Update:
My appointment is Jan. 10, so it's next week. I was thinking my doctor read a previous CT or MRI results, since I had about 5 of them. I was trying to jog my memory, but the only test that read "remnant" was the first CT.
However, that first CT scan was
without contrast. The email read as if the test
had contrast.
With that said, why would my doctor look at old test results and misread them? What would be the point of going through my computerized record and send me an email. Didn't he noticed the date and why would he add false information or was he being careless?
It is quite possible the radiologist sent the old results, but why would he go back, alter the test results with false information, and send it to my doctor, especially since I was not on the docket for the MRI until later in the day. What would be the urgency of sending the information on the very day the MRI was conducted?
Also, I thought that perhaps the information was from another patient's record. However, an enlarge thymus is rare. On top of that, some key details such as the "remnant" statement was what was initially told to me back in Jan. or Feb of 2010. Personally, I do not know how tissue can go from a remnant to 5.7cm to back to a remnant.
Needless to say, I'm still stumped.
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Re. contrast - - that was up to your doc to specify on the 'order'. If he did not say with and without contrast - they would not use contrast. (you, the patient, always have the right to refuse contrast - but never the right to add it!)
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I understand, but the point I was trying to highlight was the fact that my doctor or radiologist stated the results as if I had an MRI with contrast. On that day, I simply had an MRI. I was not asking for contrast, but in the email it read as if I had contrast.
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First, I would enlist the doc as your advocate against the facility (radiologist) that performed the MRI. Your doc is only relating what he was told. Most never see the actual images of CT or MRI's. Everything is in terms of what the radiologist says (because medicine is so highly compartmentalized - the docs we see rarely 'read' anything in the radiologists pervue...they just report the findings).
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That is true, but the doctor and facility are all one in the same HMO.
In MRIs, the term contrast is used, but it is does not contain iodine like CT scans use. Personally, I avoid CT scans after I was told of the high radiation.
On this particular MRI round, I had to advocate that I wanted an MRI, because my the radiologist ordered a CT scan. I said no way, because that would be three CTs in one year and the purpose of doing the test is to avoid cancer not create it.
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Re: the change in direction on the thymectomy, my first suspicion would be what your insurance requires for 'proof' the procedure is necessary. Believe it or not, some doctor's recommendations on course of treatment are increasingly influenced by insurance companies.
Call me cynical - but medicine is more big business than patient care in many instances. So important for us to be our own advocates.
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I was thinking the same thing.
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My suggestion (just a suggestion) would be to approach the doctor first, and politely, without being accusatory, ask him to explain. If his explanation doesn't satisfy you, you can report it to your state's department of health. My state has a website, with a link on the front page on how to file a complaint. By law they have to follow up.
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I have little faith in governmental agencies. I might run to the media before I trust some bureaucrat to do a quick call and simply file my complaint.
This doctor has now told me two things that have me going hmm....
First, he told me I was on the road to a thymectomy, then there is the email. I will have to ask him, politely, because he is a sweet man, how can this be.
However, foremost, I have to think of my health. I think time is of the essence, especially if something in my body needs to be monitored every six months. It concerns me that the results might be compromised in some fashion, and that someone has
deliberately done that.
Luckily, I have an appointment with the MG Foundation, and hopefully, I will get the "good" doctor. Perhaps, I can share my concerns with him.