12/15/23

 I woke up at 4 am with a stabbing pain in my gut. Ut oh! I know what that pain is. Diverticulitis flare up AGAIN! No!!!!

As the sun came up, I called the colo-rectal office to report that my symptoms have started again. I spoke with a receptionist and then a nurse. The nurse was going to check and see if I could just get antibiotics or if I needed to be seen, and then call me back.

6 hours later I hadn’t hear anything. That is a little alarming on a Friday, when the office closed in a couple hours. I called again to inquire and insisted that I either need antibiotics or further direction on how to treat this (or euthanasia?).

Shortly after, a nurse called me. I explained my situation. It’s the same pain, in the same location, that I had imaging done on 3 weeks ago.

Here’s the part that made me tilt my head like a dog trying to understand.  The nurse said that she would be willing to send home one antibiotic only. Hmmmm?

I inquired why this bout would be treated differently than the previous time. Instead of an explanation, She said “I can send home 2 antibiotics if you want.”. 

I paused for a moment. What did I “want”? I wanted someone to give me guidance with intentions for the best medical outcome. The same guidance they would give their mother.

It didn’t make sense to me why we would treat this the first time with two separate antibiotics for 10 days and then expecting only one antibiotic, for 5 days to do the trick. The results the first time around were, symptoms resolved. Let’s stick with what worked. I am half worried that the infection was knocked down significantly but not completely resolved, and slowly got worse.

She was only willing to do a 5 day supply of antibiotics. When I got them home, they were a different strength than what was originally prescribed. The strength on one of the antibiotics is 150 mg LESS than what it was the first time around. Ugh!

What happens to people that don’t notice those things? 

I understand I have a trust issue with the medical community. I don’t like feeling this way. I know so many nurses and doctors that have helped us, and are wonderful people. I know the intent comes from a good place and they want to help me get better. But it is incidents like this that make me so hyper aware, and question everything. It adds to the anxiety of not feeling well which is frustrating.

I am glad that they agreed to giving me antibiotics without seeing me. I did appreciate that.

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