A second opinion

Well the last three days have been a ball. Sunday started with not feeling well, cold, and a slight sore throat. I left the house to treat me to a movie but spent the rest of the time drinking tea covered in blankies on the couch.

Monday was horrible, I had become sick. Same symptoms as above but worse. I called in sick from work and called my PCM for an appointment. One of my coworkers in the building avoided the doctor for too long and was recently diagnosed with strep. Since I can’t really swallow I thought I’d better go see him.

I was told that it’s much harder for me to get strep since my tonsils are gone (yeah me) but they were going to test me anyways since the coworker ended up being hospitalized for taking so long to be treated. In the middle of the appointment my phone rings and I answered it. It’s the OB/GYN folks trying to make an appointment for me the next day. I told her that the tech was here to swab my throat and can I call her back in 20 minutes. Well the pissed off switch in me turned on and I started to cry. I apologized to the tech, took a couple of deep breaths and gained an ounce of composure. She asked what was going on, gave me a little info on the coloscopy that OB/GYN wanted to do and then took the swabs. I asked if my PCM could come back in so I could talk to him about this.

About ten minutes later, I am talking to the PCM. I tried to keep the tears at bay, went through my pros and cons and asked him which doctor he would prefer me to see. He never really gave an outright answer (He may not be able to) but he worked with me on the pros and cons and what it was that he expected to be done at the exam. In the midst of my explanation I called the OB/GYN an ass a few times, but decided that I wanted to see him and not go off post. (I was looking to give him a piece of my mind).

When I cancelled my appointment off post, the Tricare rep had mentioned that I was not the only person to complain about the department. She also gave me all the things I needed to do should I need to request a second opinion. I went home and slept on the couch the rest of the day.

Today isn’t any better on this cold. Every time I cough my right inner ear hurts. I eat Dayquil tabs like candy. I ended up calling in sick again and slept for as long as I could be fore my appointment.

OB/GYN apparently has been evicted from their normal section in the hospital. It’s not right on the directory and they are shoved into a small recovery ward in the middle of no where. While walking into the waiting room I almost ran over a doctor and then sat down. My triage was completed by a LTC. Yeah, not sure why but they said something about computer problems, they were behind, etc.

My triage doc runs me through what a coloscopy is, how it works, what to expect, etc. I sit patient half naked under my sheet waiting for the man who’s been pissing me off for the last six weeks. Wouldn’t you know it, it was the doctor I almost ran over in the hallway with the baby face and big friendly smile. He apologizes for the room as they were evicted from their normal location. He then tells me that he may not have to take a sample at all but wants to see the dark spot my PCM is talking about. Now boys and girls when my PCM talked to me he said a lesion, but a dark spot is different from a lesion, very different. I lie patiently, happy that he is talking out loud so I can hear what he’s thinking. He finds the spot and says that he thought it was just dried blood, but it was gone as he had wiped it off. Really annoyed and totally embarrassed that I made such a stink over a dried bloodspot, I started to wiggle up and out of there. Apparently he wasn’t finished and started messing around with what I don’t know. He then warns me that he has to make me uncomfortable (like I am not already?) and he was right. I used a couple of deep breaths and he starts talking again.

Now I have got to tell you that hearing “This is so cool! I haven’t really seen this before.” coming out of your doctors mouth is just well, not very reassuring. I have a small hole in my cervix, which appears to create a second or another small chamber of my uterus. The man is jazzed because I am a medical anomaly. How frickin’ special am I? Let’s put me in a tent and charge $20 to see the girl with two uteruses at a carnival. This soo doesn't help my self esteem being abnormal anatomically, it just makes me weird.

Afterwards, we talked in his makeshift office. I am going in for an MRI. This will determine exactly what I have, if there is a tube that goes to it, if I have one or two functioning ovaries, and if it needs to be removed. Since I had him as a captive audience, I asked all my questions and was given a complete answer. Other than this little freak show, I look healthy. There are no abnormal spots, nothing that looks cancerous and my cervix is strong and would not be a concern about carrying a baby to term second little hole and all. He also apologized for the going back and forth on whether he would see me. He stated that because it was a dark spot and not really a lesion and the labs were normal he wasn’t concerned (of course my doc said lesion so I still feel the idiot). I pointed out that my PCM doesn’t do this everyday and that’s why both my PCM and I wanted someone else to take a look. He agreed and said that once he thought a minute he figured there would be no harm in looking and had his staff call me. Thank you for using your head, just wish it hadn’t taken a six weeks to do it.

I am now waiting for my consult for the MRI to go through, I will have to go off post more in likely but either way it’s going to be a wait. Once those come back I go and see him again to see where we go from there. All in all he is a pretty good doctor and I am his new pride and joy – the girl with the strange hole in her cervix. I never liked being the teacher's pet in school, can't say I am all that thrilled about being one now either.