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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Hepatitis / March 2009why don't dr.s catch the dragon earlier?
It's a little late to be asking this, but I can't help wondering why my regular dr. never detected the virus until last year. I saw him 3-4 times a year every year, for years. I had problems with low energy long before they found it. And to the best of my recollection, he never even looked for hep-c. It was walk in clinic dr. who spotted it. jb > It's a little late to be asking this, but I can't help wondering why > my regular dr. never detected the virus until last year. I saw him [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > it. > jb Dunno. I kind of had the same experience. Lots of seemingly unrelated symptoms, including severe pain in my side. I kept going back and going back....had a CAT scan of my liver (normal, they said--I wonder), was sent to a specialist for possible rheumatoid arthritis (that doctor scoffed at my GP). GP finally got frustrated with me and I got frustrated with him--he was just treating symptoms and I was fed up--so I saw one of his associates instead. The associate--a cute curly-headed guy fresh out of medical school-- took one look at my red-spotted neck and said, "I think there might be something wrong with your liver." The rest, as they say, is history. > It's a little late to be asking this, but I can't help wondering why > my regular dr. never detected the virus until last year. I saw him [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > it. > jb The same thing happened to me. My previous regular doctor mentioned it a couple of times over the course of a number of years: "...your liver enzymes are a little high but I don't think it's anything to be concerned about..." He was assuming a couple of things about previous lifestyle, etc. My newest regular doctor caught it right away. lucky us cactus jammies > It's a little late to be asking this, but I can't help wondering why > my regular dr. never detected the virus until last year. I saw him [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > it. > jb Bad training > > It's a little late to be asking this, but I can't help wondering why > > my regular dr. never detected the virus until last year. I saw him [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > > Bad training I think one of the biggest reasons is that the damn hmo's try to save $ by doing the least possible work and maximize profits by cranking out patients like an assembly line. god forbid they actually tried to find out whats' really wrong with someone. Like CJ said: "My previous regular doctor mentioned it a couple of times over the course of a number of years: "...your liver enzymes are a little high but I don't think it's anything to be concerned about..." Exact same thing here, with the exception that I was asking IN THE CONTEXT of knowing I had had a case of hepatitis many many years ago, when I was just out of high school. These were very specific question regarding those mildly elevated enzymes as relating to past experience with hepatitis, and was my liver being monitored adequately thru regular testing and bloodwork...He also felt it was nothing to be concerned about and never considered that maybe additional testing might be in order and I of course didn't know better! I thought I was DOING the right things. I had no idea that there WAS additional tests, had I known I would have insisted! In my case as well, it was a nurse practitioner I saw on an unrelated matter who immediatley scoped in the fact that the numbers had been going up every so slightly for at least three years and insisted on the Hep Screen - the rest is History now of course. I would like to add tho that I find it ultimately amusing at best to consider the questions they ask now every year at the "Annual Physical" - 1. "Do you feel safe at Home?" "Yeah, I got rid of him years ago" 2. "Do you wear a seatbelt?" "Always!" 3. "Did you ever have a blood transfusion and was it prior to 1990" Whoops oh silly me they don't ask THAT one, do they???? Its a bit of a sore point with me as well. Try walking around telling people did you know that if you ever had a blood trasfusion years ago, like in childbirth, surgery, any transfusion, that YOU have a one if five chance that you could have the same thing and not even know it??? :( They tend to not be receptive... > It's a little late to be asking this, but I can't help wondering why > my regular dr. never detected the virus until last year. I saw him [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > it. > jb I ask myself the same question. My diagnosis took over 20 years of switching gps and being referred to specialists (including a psychaitrist!) for my persistent "unrelated and vague symptoms." My lft scores were not elevated enough to cause concern. I had told them of an incident in the early 80s that was textbook acute hepatitis. They knew that I had used i.v. drugs, had tattoos, pierced ears and a host of other risk factors including dental surgery and line-up inocculations in primary school. All my honesty got my was "IV DRUG HISTORY" at the top of my file and a suspicion that I was faking symptoms for prescriptions. At the end of the day it didn't much matter because, had I been diagnosed earlier, I would have suffered more and perhaps not succeeded with tx (pre-pegylated days for the interferon). I am a bit choked that, upon diagnosis, my liver was damaged to the stage of bridging fibrosis-cirrhosis (no consensus among doctors, no interest in clarifying). I am left with no trust of or faith in the medical profession in general. This may not be a bad thing. |
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