Dream job for doctors

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Re: Dream j*b for doctors

Rich,
Went to UCSF Medical today and visited a very will respected Interventional Cardiologist. This gentlemen also asked if I need refrerral to a Urology Oncologist.

How the heck does "Referral" work?

Some HMOs and PPO type insurance will only cover specialty care if it is referred by your primary doctor but that doesn't seem to fit here (i.e. a cardiologist).

Might also mean referral in the sense of a "recommendation" to a subspecialist.

Hard to tell. Maybe he was just offering to send you to someone he knows is good.

 

[OldAgePensioner]

Re: Dream j*b for doctors

Rich,
Thanks, I really appreciate the insight you have.

I usually do research on where I'm moving and choose a Doctor with good credientials and recommmendations.

I always get asked "How were you referred to me"? I usually say I felt they had the background that covered my health problems.

It seems BCBS wants me to have a Primary Doctor doing this.

Am I entitiled to do what I'm doing?

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Re: Dream j*b for doctors

It seems BCBS wants me to have a Primary Doctor doing this.

Am I entitiled to do what I'm doing?

Don't know, boss. Time to call BCBS "customer service." Why do I feel another health insurance anecdote coming on ?

 

[cute fuzzy bunny]

Re: Dream j*b for doctors

BCBS "customer service."

Jumbo shrimp.

Military intelligence.

 

[cube_rat]

Re: Dream j*b for doctors

Deep blood clot (thrombosis) posing as infected leg, calf injury


Caveat emptor, big time.

I've had deep venia thrombosis in the calf 20 years ago and I thank my "think out of the box" internist to this day for suspecting what the emergency room doctors did not. I was dismissed twice for a "calf injury" from too much exercise by other doctors.

Caveat emptor, big time is right.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Re: Dream j*b for doctors

I've had deep venia thrombosis in the calf 20 years ago and I thank my "think out of the box" internist to this day for suspecting what the emergency room doctors did not.

Internists are a good thing; get one if you can.

Alas, they are now the most actively recruited specialty as primary care docs. Few are entering the field and those that are in it are hassled to the bone with bureaucratic requirments, diminishing reimbursement and crushing work-hours. Ironically, it is one of the most rewarding fields of medicine at an intellectual and interpersonal leve. <Sigh...>

At least I know that part-time work after FIRE should be easy to find.

 

[cube_rat]

Re: Dream j*b for doctors

Just to add for those who never had a deep vein clot.....when you have a deep blood clot in the leg it HURTS LIKE BLOODY HELL!! The pain does not compare to any type of superficial leg injury. Imagine your limb boiling in a pot of hot acid, that's what deep venia thrombosis felt to me. That said, the doctors just thought I did too much aerobic exercise. What's scary ( I was young and stupid beyond belief) is that the several clots that I had in my leg could've broken off and traveled to the lung or heart and killed me instantly. A smart, young internst and10 days in the hospital on a 24/7 IV of heparin saved my life.

Sorry, I got off topic a little bit. Carry on...

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

Re: Dream j*b for doctors

Just to add for those who never had a deep vein clot.....when you have a deep blood clot in the leg it HURTS LIKE BLOODY HELL!! The pain does not compare to any type of superficial leg injury. Imagine your limb boiling in a pot of hot acid, that's what deep venia thrombosis felt to me. That said, the doctors just thought I did too much aerobic exercise. What's scary ( I was young and stupid beyond belief) is that the several clots that I had in my leg could've broken off and traveled to the lung or heart and killed me instantly. A smart, young internst and10 days in the hospital on a 24/7 IV of heparin saved my life.

As many as 50% of DVTs can be totally asymptomatic. They first present when a chunk breaks off, travels up the veins, through the right side of the heart, and lodges in the lung (a pulmonary embolism) -- pretty urgent and treatable if gotten to on time.

Long airplane trips, immobility, edema, obesity, estrogens are among its causes though some are just spontaneous. So unexplained leg swelling on one side, or painless redness would be good enough to have it checked out, too. Just for the record .

 

[cube_rat]

Re: Dream j*b for doctors

Thanks for the info, Rich. I had none of the possible causes outlined in your post, so it was a seemingly spontaneous situation. However, now that I'm a woman in my mid-40's, HRT has been presented as an option for *women issues*. I will be seeing a hemotologist in order to rule out any underlying blood disorders which may have caused the clots 20 years ago. Even with a clearance from a hemotologist, I will probably will never go on HRT for other reasons. I would like to be tested anyway just to ease my mind if I happen to have a blood disorder.

Did I go off topic again?!? My bad. Carry on folks

 

[laurence]

Re: Dream j*b for doctors

Ouch, I just woke up with a knot on my head, apparently I hit something as I fainted from reading this thread!  I was never meant to be a doctor, I get woozy just talking about blood.

I can't imagine doctors being more overworked than they already are.  I've had to be a constant advocate for my daughter just to keep issues from being written off by the first innocent diagnosis they could think of.  She's gone in for her lung problems more times than I can count, every time they have a new diagnosis.  A WalMart jiffy lube may be o.k. for 60% of people, but do you want to gamble that you are in that 60%?  Don't you only learn when it's too late?

 

[MJ]

Re: Dream j*b for doctors

He did the first angioplasty at UCSF.

Should I assume it was successful?

 

[OldAgePensioner]

I ask the cardiologist about the painful, swollen vein in my arm where the nurse from Ghana gave me rapid fire injections.

He said might be phlebitis from the IV or she may have "blown my vein out". He suggested hot compresses (someone on this board beat him to that) and keeping the arm elevated.

So this irresponsible, uncaring nurse has put my life at risk because a clot may form and could break loose. She also tried to give me an aspirin which I'm allergic to and I had a big red band around my wrist.

I used to think medical lawsuits were unwarranted most of the time, now I think there probably aren't nearly enough suits.

 

[Rich_by_the_Bay]

So this irresponsible, uncaring nurse has put my life at risk because a clot may form and could break loose. She also tried to give me an aspirin which I'm allergic to and I had a big red band around my wrist.

I used to think medical lawsuits were unwarranted most of the time, now I think there probably aren't nearly enough suits.

Nope. Superficial clots in the arm don't kill. They don't even maim. It's the deep veins that kill.

See -- if you sued, it would have cost you thousands, and your kindly malpractice lawyer would have spent thousands. It would have cost the hospital thousands in defense cost, ruined a nurse's whole day (year). You'd have been strafed by defense attorneys and wasted many weeks of valuable time.

Then I would have been called as an expert witness for the defense at $500/hr + expenses great inconvenience and blown you out of the water.

Bottom line: lose/lose/lose/lose/win (<-- me). Hey, maybe that's not such a bad idea .

BTW: the nurse does sound like an insensitive jerk. A letter to the hospital administrator might be appropriate.

 

[OldAgePensioner]

Rich,
Hey, I may need you as my consultant so I'm counting on a cut of that $500/hr.

My point is that there needs to be some way to force people like this nurse to go to work at a job they can perform. She obviously is not suited. I heard another patient yelling at her to get away from her.

Yet she's about 25 and will continue to poorly serve patients for years.

I will write the letter to the hospital admin. But I am also going to put flyers all around the area of the hospital alerting patients about her. Should be a bit of fun.

Unless I get caught.