its Sunday morning and I can't sleep...

Well, here I am again, it is Sunday morning, my husband is still sleeping and the house is still and quiet. As is normal these days I woke up about 3:30am with a pain under my left ribcage, even after surgery and 10 months of recovery it still hurts like hell. So coffee in tow I checked my e-mails, facebook messages and decided to do some more blogging. I really want to stress upon anyone following this how important it is to have a good relationship with you doctor. If you only tell them half-truths they cannot help you. If you cannot talk openly and frankly with your doctor, change and find one you can talk to,you know your body better than anyone else in the world, they may have the degree, but you know how you feel, what hurts and changes that are occurring. You must take an active role in your own health care, if you know something is wrong, don't stop until you know what is causing the problem. Had I have said ok, heart is ok, just sludge in the gall bladder, no problem,I would be dying now. When I read about the gall bladder scan, it kept referring to the pancreas, so I read about the pancreas and symptoms. Well, to my surprise ALL the symptoms that I had told the hospital doctors about pointed to pancreas problems, not gall bladder. Firstly, gall bladder pain is in the upper right abdomen...mine was and always had been under my left ribcage around into my back. I even told the tech doing the scan, I had no gall bladder symptoms, but say if pancreas symptoms listed were 12 I had 10 of them. Well, like I said yesterday, thank God my pcp and I have a long history together and she knows I am not full of bull nor do I complain to her often. I guess I should also let you know at this point that I have had multiple sclerosis for the past 16 years, so she knows when I complain that something is really, really wrong. I cannot stress to you the importance of having good communications with your doctor and be open and honest with them, remember it is your health and your life you are dealing with. And believe me it can mean the difference between living and dying. I do not know how many doctors saw me the 2 days I was in the hospital, I told each of them and in fact anybody that would listen the symptoms I was having...even tho 1 doctor (who shall remain nameless) questioned me at length about pancreatitis, he did not order a simple ct scan which in the end is the test that showed the mass. So really pay attention to what I am saying, don't stop if you know something is wrong, nag your doctor, change doctors whatever it takes to get the proper testing to find out what is wrong. It saved my life and it could save yours or a loved one. After 2 days in the hospital, probing, labs, stress test, abdominal ultrasound, echogram, gall bladder scan, in the end a ct scan was what was needed to show the mass. A lot of politics is involved in your health care, look at all the money spent,when a ct scan done in the beginning would have found the mass and saved my insurance a boatload of money...no wonder our insurance is so expensive. In case you can't tell or have not picked up on it yet, I am really, really, really, really pissed at the hospital doctors, it scares me to think how close I came to not finding out about the mass and when I did see my surgeon he estimated I had about 18 to 24 months to live, if left untreated. So, I really don't have a word for the nameless doctor, but I sure as hell would not take my little dog to him for fleas. And that is my opinion, he did not listen to me, he brushed it off, he did not send in a gastro doctor and what really irks me is he asked me all about my pancreas, so I feel like he had an idea, he was just to whatever to refer it to someone who could help me. My warning to everyone is just because they have an MD behind their name does not mean they can't miss something or simply be out of their field and not want to admit they do not know what is wrong. Do not let yourself become a victim of some doctors bolstered ego, that is what second opinions are all about...don't get me wrong I love my pcp, surgeon & oncologist, but I do have one from my hospital stay that has gotten on my bad side, and that is a bad place to be....