Discussing Pneumonia

the tinyness? probably not accidental

Edgar, I meant to thank you for the suggestion on the colloidal silver. I was so tired I wasn't doing much of anything. I think I mentioned I wound up on 28 days of antibiotics and was hoping that would kill it. For about 16 day after finishing the meds I felt fairly normal, but this past Friday the cough started to return and it's now back full throttle. So far, no fever or excessive fatigue.....and this coming Thursday I will see the 8th specialist I've seen since last August. I hate to be a whiner but this has caused me so many more bad days than good.

So, I'm not hostile about your suggestion, I just never heard about it. I'll start checking into it. Nothing is sounding crazy to me. Again, thanks.

Well, I've been diagnosed with pneumonia again. I freaking can't believe it. I've seen 8 different specialists since last January and those assholes are ping-ponging me around so now I've seen each and everyone of of those healers at least 3 times. Everybody shuffles me off to somebody who in turn shuffles me back to the original 'everybody'. On one hand I'm gloriously blessed because of my health insurance, but on the other these folks have ordered dozens of CAT scans, to the point I can read in the dark by the glow of my own body. It's a colossal waste of insurance money and has prolonged a diagnosis of what the hell is causing my health issues. I'm so disappointed.

Right. I've been through the same since my stroke in February. Appointment after referral after appointment. The same helpers taking vital signs, different doctors asking the same questions and making the same apparently medically useless appoints. I seriously suspect collusion, like there is a quarterly report of doctor referrals. Maybe if one or two don't make enough of them, they stop receiving referrals.

Thanks for the update, miserable piece of difficulty that it is.

I'm not a moneyed person, but if I had the coins and paperwork, I'd check out, what is it, Cleveland Clinic? I pay attention to Mayo, but I've no idea how good they are. My favorite med writer is a surgeon in Massachusetts, but a guy you might be interested in reading about, Atul Guwande. Not to bother him, but people on his staff may have some clue of where to direct you. I don't know if he has that kind of staff though - but he might.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atul_Gawande

I know, it's maddening. They run tests and tell me there is nothing wrong. So why in the hell do they think I'm coming to them? I don't like going to the docs, I especially hate seeing specialists. Those creeps review notes from the dr. Expert I saw last August (2015) and say "who knows?, apparently they don't know" they just read 15 month old notes and remind me what a genius I had in getting to brush up against Dr. Parks. Phooey, I want to feel better.

But holy crap Roger, you had a stroke....I have pneumonia. Your docs should be all over your care. Crap.

To both of you, I was a lucky person that I could go to university in the first place - no tuition back in those days, and via friends and colleagues knew more or less who the kumquats were, and who were the able in the med faculty. This is certainly part of why I got out of breast cancer fast.

Gawande had a major article about changing medical access and the modes of med practice. I posted it here before, and you dismissed a first paragraph, Roger, didn't want to click past that re the New Yorker. I think that was before paywall. He would be on your side. It's the two Texas towns article.

I've had more or less luck with university clinics, probably two dozen times excellent and one piece of **** not so, an earlier one very annoying but not stupid. That's besides the surgeon who fucked up my left eye, not part of any clinic. I recommend university clinics now, if only because they tend to have grand rounds and argue with each other, from my experience running a rheumatology clinic lab.

Besides, you need to get better care, Roger.