Dr. Rosenberg gets 2 stars because he didn't keep me waiting too long past my appointment time, and…read morehe did spend more than 10 minutes with me. Unfortunately, it didn't do any good. He treated me like a moron, didn't listen, and didn't solve my problem. So he only gets 2 stars.
I was born with my right ureter through a muscle, which caused many kidney infections as a child. The local doctor misdiagnosed this as backwash. Luckily, my mom persevered and got a correct diagnosis and I was successfully operated on when I was 6.
Last year (at 28), I had 3 kidney infections within 6 months. I thought this was a problem, so I starting the slow path through the insurance and doctoral hoops until I finally got to a urologist, who had a test done, which revealed that (surprise surprise) my right kidney had reduced functioning. He said this was likely due to scar tissue from the childhood operation, and could be fixed easily enough. Unfortunately, I moved to SF before we could get on with the fixing. The old urologist recommended Dr. Rosenberg here in SF, and I immediately made an appointment in hopes that we could start out where I had left off with other urologist.
I brought with me my chart from the other urologist, including the results of the kidney function test. I wrote down my whole history in their "new patient" forms, and then told it all to Dr. Rosenberg. He pretended to listen, and then proceeded with the generally uncomfortable process of manually exploring my urinary tract. Below is a small excerpt of the frustrating conversation that ensued:
Dr: It's probably backwash.
Me: Actually, that is what I was misdiagnosed with as a child.
Dr: Hmm. So, where's your scar?
Me: On my lower abdomen.
(Dr. examines scar on lower abdomen)
Dr: Well, that is not where the scar should be, if the operation was what you said. It should be up here on your side.
(Dr. proceeds to physically turn me and search for a scar on my side. Like there really might be a scar there that I had not noticed in the past quarter century. Like maybe I got a long thin scar on my lower abdomen through some other childhood scrape, like, I dunno, falling off a bike, and that distracted me from the REAL surgery scar on my side, unnoticed by me until the astute Dr. pointed it out.)
Me: Um, no, I am sure I don't have a scar on my side. I don't know exactly how they did the operation, but I know it was my ureter through a muscle.
Dr. (giving up on searching for the elusive side scar, but with no explanation as to the actual scar on my lower abdomen): Couldn't have been. It's probably backwash.
If you have backwash, go to Dr. Rosenberg.
For any other problem and/or for an actual doagnosis, go elsewhere.
I am.