effects. Is this unreasonable? I tend to view this procedure, although a minor procedure to be the same.

Am I being unreasonable? Go ahead, tell me I can handle it.🙃
… any typos will be corrected as I spot them.

You aren't being unreasonable at all!

Hopefully the spasming comes to an end shortly.

 

[dannyyankou]

I'm dealing with a pretty nasty bout of COVID now. No fever, but my nose feels disgusting.

 

[Apple fanboy]

As of this morning hip pain. Went to bed absolutely fine. Just my normal amount of exercise.
This morning in absolute agony. I tried to run it off and managed nearly half a mile. Might not have been the smartest move.
Tried a freezer pack and a hot shower. Neither helped much. No pain when lying down. Hurts if I walk (tried with a stick but no better).
Going to WFH as the bathroom is a lot closer to my home office than it is in work.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

As of this morning hip pain. Went to bed absolutely fine. Just my normal amount of exercise.
This morning in absolute agony. I tried to run it off and managed nearly half a mile. Might not have been the smartest move.
Tried a freezer pack and a hot shower. Neither helped much. No pain when lying down. Hurts if I walk (tried with a stick but no better).
Going to WFH as the bathroom is a lot closer to my home office than it is in work.

Have you figured what's causing the hip Pain? That is the first issue that you may have to address, maybe a visit to your doctor (?)

I usually don't suffer from back or hip pain, and whenever it happens is because of the following:

a. The way I sleep through the nigh and how my body was positioned without turning for an extended period of time. I fall asleep on my left side with my legs partially folded (knees up), and sometimes, half-awake, I find myself on my back with arms stretched and hands resting on my hips. It means that somehow my body has to turn through the night.

b. A long time ago I was having a back pain, and this pain was stretching down to my right leg. Its seems that I was suffering from sciatica nerve pain, so I watched a few YouTube videos where therapists showed how to stretch and recover for "sciatica nerve" pain.

c. Another time that I had back and hip pain was because of the mattress. It has some soft spots along hard or bumpy spots. I replaced the mattress with a better quality one, and the problem disappeared after doing back stretches.

For hip pain once I have figured what is causing it (not if a medical issue), I lay flat on my back over a thin cushion or mat, grab my knees with my hands, pull my knees toward my chest, and hold then in that position as long as possible. Then let go of my knees or ankles and repeat the steps a few times. The next step is to stay on my back with shoulders flat on the mat, fold the legs at the knees, plant my feet on the floor next to each other, and turn my legs and hip toward one side as far as I can, then to the other side as far as I can. All I am doing is rotating my lower body left and right "just above the hip," while my shoulders stay put on the mat with my hans and arms flat on the floor supporting the shoulders.

 

[Apple fanboy]

Have you figured what's causing the hip Pain? That is the first issue that you may have to address, maybe a visit to your doctor (?)

I usually don't suffer from back or hip pain, and whenever it happens is because of the following:

a. The way I sleep through the nigh and how my body was positioned without turning for an extended period of time. I fall asleep on my left side with my legs partially folded (knees up), and sometimes, half-awake, I find myself on my back with arms stretched and hands resting on my hips. It means that somehow my body has to turn through the night.

b. A long time ago I was having a back pain, and this pain was stretching down to my right leg. Its seems that I was suffering from sciatica nerve pain, so I watched a few YouTube videos where therapists showed how to stretch and recover for "sciatica nerve" pain.

c. Another time that I had back and hip pain was because of the mattress. It has some soft spots along hard or bumpy spots. I replaced the mattress with a better quality one, and the problem disappeared after doing back stretches.

For hip pain once I have figured what is causing it (not if a medical issue), I lay flat on my back over a thin cushion or mat, grab my knees with my hands, pull my knees toward my chest, and hold then in that position as long as possible. Then let go of my knees or ankles and repeat the steps a few times. The next step is to stay on my back with shoulders flat on the mat, fold the legs at the knees, plant my feet on the floor next to each other, and turn my legs and hip toward one side as far as I can, then to the other side as far as I can. All I am doing is rotating my lower body left and right "just above the hip," while my shoulders stay put on the mat with my hans and arms flat on the floor supporting the shoulders.

I have an appointment at lunchtime. It’s much better today. Usually I just get neck and back pain. I have scoliosis due to an undiagnosed leg length difference for most of my life. I’ll see what they say.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Regarding my recent experience with Urolift. The last 2 days have been uncomfortable but maneageable except for one thing, a spasming bladder, which gives about at most a 20 sec warning and I am peeing. What I noticed is that as my bladder gets not very much urine in it, it will spasm and I better be close to the bathroom. Yeah, I once ended up peeing on the kitchen floor. I’m supposed to travel to visit relatives on Saturday in the car and at one point this seemed to be highly doubtful without wearing adult diapers. OK the spasming has seemed to pass, but I’m writing this post because I’m irritated with my urologist. Here’s the sequence:

• I have an appointment with my urologist for “urgency of urination”. Now my definition of this is from the time I start feeling you have to relieve yourself, I’ve got about about 10-15 minutes to find a a toilet. Does that seem urgent? Anyway…
• The doctor tells me “sure we can look into this here are some pamphlets to read about different procedures.” I’ll take them home and read them one’s a laser, ones a steam therapy, something else, and Urolift. It’s the less invasive and I go for the latter.
• I go in for the procedure, I sign an authorization saying I consent and acknowledgeable I know enough to enough to give consent. I’m simply told there’ll be some pain, burning, and urgency that can last several days to a week, there’s no sitdown consultation. It’s just something mentioned in passing.
• At the end of the procedure, I’m still loopy with gas, the Dr pats me on the shoulder on the way out of the room and says see you in two days. He may have said to remove the catheter, but anyhow, I assumed in two days there would be a post procedure consult but after I dressed the assistant ushered me out of the room and said good day.
• The assistant says “hey if you wanna take the catheter out yourself, you can, this is how you do it do it tomorrow morning. On the way out of the office at the checkout desk, I’m set up with an appointment in two days which I assume is to remove the catheter (in case I decide not to do it mysel) and a post procedure “how goes it” and then for another, four weeks follow up.
• On the way driving home, I noticed a pretty intense sensation, an ache pain as I urinate. And I who had a catheter before for a previous condition then hardly even noticed when I was peeing. This was different. I was encouraged to drink liquids to get my plumbing working again properly and so the spasm were this concerning cause I had no idea what they were.
• So I looked it up bladder spasms are common with prostate procedures. The only reason I knew they were bladder spasms because my son suffers from them from being an air crew and holding his urine for too long, which can apparently lead to that condition.No one said anything about it as a distinct possibility
• This morning I go in for my 2 day check up, I’m ushered to a room. The assistant walks in and announces he’s ready to remove my catheter. I tell him “I took it out just like you said I could.” He said “so why are you here”? I said “for my two day check up.” “Oh we don’t do those, so you can leave and come back in four weeks”
• I said I want to “talk to the doctor” After driving 20 miles to get there, I was aggravated, asked him “did I miss one part of this procedures consultation. I been having bladder spasms that I didn’t even know what they were until I looked it up online and nothing was mentioned about this.”
• His reply, “I gave you all the info and plenty of opportunity to be informed.” I said “you never mentioned bladder spasms, and how acute they could be which I didn’t even know about”.
• His reply, “There’s the Internet and as an adult, you have thr responsibility to research. I said “you’re the professional, and I’m coming to you for guidance. All I got were some pamphlets that mentioned options did not really go into post procedure conditions. I came to you complaining about urination urgency so being told I’d have urination urgency after the procedure left me with a certain impression that was not accurate, and it did not give the an accurate impression regarding how acute post conditions might be.”

Anyway, he acted like he was irritated that I was taking up his time and from a customer service standpoint it was all wrong. He was somewhat diplomatic, but basically he was talking down to me and putting responsibility on me to inform myself, and then he mentioned signing a consent form. I said “how about a pre-and post consultation and printed information about what to expect and just how acute the symptoms can be”. He said “with the number of people we run through here, we don’t have the time. Some patients want us to go above and beyond to explain details to them.” While I was thinking in his mind, “above and beyond” as providing consultations about specifics of a procedure and what to be ready for afterwards. He did say urination;urgency, pain, and burning, that covers everything, right?🤔

How I long for the good old days when I competent doctors had the time to advise you before and after. You get an operation and they come by right after and tell you how it went and I would expect if they were postoperative procedures these would be presented in writing, including a description of what to expect as possible side effects. Is this unreasonable? I tend to view this procedure, although a minor procedure to be the same.

Am I being unreasonable? Go ahead, tell me I can handle it.🙃
… any typos will be corrected as I spot them.

No, you are not being unreasonable. Not at all.

Whatever about dealing with the stressed staff of a publicly funded health system - for whom I have some considerable sympathy, as they are often very over-worked, frequently with stretched - and limited - resources, and are, after all, salaried state employees - staff in a privately funded healthcare system (who tend to be exceedingly generously remunerated, especially at the apex of such a system) may need to be reminded of who exactly pays them.

If I am actually privately paying for a service, - and, in this instance, paying quite a lot - I would think it perfectly reasonable to insist that this service treat its customers with courtesy, and respect.

When you are paying through the proverbial nose for a healthcare service, (daily, I give grateful thanks for the publicly funded healthcare systems prevalent in Europe) one deserves to be told more from one's service provider when you need to consult them on the aftermath of a healthcare procedure than "look up the internet". One deserves that one's concerns are taken seriously, and treated with respect, and given time and thought and explanations for what has been done and advice on how one should try to deal with it.

Otherwise, why even pay for healthcare? We can all "look up the internet", when seeking answers to questions we have asked; however, on medical matters, the problem is that we might not be qualified to understand how the answer the internet offers may actually apply - and be applied to - to our medical issues.

As others have already advised, contact your insurance provider, file a complaint, or grievance, and request that they recommend a different urologist.

 

[AlaskaMoose]

I have an appointment at lunchtime. It’s much better today. Usually I just get neck and back pain. I have scoliosis due to an undiagnosed leg length difference for most of my life. I’ll see what they say.

My wife suffers from scoliosis and back aches (pains). Somehow she manages these pains without pain killers, not even the over the counter ones. She has an excessive routine of stretches, elastic band pulls, and lightweight lifting. Also leg folding and stretches while standing up. ⬆️

 

[Apple fanboy]

My wife suffers from scoliosis and back aches (pains). Somehow she manages these pains without pain killers, not even the over the counter ones. She has an excessive routine of stretches, elastic band pulls, and lightweight lifting. Also leg folding and stretches while standing up. ⬆️

Yup. I do stretches daily for the last 15 years or so when I started seeing a chiropractor. Keeps the pain in check. Generally I manage without painkillers most of the time.