second opinions needed

I do think second opinions on any subject being tractors,machienery,what ever is necessary to keep em healthy. When one puts his trust in a mechanic without questioning his ability to come to the right conclusion and treatment,is like most of us,(including myself)asking for trouble. Now,I"m going to stray from the subject of tractors for a moment to let folks know of my inorance. Day before yesterday my loving wife was scheduled for an Iron suplement infusion.
called venefur.She left the house in good health, happy,cheerfull and full of life. We never asked the Dr any questions about the proceedure,medication to be used,etc because we have placed our trust in him since forever.
To make a long story short, my son was driving her home right atrer the infusion , got about 2 blocks from the hospital ,when she became extreemly ill. He rushed her right back to the e.r.carried her from the car,through the door into the e.room/ Blood pressure droped to 50/38. Then came the saleien solution to boost the pressure back up. The Dr. that prescribed the infusion was at another clinic 50 miles away. The stand by Dr said it could be food poisioning,(was cya for the primary Dr.)
Got her stabilized and transfered to a room with nurses checking every 5 min.I called the primary and raised H E double hockey sticks and was told by the appointment desk he was in with a patient. he came to the hospital where my wife was at after his rounds to check on her and said it was the flu. Looked on the computer under venefur iron injections(Infusions)and Lord Almighty the side effects was exactly what she was suffering with.(life threatening) Tomorrow .I"m scheduled for a general physical with the same DR. Bet one can guess how thats going to turn out. He should have run a test on my wife to see if any alergic reaction appeared. NOTTA TEST was given not even a mention of possible side affects. Wife is now home and doing better. Swelling going down (arm and face and legs looked like POPEYE.) Now how does that relate to tractors? Well mechanical skills are necessary (paying attention to DETAILS) is necessary to have the tractors up and running like they should be. Second opinions are of great value in both cases. Whats your opinion?
LOU

Wonder what the Physician will say about this. She should have been informed of possible side-effects and signed a consent form that indicated the potential risks for the procedure. Someone may have dropped the ball here or took a shortcut. We expect our caregivers and health professionals to use due diligence. We, as patients, need to ask questions too. Glad to hear she is doing better.

Good luck with all that.
My wife almost went into Diabetic shock 6 months ago cause she didnt know that her blood Glucose level was 220......Oops. She went to one of those urgent care places and they told her she was a diabetic. Wifey now takes 1 insulin shot per day, plus other meds.

Hope Mrs Lou is OK.. Guess you'll be in the Doc's butt with both feet when you get there...
If I were you, I'd get him in a headlock and make him look at your tractor picture til he says it's pretty...Oughta take awhile :shock:

Good Luck,


Dave

I'm with ya, brother. My 25 year old daughter had been feeling bad for several months and was gaining weight for no apparent reason. She began having headaches and finally saw a doctor who diagnosed her with suddent onset Diabetes Type II. Her blood glucose level was 460 that day. She now takes Insulin several times a day. Strange, cause no one else in our family has diabetes, Just happens sometimes, as we are told.

Try to find a sharp tort lawyer. See if he/she's interested in your case.

AND you're still having a physical done by this incompotent individual. Me, I'd be seeing a lawyer instead and making an appointment with a different doctor.
There is nothing that gets the attention of these people like the lose of business and the lose of a reputation. Throw in a lawyer with the goal of removing his license and I think you have his attention.

Thanks for the kind responses. The DR in question has been taking care of this family for years. Has made excellant diagnosis and referals from the onset of my wifes stroke,(surgery required)Open Heart surgery (tripple by pass)Uterious removal,gall bladder operation, re -structuring of veins(tubes installed)Caroted artery operation, & just recently , angeoplasty for vain opening (right leg).Our medication from 3 of us looks like a pharmancy now that my 2nd oldest daughter is going through Kemo. I also have type 2 Diabetes with bi-lateral neuropathy both legs.I too am insulin bound 65 units a day with 4 pills to help control it. However, I sure as H--l am going to ream him a new one come thursday.My son takes her and the daughter and me to the Dr and hospital-clinics. Bless his heart!! This is the only episode this Dr has failed on. Won"t happen again rest assured. We are gonna know all there is to know about every drug she and my daughter has to take. Risks, side affects and all.We are NOT EVER GOING TO LET THIS HAPPEN AGAIN. Won"t ever tolerate the CYA excuses. I can state that I get great medical help from the Vets clinic up in Duluth.I always get an anual check up both places.With me, so far -so good!! I do want to thank you all for your imput and advice,Had great advice on the 706 as well. Warmest reguards to all and this forum
LOU

Wait till external_linkcare makes all those test unneeded.

That was a close one. I'm glad to hear she is doing better. Sounds like both of you have been 'through the mill' as far as medical procedures go.

My wife and I know from experience that when something really bad goes wrong, doctors and hospitals start lieing immediately. Nurses, who usually are innocent bystanders merely following doctors orders, don't say anything either for fear of losing their career. The doctor knows he/she can out-talk the patient's family when it comes to medical terminology. In our case, my wife's sister was a surgical nurse at a clinic that was connected to the hospital our daughter died in, and she heard all of the inside talk about the case, otherwise we would have believed the doctor's and the hospitals bluffs.

Good luck with your and your wife's health, but don't be afraid to change doctors or at least seek the advice of another doctor or doctors. They are subject to human frailties too. God bless.Jim

I know just what you mean.Its time for a new doctor,and has been for a long time,you just didnt know it.You are lucky your wife didnt die.

Hello Lou from Wi,
Glade to hear things are on the mend.
We went through the same thing, allergy misdiagnosis. The heart stopped and needed to be revived. Not my wife but a family member.
My family doctor(A GOOD ONE), says ordering a test is the confirm your diagnosis, not a witch hunt! Hope all turs out well.
I guess he never read the manual:~).
Guido.

My father-in-law was one of the healthiest older persons I had ever seen, never even had a headache until ....

He got sick (flu like symptoms) went to the dr. and they gave him some sort of medication that 8 possible side effects. He had all 8. After that, it was downhill for him.

My chiropractor has done a lot of research on medications and had a fit when she found out my medical dr. had started me on one of the medications to help prevent bone loss. My reg dr. did not tell me anything about possible side effects.

After my chiro explained in detail how those medications worked and showed me pics of what the side effects can do, I threw them in the trash. She recommended a natural supplement which I am using.

In your case, I think you should change drs and his office needs to reimburse you for any related medical expenses because they were negligent when they failed to warn of any side effects.

Also suggest your wife speak to a nutritionist about natural methods to deal with the iron deficiency.

I used to chuckle when my aunt-in-law would say "medicine will kill you." I"m not laughing anymore.

Feel free to give him a new one, he will likely send your records to the new physician of your choice and go take care of the rest of the never ending stream of patients. You could also go to 4 years of college, if you made straight As then go to 4 years of med school, then 4 years of residency. Post back in 12 years and let me know how it went.

It sounds like your wife had severe anemia which is what venofer is used for. Does she have bad kidney disease? Likely. Would you have been happier if the doc did not treat the anemia and she stroked from that? Sure can happen. All medications have risks, the risks of venofer do not seem extream to me and I am a physician. It is hard to tell without knowing more about your wife but the symptoms can be hypotension from the venofer, allergic to venofer, food poisening, etc...
It sounds like it was treated appropriately. Medicine is complex, yur wife sounds like she has many issues and all medications are not 100% predictable.
Threats to sue will not concern the Doc, again without knowing all the details, likely he did what is acceptable standards of practice.

Go to med school and practice medicine and you will find it is not all that cut and dry.

(quoted from post at 06:46:40 10/07/09) My father-in-law was one of the healthiest older persons I had ever seen, never even had a headache until ....

He got sick (flu like symptoms) went to the dr. and they gave him some sort of medication that 8 possible side effects. He had all 8. After that, it was downhill for him.

My chiropractor has done a lot of research on medications and had a fit when she found out my medical dr. had started me on one of the medications to help prevent bone loss. My reg dr. did not tell me anything about possible side effects.

After my chiro explained in detail how those medications worked and showed me pics of what the side effects can do, I threw them in the trash. She recommended a natural supplement which I am using.

In your case, I think you should change drs and his office needs to reimburse you for any related medical expenses because they were negligent when they failed to warn of any side effects.

Also suggest your wife speak to a nutritionist about natural methods to deal with the iron deficiency.

I used to chuckle when my aunt-in-law would say "medicine will kill you." I"m not laughing anymore.

Click to expand...

There's a lot to be said for natural approaches if you don't have a witch doctor... Mine and the wife's doctor is a bit of a treehugger and don't like to use medication unless absolutely necessary. He'll smear pine tar on you in a heartbeat :roll: .. He's also real picky about what you eat. We use mostly homeopathic treatment for the animals and I've acquired a taste for vinegar......

In Your message, you said,, never asked the Doctor any question,,, that is what we have to do, always think ahead, and ask as many questions as you can, including, if this goes wrong, what do you expect me to do .....

I know your feeling Lou. My wife and I moved into a retirement home four and a-half years ago eith skilled nursing home facilities and they gave us reccomendation of Doctor at a nearby clinic. We had all of our medical record sent to Doc.
Wife fell one evening and I pulled the emergency cord. After sometime a nurse showed up and said, "Do you need help". "Oh she just has a stomach ache. Drink some warm water". Later wife started screaming. I called 911 and to the hosptal we went. Doc said she was Anemic and she came back to our apartment. Three weeks later woke up screaming again. I just called 911 and back to the hospital, x-ray and tests. Children came from as far as two hundred miles in time to hear the Doc's diagnosis. Gall bladder surgery after the surgery
the surgeon came and said she had a perforated bleeding ulcer with complications. Remember she was diagnosed earlier as Anemic, Dosn't lose of blood cause being Anemic? Back to skilled nursing. Wife kept going down hill, got so she did not know me. I kept trying to talk to Doc.
Wife lost 40 lbs. I was one mad, raving, maniac. Kept kids informed by e-mail. Got a call one morning. It was son. Dad get ready we are coming into town to get Mom. He had a signed Power of attorney to make Moms medical decisions. He walked up to the desk and threw down the papers and said, "I am taking mom out of here". There was a lot of mumbling around has he put a coat on her and lifted in a wheel chair and placed her in the car. He had made arrangements to take her to the hospital in our home town. They and our old Doctor were waiting. In 96 hours they had diagnosed what was wrong, moved her to a large medical center with a nerosurgeon operated on her brain and she was back in the local hospital. She had NPH (google NPH to read about it). She is in a nursing in a wheel chair and cannot control body functions. She knows everyone and can set and play the piano. Yes, I contacted a big attorney and they would not touch it. The moral of this story is to have the necssary paper signed so some one you trust can have control for you. Sign those papers with someone you trust in charge when you can't be. Thank god for our son. I am back on the farm living with him.
girib

You sound like a Doc to me.

I have very good doctors but they do make mistakes one almost cost me my life. I went in with chest pains (no heart attack) they did an Angiogram an found my blood vessels were blocked again. They wanted to use medicine to get me past it this time instead of another By-pass surgery. Well that turned out to be a bundle of trouble. it seems that I am very susceptible to meds and I was way over dosed. My blood pressure dropped to 58/36 very scary I was passing out when ever I stood up. It took sometime to get all the Meds straight but I'm doing fine now. You just have to trust people and hope for the best I guess. Doctoring like Mechanical work is a guess and by God thing sometimes.
Walt
PS the wife is improving after Mastectomy she is still very sore but getting around a lot more.
GETTING OLD IS NOT FOR THE YOUNG.

Hope she gets Better ,, In matters such as this , IMHO, tractor relations are forgiven ,,, same goes for national security issues ,, However., There are some flamin libbies that cannot agree with that forgivness....

My wife also didnt eat well, stressful job too. And she got sick and then it when the doctor said that her Pancreas went wacko. And Diabetes runs in her family.

DW had one of those during chemo therapy. Real bad side effects. We said no more of that stuff.

Bob

Good to hear that your wife is better; hope she has a fast recovery.

Your general physical scheduled with the same doctor should be cancelled.

Why put yourself at risk with the same doctor.

Your health and your money needs to be in the hands of someone you can trust.

A second opinion about your health treatment is your choice; do not be concerned if a doctor"s feelings or pride gets hurt.

Taking medication that is prescribed for you is strictly a personal choice.

Always ask what the side effects are for the prescribed medication.

Take note of the next commercial advertisement on TV promoting some pill that sounds like the name of some Klingon villian.

You will hear 15 seconds on the merits of the wonder pill, then the next 1 minute and 45 seconds will be on all the side effects, possibly even graveyard dead, of the wonder pill.

I will always ask my doctor "What can I do or change on my own rather than take this medication?"

Find out what other choices are available to you, then you can make an informed decision on how to proceed.

(quoted from post at 09:58:42 10/07/09) Feel free to give him a new one, he will likely send your records to the new physician of your choice and go take care of the rest of the never ending stream of patients. You could also go to 4 years of college, if you made straight As then go to 4 years of med school, then 4 years of residency. Post back in 12 years and let me know how it went.

It sounds like your wife had severe anemia which is what venofer is used for. Does she have bad kidney disease? Likely. Would you have been happier if the doc did not treat the anemia and she stroked from that? Sure can happen. All medications have risks, the risks of venofer do not seem extream to me and I am a physician. It is hard to tell without knowing more about your wife but the symptoms can be hypotension from the venofer, allergic to venofer, food poisening, etc...
It sounds like it was treated appropriately. Medicine is complex, yur wife sounds like she has many issues and all medications are not 100% predictable.
Threats to sue will not concern the Doc, again without knowing all the details, likely he did what is acceptable standards of practice.

Go to med school and practice medicine and you will find it is not all that cut and dry.

Click to expand...

I agree with Concerned. Medicine is complex and there are no guaranteed results. My wife is a nurse in a specialty clinic that gets referrals from docs for patients they themselves can't help. People expect them to work miracles and are not satisfied when their body doesn't respond or they don't get the outcome they expect. There are so many medications with side effects that differ from individual to individual, it is impossible to predict what any one person's body will do. People expect doctors to be perfect. Well, it ain't so. Who among us is perfect at their job? Sure, there are accepted standards of medical practice, but have one little screwup happen and everyone reaches for the 1-800- number for the nearest ambulance chasing attorney.

Plus, with all the slamming of the medical profession, being called crooks by the administration, lawyers looking over their shoulder, ads on TV saying ask your doctor if ____ drug is right for you, malpractice insurance rates through the roof, medicare and medicaid reimbursements dropping, who would want to put up with the above mentioned decades of schooling to make, in some cases, what a line worker at Ford's can make on overtime?

Doctors are like any other profession. There are excellent ones, there are good ones, there are fair ones and there are bad ones.

BTW, our family has had issues with medical diagnoses that were less than accurate. No, we didn't file lawsuits. We accepted it because we know there are uncertainties in the medical profession.

Also, it seems that the less educated a person is, the more they rant and rave and expect doctors to be perfect. They cannot fathom the "I don't know" or "I can't do anything for you" answer.

DO question what your doctors tell you (in a nice, non-confrontational way) and give them ALL the information about your health. They are not mind-readers and you may have forgotten to tell them something when they took your history. DO NOT hesitate to get a second opinion.

Medicine today is light-years ahead of what was done just 50 years ago or so. But people's expectations are sometimes light-years ahead of what is feasible and, to them, their life is priceless and therefore worth the millions and millions it might cost to try and save it. And they expect their insurance company (or government) to spend whatever it takes. Heck, it's not their money.

In addition to my previous reply, I wanted to say I am very glad your wife is going to be ok.

I also wanted to add, that I agree that drs are humans who try their best to help.

The problem I have with your situation is that you were not told about the possible side effects.

If this dr has been your dr for many years and has done well for you up until this point, I believe I would have a discussion with him regarding this and let it be known you want to be informed about any and all possible side effects for medication he prescribes.

Hi Lou,

Glad too her the wife is feeling better.

In May 09, I went to the ER as I was feeling really bad. I died that night. I awake two days latter in ICU.

Doc said I had CHF. Then told be I had too much salt & water intake. He stated in 30yrs he had only read about this in text books but I had water upto just below my neck. I gained 30# over night about once every 2weeks. I weighed 324# when I hit ER, started at 255# and weighed 234# 11days latter when released.

So I'm in for a 30day check up and the Doc wants too do a heart stress test.

When I had CHF I had also went mostly blind and wanted to have cataract surgery so I could see again. Doc says NO, my heart won't take it, but yet he wants to drug induced heart stress test. Ya, right in his dreams.

I had my cataract surgery and can see again very well.

I thanked the Doc for saving my life, but I sure didn't take his advice on the stress test.

Another time I had a Doc for 10 years. One day he comes in and sells his practice, goes on vacation for 60days, then comes back too open a new practice at another location. What happened too cause this, I don't know, but I don't see him now. He quit on me once, so now I don't trust him.

T_Bone

"signed a consent form that indicated the potential risks for the procedure" You can bet your sweet bippy they snuck that in there somewhere.

Well now Mr Concerned, you have done a noble job of defending the medical proffesion. Go back to your clients and tell them to stop the CYA bull and give us honest answers. You lay in a bed or have your life messed up by a missed diagnoses. All I ask is please tell me what went wrong. Don't give me we didn't know bull.

There are a great deal of horror story"s of the medical professionals failure to "FIRST DO NO HARM" I feel I was chastised from the Dr ??who responded to my post. 4 years of med school etc..The oath that was taken by the doctors is a meaningfull oath. NOT TO BE TAKEN LIGHTLY. From what I"ve read on this post in responce to mine is heart breaking to say the least. GOD BLESS EM ALL> I don"t expect to have perfect Doctors, at my becon call nor do I expect miracles from the so called Wonder drugs that are prescribed .
If the Drs don"t want to DO NO HARM ,it becomes their responsidility to Make sure their patients are well informed of the side effects PERIOD>
I"m not one who suscribes to suing the Drs that make an Honest Mistake. What I require of them is to OWN UP TO THE MISTAKE,instead of covering each others arss. I"m not going to live forever nor is my Wife or any one else that I know of, but the fact is, We don"t want to be rushed . I just got a phone call from my nephews that MY SISTER JUST PASSED ON> 76 years old. Found her after 10 hrs of laying on the floor in her home.
I"m not going to be able to attend the family meeting for health reasons not to mention my wifes ill health, my daughters Cancer etc.
My heart felt thanks to all who so kindly responded , I Say THANK YOU ALL, And thanks for this forum. I do Know it was designed for subjects of tractors ,And My family was involved in the restoration of our 706,my wife cleaning parts, My daughter running tools and My son who made it all possible. GOD BLESS EM!!!
Little or no thoughts seem given by those who have taken the oath "First DO NO HARM " to the family members who"s suffering is un-bearable and the sometimes loss of their dear ones in passing do to their errors. Our monthly calander is so filled with Drs wanting this appointment for what ever. is so marked that I havnt been able to look at an empty page in the last 2 years. I;m Sure I"m not alone on this either.
I have NEVER HEARD OF A DR saying "I MADE A MISTAKE" thats why their malpractice suits keep rising. I have a little sign that reads" Some people won"t admit their mistakes, I would if I had any" Thinking of giving it to the Dr tomorrow. Any way MY THANKS TO SO MANY OF YOU WHO RESPONDED (EVEN THE HUMOROUS ONES) to my rant,if one chooses to call my post that. I can believe those who posted here on this subject have had or still having great health issues, and I"m certain these posts are JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG.Bless you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
LOU

i read a statistic once that said " more peple are killed by mistakes in the medical field each year than were killed during the entire vietnam war"

Nothing but horror stories about incompentent doctors in our family.

Health care reform is needed. But my ideas are TOTALY different then Obomas !

The first thing I'd change is their office hours. How is a working person (one of the few that are left )to go if they only are open from like 9:00 to 4:00 ? One of the few that was able to find a new job after the old one folded up. Now I have no time off ,no sick days or vacation either.

Heres a story for you. Had a bad cold last spring, sinus cleared up, but plugged my ears bad. Went to doc, said take sudafed it will clear it up. right ear cleared up in about a month, left one still plugged. went back, he said give it another month, I suggested he put tube in ear to relieve pressure, like they do on kids. He said no, just keep taking sudafed, another month, same thing said again. Goes on all summer. Middle of August ear started to bother real bad, went to him again. He says no infection, try these ear drops, 6 days latter ear and side of head swell up, back to see him, say reation to drops, no infection, try different drops. Ears is hurting bad. The next friday,labor day weekend, a week after I am working in shop, turn my head slightly, and a stream of pus flows from my ear. Well, up to emergency room, 2 hours latter in surgury to drain infection. Spent week inhospital. Sent home doing 3 kinds of antibiotics, 2 of them IVs. Have to do these for another 2 months. takes 2-3 hours in morning and another 2 hours at night. Last thing they did before leaving hospital was put tube in my ear. Just wish doctor would have listened to me a little bit more. OK, done feeling sorry for my self.

Glad your wife is better. Only Dr. to trust is Dr. Jesus. If he don't help, there is no help at all. Healing is from the Lord. Dr.s just give him a little help, they think. Dave

Hi Tm,

My son had real bad ear infections starting about 3yo and continued until he was 15yo. Tubes at 5yo didn't help too much. We fought severe ear infections with everything they could throw at it. He's crawling on the carpet as he can't walk.

Were fixing to have the ear gutted (OR scheduled) as the infection is getting into the skull bone, when the wife reads a article on ear infections saying there caused by allergies from milk products.

We stopped all milk products and he got better. We found out that ice creme was the biggest cause with cheese close behind. He didn't have any milk products until he was 24yo and then only alittle of them. No more ear infections of any kind and he's now 35yo.

Another good ear wash/antibiotic is 50% vinegar/ 50% rubbing alcohol, heat too your comfort level.

T_Bone

i went to my Doctor a few months ago, told him my problem, His reply; "what do you want me to do?"
Answer; " refer me to a specialists" which he did.
Still cost me $AUD 52. easy eh!

it may be prudent to have silver beet, broccoli, bok choy etc on the menu, there are others also high in iron.