Not as simple as an oil change
As you may recall, the eager-beaver docs at my current practice had me rigged with a porta-cath while I was under for one of my biopsies. This was done partly for efficiency, since I was under the knife anyway, and partly on the assumption that I'd be starting treatment soon enough.
Well here we are four months later, and its looking more and more like any treatment will be a ways off in the future. This is a good thing, but unfortunately the porta-cath is not a "set-it-and-forget-it" kinda thing, it needs maintenance. To whit, every 6 weeks or so, it needs to be flushed with heparin, an anticoagulant, to keep it from clotting up.
While this is actually a simple proceedure (I've had it done twice now, and it only takes a few minutes) it turns out that getting it done is not as simple as taking your car into the garage for an oil change. I found this out when I asked Dr. G. if he could have it done while I was seeing him for my consult. And he wouldn't touch the thing with a 10 foot pole, because I was not his patient.
So either I need to get this thing ripped out, or I'll be seeing a doctor at least once every six weeks, for a while.
Well here we are four months later, and its looking more and more like any treatment will be a ways off in the future. This is a good thing, but unfortunately the porta-cath is not a "set-it-and-forget-it" kinda thing, it needs maintenance. To whit, every 6 weeks or so, it needs to be flushed with heparin, an anticoagulant, to keep it from clotting up.
While this is actually a simple proceedure (I've had it done twice now, and it only takes a few minutes) it turns out that getting it done is not as simple as taking your car into the garage for an oil change. I found this out when I asked Dr. G. if he could have it done while I was seeing him for my consult. And he wouldn't touch the thing with a 10 foot pole, because I was not his patient.
So either I need to get this thing ripped out, or I'll be seeing a doctor at least once every six weeks, for a while.
posted by wonderkiller at 3:44 PM
1 Comments:
Spent the afternoon re-reading you from oldest to newest. Damn this whole saga makes me angry. It feels like I've been to that 'Bodies' exhibit, except that each exemplar is this guy I know. I want to call the Universal SWAT team and sic them on the disease that's violating you, my friends. Where's the satisfying conclusion to all this mesmerizing, CSI-like intelligence gathering?
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