I was having persistent dull, stabbing, painful stomach pain for months. I took famotidine for months and pantoprazole without any luck. My pcp referred me to specialist and I am medi-cal, full scope. In October, the doctor was nice, he asked me to do endoscopy, ultrasound. My ultrasound must have come very good but heard no words. It was ok to me. My mom told me to wait and not doing endoscopy.
After calling to cancel endoscopy due to my mom suggestion, it was so hard to ask the office to place a new authorization, due to receiptionist was rude, diminishing, and saying that I needed to see the doctor first. It is true, that I needed to see the doctor first, but how can he tell if I have something wrong from physical exam? The receiptionist did not even mention that I had a prior authorization. It was approved before. Though, I was sure I would not have cancer, I would like a caring office that supports patient and will not deter sick patient looking for help.
I changed my mind in January, because I was helpless as my stomach felt so worse. I needed doctor to explain what happened to me. The receiptionist even pretended to forget and did not read my profile, pretended to be mistaken me with other patient (she was thinking I wanted to be important, so she revenged by pretending to forget about me, instead I was really sick and needing diagnose), pretended to ask if I had colonoscopy, which I realized clearly, she was laughing about it like she had mental illness. Luckily, after I reminded her that I had authorization already, they were nice to schedule me fast and in 1 week, gave me an endoscopy for first thing in the morning. I now thank the doctor and other staffs very much. The nurses were so kind and attentive when putting me with anesthesia. The endoscopy was fully safe. After that, the nurse said it was normal.
Weeks after that, there was no explanation of what's going on. Of course, I have no cancer, if that's what normal means. But normal by my own understanding was even having no erosion, a perfect and healthy stomach. Far from that, my stomach has erosion, small kind of ulcer or erosion. I asked them for a report. There was not even explanation, receptionist was like whatever, even whatever I said, for example, "Will i hear something about it in 2 weeks (hoping they will care enough to say I have erosion or small kind of ulcer)?", she pretended to say yes.
I felt like specialist was only for gravely ill patients that have cancer, so if your stomach suffers badly from erosion and a little ulcer, you should still ask pcp, who will not wanna responsible and say anything, and send you to GI again. Of course, I could not deny I feel pain in my stomach, so I watched my diet.
I was not prescribed anything after the endoscopy despite my stomach had erosion and kind of ulcer. After seeing the result, I was very careful when eating and avoiding all acidic food, despite got confused why the doctor did not say anything. I even asked my pcp but he said he could not read it and would need biopsy. I would have appreciated it if specialist explained from endoscopy picture I had some problems. Patients would be happy to hear about it, despite they were minor and would disappear if I watch my diet and take medicine.
On consultation day after endoscopy, the receiptionist pretended to ask where my authorization paper was. They did not know I still had my ulcer, expected me to show up healthily? I showed it to her for compliance, she laughed about it cause she was pretending, enjoying it. I knew ulcer will go away but even the receptionist laughed at me when I worried so much about my stomach (it's hard to believe she was not supportive of people health) as my stomach was still very painful, while holding the endoscopy paper. The sickest thing I experienced w medi-cal is that staffs enjoy mocking people in pain while they were really having illnesses because it's medi-cal (full-scope). I think world will be a better place regardless of insurance type, if practicioners really care. I did not pretend to get sick. The GI lied to me when I pointed the picture of my stomach erosion, and he said it was esophagus, though clearly it was my stomach. Why can I know? The doctor was stingy with words, never diagnosed me with anything, not even gastritis or erosion. After pretending to believe it was esophagus not stomach, and was no longer cared about my stomach despite it was very painful, he prescribed me with famotidine and 2 refills. Thank you very much for that. I even bought fried rice, cause I forgot about erosion. Then, my stomach felt so painful again. These people lack of words really simplified the problem. I would have appreciated it if specialist or staff said that I had gastritis, or gave tips about eating kale, spinach, cabbage, but no words. So far after 3 months, I recovered myself by juicing cabbage and kale, spinach. They just assume I would recover by myself. read more