Why Can't DH Find a Decent Doctor??

[gctattoo]

Grrrr.....!!

DH's paycheck this week is gonna suck so bad. And it's partly due to his crappy doctor. He switched doctors last year because the first one was unable to fill out a prescription properly. Plus he kept trying to push diet pills on him. Can you say kickback?

So his new doctor was fine up until today. DH took the day off work on Thursday (which he never does) because he had such horrible pain in his chest. The doctor diagnosed it as bronchitis and gave him an albuterol inhaler. He used the inhaler that day as directed.

I found out on Friday afternoon that he spent several hours in the E.R. that day with a bad reaction to the albuterol. He was driving (he drives for work) and thought he was having a heart attack. His heart was racing at over 200 beats per minute. They gave him a shot to counteract the albuterol at the hospital. They said several people have had bad reactions to it recently so it could be a bad batch. And a chest x-ray showed that he doesn't have bronchitis; he has pleurisy. That's when fluid builds up around the outside of the heart and lungs. It has nothing to do with the interior of the lungs at all.

So he went back to work today, but they want him cleared to drive first. His doctor refuses to look at the hospital paperwork. He insists that it's bronchitis and that he needs to use the inhaler. Absolutely refuses to listen about the bad reaction or the findings of the hospital!

So now he'll have to go to either urgent care or the clinic near us to get clearance for work. And affirmation of the hospital's findings. And this is yet another unpaid day off work on the same paycheck.

[bali1228]

He needs to contact the department of health and file a complaint.

[CW&M Mom]

Does he have a pulmonologist? Pleurosiy is awful...and honestly he needs to take a few days off or it's not going to get better.

For the albuterol...it is normal for it to raise the HR temporarily and some people just don't tolerate it.

I can ask my sister what she was given (by her asthma doc) when she had it..fyi she took at least 3 days off of work for it..and barely escaped not having to go inpatient because her sats were crappy....luckily the albuterol helped raise them enough she could duck out of going inpatient.

You need to find a new doc pronto...if he can get the xray or the report of the xray from the hospital (go to medical records) make an appointment with a new doc as a sick patient..take that with him....then he may need to work on getting either an asthma doc or a pulmonologist on board as well for the future. Xopenex is used when Albuterol isn't tolerated.

[motherofmolly]

his doctor refuses to look at the paper work because he does not want to admit his mistake. can you say "lawsuit". which means a new doctor for him either way. i hate that doctor's can not admit that they are wrong, but i hate it even more that they cant get it right in the first place.

[CW&M Mom]

This is what they put my sister on
Predisone (4 weeks), strong cough medicine with codeine, 800 mg ibuprofen, flovent and albuterol. They also put her on an abx...she thinks it was probably augmentin for two weeks.

[gctattoo]

Thanks for the responses. Well, he's certainly not using the inhaler. Although he did get a steroid script filled since he was given a steroid at the hospital. I've convinced him to just take the week off to recuperate. And to find a new doctor.

It turns out that he doesn't need to get the all clear from a doctor to return to work. I misunderstood what his boss said. He just told him they wouldn't let him drive with the problems he's having at the moment. But he told him this afternoon he can come back to work sometime this week if it clears up. Otherwise, they won't expect him until Monday. It's for the best all the way around IMO.

It's pretty bad when a doctor sticks to his incorrect diagnosis just to save face.

[Crystalbug]

The doctors at the hospital are just as likely to be incorrect as the main doctor. I have unfortunately been in and out of hospitals so many times in the last decade that I always get a 2nd opinion on THEIR opinions too.

Hope your husband feels better soon! I had pleurisy as a teenager and it was terrible.

[gctattoo]

I agree that hospitals can be wrong as well. However, an x-ray is pretty clear cut. I would take that over his doctor who inputs the symptoms into a computer that then spits out a diagnosis. Computers aren't able to see the whole picture, especially when it's a case with more than one problem presenting similar symptoms.

[3timesoccermom]

Not to further complicate matters but people can mis-read x-rays too. Years ago I had a doctor tell me after viewing my x-ray that one of my kidneys wasn't functioning but he was very much wrong.

[gctattoo]

Yes, they can. DH had two different interpretations of a hand x-ray a couple years ago. But the bigger picture of symptoms for pleurisy, medications for pleurisy that are improving his state, and the x-ray showing fluid on the outside of the lungs point to it being the correct diagnosis. And the fact that the doctor refuses to consider another diagnosis proves him too close-minded to be trusted.