At one point I tossed my recovery of my stomach issues into the VA's (Veterans admin.) hands and now I better understand the complaints people have lodged against them. It started off well with an appointment date within a reasonable time period. When I arrived for my appointment the nurse and then the doctor and I had a long discussion about my life in Saigon and SE Asia before we got around to stomach talk, then the usual doctor drill.
She recommended a CAT Scan of my abdomen in the hope of identifying an underlying problem. A few days later someone from from the lab contacted me about an appointment. I found the CAT Scan was fast and easy but the ramp up to it was icky, as I was given a pitcher of what they called Kool Aid, isn't that they called the stuff that took out the folks in the Jonestown massacre, one glass every 30 minutes until the pitcher was empty, then the CAT Scan and different than Jonestown I survived.
So a few days later I called for a follow up appointment with my doctor to discuss my test results and a plan of treatment. The telephone lady advised me that this kind of thing was handled via phone but I insisted I needed an appointment the tela appointment lady rung off promising a nurse would call within a few hours about an appointment. I knew she lied and so I set the phone down and called the imaging dept to make sure they were open and mounted up for the VA where I had the test. Weird, when I arrived the main entrance was locked so I patiently waited for someone to come out and then slipped in before the door could close and made me way to their reception desk. Waited for someone to show up and when someone did I told them I needed the CAT Scan results for Douglas Rice and rattled off my SS number. Though I was pretty sure the guy I was talking to wasn't my man but I made friendly small talk about the military and life. Soon an older lady, my age old, showed up asking what was going on, ah ha, I could tell she was the man and she was. Within 20 minutes I not only had a copy of the report but a disk with the scan on it.
Sent one copy to my primary care doctor and he called the next day and explained the finding of the CAT Scan to me, still no word from the VA. Anyway Dr. Fong found nothing of any major importance in the scan but recommended an gastroenterologist. Meanwhile, I was due for my annual cardiologist visit so l set that up along with the gastroenterologist, man a lot of doctors.
The Gastroenterologist didn't seem impressed with my problem or the results of the CAT scan. However, he though my stomach wasn't emptying properly, wrote me a prescription to try (expensive) and sent me to another imaging place for a stomach emptying test. This is an all day test - feed you radioactive egg beaters and every hour slide you into a tube where you hear a bunch of whirring and rumbling that they say are the pictures being taken. When I asked about when the results would be available, the techheto t replied "no news is good news".
Okay on to the cardiologist, reviews the scan and decides this problem I have is not my stomach but is heart egina so on to a heart stress test. It's a test where they compare the movements of a resting heart to a working heart directly off of your work out on a treadmill. 7 minutes, ending in a phase 3 full uphill run and no problems detected. With that the good news is that my stomach pain isn't my heart.
So I'm still left wondering about my spending habits feeling good about my leg and hip improving but still the stomach problem. All this time and money on doctors and tests and the only relief I get is from peppermint oil, Gaviscon and rum and coke but not all together at the same time. My money issues, still no resolution but by fall I'll be back in the Thailand /Vietnam region of SE Asia one way or another.
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| Thanks for stopping by - Doug |
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