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Mary Beth, my heart hurts for you. Losing a loved one is hard enough, but I truly think it's worse when it seems they could have been saved. My best friend got her first pap smear at the age of 25 because of strange symptoms. She thought no news was good news. A year later she saw another doctor and the cervical cancer could be seen with the naked eye. She was going to sue when she got well (the doctor even admitted they did not try to contact her), but she was dead a year later. And my family is still considering a wrongful death lawsuit against the local hospital because of my father. He had a massive stroke, which might have killed him anyway, but the emergency room doctor refused to have him sent to a hospital equipped to deal with him until he messed around with tests he did not need. We knew it was a stroke, but the doctor thought it was probably an infection. We begged (literally) them to fly him out but he refused. My mother asked for the stroke shot three times and he refused, saying it could kill him, especially if it had been over a certain length of time (IF he'd had a stroke - the doctor kept saying it was probably not a stroke). At that point it had not been too long, which we kept telling him, but he did not seem to believe us. It took over seven hours from the time I called the ambulance (mom found him about 20 minutes after he had been "fine") to get him to a "real" hospital, but he was too far gone. Every single person in the emergency room could tell he had a stroke except the emergency room doctor. The doctor at the other hospital said they very well could have saved him had he been sent sooner. It's just so much harder when it happens that way.
Tex, I am very sorry I had my first colonoscopy and am now becoming sorry I had my second. The first scope (ten years ago) flipped me from chronic constipation to chronic D and I would go back to the way I was before in a heart beat if I had a choice. I truly-uly think I should not been told to have the first one, based on the situation at the time.
Are Colonoscopies Worth The Misery, And The Expense
Moderators: Rosie, Stanz, Jean, CAMary, moremuscle, JFR, Dee, xet, Peggy, Matthew, Gabes-Apg, grannyh, Gloria, Mars, starfire, Polly, Joefnh
Robbie,
Medical mistakes of that magnitude are hard to deal with. So sorry about your friend and your father. I know of someone who had breast cancer and on her 2 year follow up exam requested an MRI because she had a funny feeling it had returned. The doctors at a major cancer hospital here in Houston only ordered a mammogram and it showed nothing. She went elsewhere for an MRI and sure enough she had cancer but it was caught at an early stage. In this case it boiled down to money. They know MRIs catch cancer earlier but they are expensive. If she had listened to her doctor . . . . sigh.
Because my mother died of colon cancer I feel a need to monitor myself but I couldn't tolerate the prep for the colonocscopy last time I tried (mast cell reaction). I opted for a sigmoidocopy with no medication. Dr. Fine considers these safer so I will probably continue on this route.
BTW, I survived another Novemeber 5th.
Mary Beth
Medical mistakes of that magnitude are hard to deal with. So sorry about your friend and your father. I know of someone who had breast cancer and on her 2 year follow up exam requested an MRI because she had a funny feeling it had returned. The doctors at a major cancer hospital here in Houston only ordered a mammogram and it showed nothing. She went elsewhere for an MRI and sure enough she had cancer but it was caught at an early stage. In this case it boiled down to money. They know MRIs catch cancer earlier but they are expensive. If she had listened to her doctor . . . . sigh.
Because my mother died of colon cancer I feel a need to monitor myself but I couldn't tolerate the prep for the colonocscopy last time I tried (mast cell reaction). I opted for a sigmoidocopy with no medication. Dr. Fine considers these safer so I will probably continue on this route.
BTW, I survived another Novemeber 5th.
Mary Beth
"If you believe it will work out, you'll see opportunities. If you believe it won't you will see obstacles." - Dr. Wayne Dyer
Robbie,
I'm so sorry to hear that. I'm sure that there are probably plenty of times when the information that patients tell doctors may not be useful, but it seems that many of the most tragic mistakes could be avoided, if doctors would simply listen to patients, or their advocates. IMO, if there's such a thing as an unforgivable medical mistake - that's a prime example.
Tex
I'm so sorry to hear that. I'm sure that there are probably plenty of times when the information that patients tell doctors may not be useful, but it seems that many of the most tragic mistakes could be avoided, if doctors would simply listen to patients, or their advocates. IMO, if there's such a thing as an unforgivable medical mistake - that's a prime example.
Mary Beth wrote:BTW, I survived another Novemeber 5th.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.