Anyone else get tired of being asked if...

Oh yes, it's a joy. One of the first questions I get in the ER is "what surgeries have you had" then sometime later it's "do you have any diarrhea." Before I would remind them that I don't have a colon and then say if I consider the output diarrhea for me.

Now less than half of my small intestine is being utilized before my loop jejunostomy. I just tell them it's always liquid output since it's so high up.

The doctors seem to be fine with it but it throws the nurses for a loop.

Even my GP doesn't get it right and I have been seeing him for a few years...so how do you expect an ER doc who is a 4th yr student to know what we are talking about...I have had some who have told me that it is physically impossible to live without a colon and that I don't know what I am talking about!
My 1st French surgeon (chief of gastic surgery here) operated me for a slipped k pouch (fell off of the wall) and when I woke up there was a bag & flange on me. I freaked and asked him what happened. He told me that he had to give me a bag. I thought that he had removed my k pouch and given me an ostomy...No. He just thought that while I was sleeping and recovering that it would work and that I wouldn't have to empty my pouch that way....(k pouches have to be intubated to be emptied...its like putting an ostomy bag on a doorknob...useless)...And the man operated on me!
So I always carry my medical files with digitalised scans, MRIs and ultrasounds on a data key...that way I can just ask them to plug it all in and look at the pictures...'K pouches for Dummies' I call it.
Sharon

Medicine is constantly evolving. That is why doctors call their specialties / offices a "practice" and they like to "practice" on patients. How else are they going to learn?

I actually got into an argument with an ER doctor over the issue of whether a person could live without a large intestine.

I finally gave up and admitted he was right and I was actually dead. That shut him up.



.

Many years ago, before an abdominal ultrasound or CT exam (can't remember which), I informed a radiology tech that I had a J Pouch. The radiologist's report came back describing that I had a large fluid filled tumor in my abdomen. I immediately sent the report to my GI doctor at the time. He laughed and said the radiologist gave the exact dimensions of my J Pouch in describing the large fluid filled tumor.

The most common reaction I get is medical professionals thinking a J-Pouch is an ostomy bag.

Thanks for the chuckles guys! This thread should now be classified/posted under the "Just for Laughs".

Funny!

My best one was from a 50ish Doctor after looking at my xray and saying "WE need to wait for the Radiologist to look at your xray nothing is where it is in my Text books".

I had a CT scan done 2 weeks ago...the radiologist called me in after the exam to 'have a little talk with me'...he then asked me to explain to him what he was looking at. It took a few miniutes for him to realise that we had 'met' before...or at least my Scans had met him...He now calls me the K pouch lady...and uses my films to teach med students what people should not look like inside.
Sharon

I forgot I even posted this! Thanks for the laughs guys. I was in the ER again 2 nights ago. It gets better...they sent the cops to my house at 2:30 am because I had an IV in my arm. Man , last thing I am leaving with is a damn IV. I see enough of those.

The police?! Really!? Couldn't they have just called you and asked you if the IV was removed or still in? Obviously, they just forgot to chart it. What a waste of resources...I'm sure the police had better things to do than make a house call!

I suppose it was funny and you all had a big laugh (after you were done having a panic attack from the police knocking at your door in the middle of the night!!).

Jan

Well, the IV is the property of the hospital and apart from the issue of theft is the issue of potential infecting of others with hospital property. It could be a medical malpractice lawsuit waiting to happen. I was in court today and there was a medical malpractice trial going on in one of the other courtrooms and I heard defendant's insurance carrier put $5,000,000.00 on the table and it was refused. And it isn't even a death case. I suppose that if Vanessavy had splashed others with her bodily fluids and used the hospital IV to do so, the lawsuit is not going to be against Vanessavy and her assets, it will be against the deep pocketed and highly insured hospital and their employees who let her get away with that IV. That is probably why they called the cops, it was their screw up and the best and quickest way to cover some ass is to call the cops.

There is a hospital in New Hampshire right now, which is saying their prayers, because they exposed 13 patients to Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease by failing to sterilize equipment, an inexcusable error which has put lives in jeopardy.

http://www.wishtv.com/news/hea...med-in-new-hampshire

The problem in New Hampshire arose because standard hospital disinfection techniques cannot eradicate the prion that causes CJD.

Sue

yea the IV was in the room. If the people actually looked they would have seen that. Idiots. It is mainly because people go to get IVs to shoot up, that is why the cops are called. But the libertarian that I am just asked if I was being detained and went back to bed. No time for that non sense. Not a good time to knock on my door at that hour and make people panic , I sleep with a shotgun next to me. But last time I deal with an ER. It is more of a headache and I pay cash so it is just not worth it anymore.

I am having an ermegancy scope on the 1st since my Ferritin is 4.2 (according to the ER I am not Anemic..pfft) and see if I have signs of tumors or bleeding polyps. Pain I am in now is insane. I feel like my gi tract is making my organs expand. Like I am blown up with air and everything hurts. Back pain is driving me crazy,

So sorry that the world is so dumb!
Why do they suspect bleeding polyps? I was told (and I could be very wrong!!!) that polyps developed in the colon and not in the small bowel. When I was suffering from more or less the same sort of anemia as you (over 25yrs ago, I suspected polyps and was told that it was impossible...
Another point...could they maybe check your kpouch for bleeding? There are attachement points in the k pouch that can bleed...the staples can rip out and cause bleeding too including in the valve...
Are you on iron infusions? Can you take black strap mollasses? Eat parsley?
Good luck with this and I hope that you feel better soon.
Sharon

With FAP, polyps are not necessarily confined to the colon.

Jan

Idiot doctors here...I should know better...same one who told me that my colon was enlarged and maybe that was the problem....
(thankfully he wasn't the one operating in o.r.)
Sharon