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So on Friday May 27, 2011 I go to Rush, in Chicago, for a Lumbar Shunt Revision. First of all this surgery was scheduled 10 days ago, and I check in at registration and the receptionist tells me that the procedure does not have authorization from my insurance, and I say why not? This surgery was scheduled 10 days ago... She says that I was an add on yesterday! WTH??? Which means that Dr Munoz's Nurse Practitioner DID forget about the surgery... She was supposed to call me last week to do consent over the phone, and she never did... I had to call her the day before surgery and remind her she never called for the consent! Anyway, I signed the paper saying I was responsible for all charges if insurance doesn't pay... Whatever! I was miserable! And I knew it wasn't gonna be a problem with the Insurance. So we get thru that, they take me back to the pre-op area where they do your vitals, and get gowned up... They don't have my History & Physical that I JUST HAD DONE ON MONDAY!!! I sat at my Dr's office for 3 hours (because it was a fit in appointment) to have this done and missed my best friends sister's burial to get it done... AND I TOLD THEM MY SURGERY WAS ON THURSDAY, JUST TO ENSURE MY PAPERWORK ARRIVED ON TIME! I thought I'd die when they said they didn't have my History & Physical... I told the nurse that I knew his number so they called 2x's to get it! I missed my surgery time because of that, so he took an emergency case... They finally got the H&P and I go upstairs to the holding area. I requested to see Dr Munoz before the surgery because I had a concern about the shunt placement. We discussed that first, he said he would do his best to move it without making another incision. Then we discussed the shunt and how it's not draining enough fluid, he told me & my husband right there that he was NOT going to change the valve setting, the only thing he was going to do was check the valve to make sure it was working properly, make sure there were no kinks in the tubing, and that there were no clogs... He argues with me about the setting of the programmable shunt, telling me that his documentation said I was fine at a 1.5 setting, and I said, "REALLY" when was that, because that damn thing was malfunctioning from the very get go... He argued with Jeff and I for about 5 minutes over this... So now I'm laying there, PRAYING that maybe it IS just clogged, or not working all together... So I finally get the IV with Versed, say goodbye to Jeff, and off I go...
I don't think my surgery was until 1:30pm, it was supposed to be 10:15am
My Neurosurgeon opened up the previous incision (2nd time this shunt has had to be opened after initial placement) and shunt was indeed working, no clog, no kink, and it's draining just fine... So he closes me up, and he was done! I needed a different valve, one that would drain more fluid!!! As I laid there in the recovery room, my head was killing me, and was swooshing like CRAZY!!! I was beside myself that he did this! Put me thru all that, and NOT change the valve! I am soooo pissed off!!! He has been giving me an attitude and has been kinda standoff-ish ever since he put the programmable shunt in as a Lumbar Shunt and it Malfunctioned!!! GOD FORBID THAT SOMETHING "HE DID" DIDN'T WORK! So ~ sure enough, he opened me up, said it was working... And that was it! I NEVER SAID it wasn't working, I said I NEED more fluid drained off... Which means, I needed a different valve! The swooshing will drive someone CRAZY!!! I CANNOT STAND IT! And am SO LET DOWN right now! I kept telling myself on Thursday that in less than 24 hours I'll feel better!
Friday on the way home from the hospital, (it turned it into an outpatient procedure) I told Jeff the swooshing is horrible, and I feel like my head is in a vise... How can that be OK with any Dr? That your patients brain is compressed by all the fluid that is in there, and I cannot even function at Neuro-Rehab or anywhere else for that matter, because of the pressure... I was wide awake from 2am - 4am because I was in so much pain, my incision was very painful and my head is killing me. I had to get up and eat a banana so I could take my pain meds.
And let me tell you, 9am on Tuesday I will be on the phone with my Neurologist telling her she needs to order me a spinal tap so I can prove my pressure is elevated! And that she needs to fax all of my information to IU in Indianapolis. Then I will be leaving Robyn (NS's Nurse Practitioner) a really nasty message about what he did & didn't do, She needs to remind him that the programmable shunt NEVER was set right, because it malfunctioned... Then I will be calling my family Dr and demanding to speak to him about how I missed my surgery because his office didn't fax my stuff on time... And the only reason I would do that is because this is not the first time this kind of thing has happened. I called his office a week ago Monday and left a message, and I was at his office this past Monday and still NEVER heard back from them, and it was a question regarding a RX that he wrote me.
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