ANGRY doesn't even describe it!

Rick had the appointment with the surgeon this afternoon. And angry doesn't even begin to describe how we both feel tonight. This so called doctor was the rudest man we have ever dealt with in the medical field. I know surgeons are a different breed of doctor and tend to be more arrogant but this guy was so beyond being arrogant that he was outright rude. Even his nurse looked mortified by the way he was treating us. I should start out by saying that the nurse was very nice and genuinely seemed interested in all of Rick's health conditions. She did a thorough exam and noticed that Rick does not have any muscle control in his left toes. Not a good thing in my opinion or the nurses opinion. And considering that the leg pain has progressed to his right leg now I would venture a guess that he is not getting better, but in fact getting worse.

I bet you want to know what the "doctor" thought. Well his opinion was that Rick needed to suffer through a year of this, go through physical therapy and change his job before he would consider doing surgery. WHAT!!!! The physical therapy would mean that he could not continue doing the job he has been doing for 15 years. Um, no. And when Rick said "I have a lot of other medial stuff going on here" the doctor replied with basically "so what". He was not interested in looking at the big picture.

What made him so rude you may be thinking. Well let me tell ya. He walked in the room and did not even say hello, he just slumped down in his chair and put his foot up on his knee and crossed his arms. He asked where the pain was. Looked at the MRI for less than 30 seconds and did not ask about Rick's health. After we said that we didn't want to wait a year to get this resolved and asked why he had to wait, the doctor very rudely said that since we did not want to hear what he had to say and that we didn't agree with him that we could go somewhere else. And then proceeded to get up and leave the room without saying goodbye. The poor nurse seemed to not even know what to say at that point.

It took everything I had to not burst into tears right there. I can't believe that he would treat a patient with such disrespect. He didn't want anything to do with Rick. So now we are left to wait out the weekend before we can call the rheumatologist and ask for someone else. And I will also be calling the office manager and complaining about the treatment that my husband received. We will not be making the office visit co-pay to this guy. I will not pay someone to be so rude and condescending.

This experience just piles even more stress on me. I am so frustrated and angry tonight. I can't believe that a doctor would basically tell someone they have to continue to suffer because he hasn't suffered for quite long enough. Are you serious?!?! Progressive pain and numbness isn't enough? Because Rick is flexible due to hockey he has a better range of motion than me, and I am not injured. It is just how he is, that shouldn't make him ineligible for surgery. And the doctor didn't say he was ineligible, he just said he hasn't suffered enough.

Maybe by now you are wondering what type of surgery Rick is facing. Well according to this "doctor" he will need a disc replacement or spinal fusion. A simple discectomy is not going to fix the problem, it will actually make it worse because his disc is unstable. So with a year of physical therapy he might get better and not need surgery. But in the mean time he could get much worse and it is going to start interfering with everything else. This type of disc problem could lead to damaging the nerves that control bladder and bowel function. Um I am thinking that someone with Crohn's disease needs to be able to have bowel control. But that's just me. I mean I'm not a doctor or anything. It blows me away that he was not willing to look at the whole picture and see where this fits in.

I know I need to let it go. And I am trying. But it is so hard that with everything that Rick has to deal with physically he now has to deal with a condescending jack-a$$ of a surgeon. It takes so long to get an appointment with a surgeon that now we have to wait probably another couple weeks at least to find out what's next in this journey. I just want to scream!!! Please pray with me that Rick doesn't get any worse before we can get in to someone else. I can't take anymore of this!!

Until next time,
Jaime