Apparently, despite the name and even the appearance of Dr. Crantz being familiar to both my…read morehusband and myself, it appears that I have him confused for another doctor according to his comment that he has not practiced at Fairfax Hospital for some time. My stay there was just a few months ago so it was obviously NOT Dr. Crantz. I have updated with this correction as well as giving five stars as an apology for the mix up. I am truly, truly sorry for the misunderstanding and feel horrible about it! In fact, I am looking for an endocrinologist to see and would like to give Dr. Crantz a try if he will have me as a patient. Again, I am deeply sorry for the confusion.
******************
I was hospitalized at Fairfax Hospital for tachycardia & uncontrolled hypertension. I had been in & out of my local hospital with no real answers & came to Fairfax b/c they have better resources. I have several chronic illnesses & chronic pain so the hospital is often like a second home to me, unfortunately. The past year has been particularly rough with two major surgeries for severe Stage IV endometriosis & difficulties w/ interstitial cystitis.
When Dr. Crantz came into my room, he showed compassion & concern which was desperately needed & appreciated. He did a thorough exam, promised that he would get to the bottom of things & said, "You will not leave here until I have an answer for you." When you are this sick, scared & desperate for answers, a doctor like this is a Godsend. As he left my room, he promised to return to talk to me further about a care plan & eventually, to provide me with the answers I was seeking.
I cried harder than I had in a long time when he left, tears of relief & hope that someone cared enough to figure out what is wrong & I felt I was in great hands. However, being a chronic pain patient as well as someone who is battling chronic illness, my needing frequent hospitalizations automatically qualifies me to be judged as a "frequent flier" AKA a "drug seeker."
Even though I am under the care of a qualified pain management physician & I follow his care plan to a "T," & even though every in-hospital pain management team I have met with understands my care plan & issues with tolerance, I often run into this prejudice & it affects my care negatively. Sadly, this is a common problem that chronic pain patients face. If I was being discriminated against for my faith, orientation or the color of my skin, the doctor would be disciplined if not fired. But it is perfectly acceptable in the medical field to discriminate against those with chronic pain simply because there are some who do abuse the system.
There are no words to describe the humiliation one feels once you realize you are being looked down on & judged for something you have not, nor ever will do (abuse pain medication). When you are more sick than you have ever been in your life, desperate for answers & too weak to fight the system when it turns on you, it is one of the most hopeless, scary & demoralizing positions to be in.
So imagine my disappointment when Dr. Crantz, after looking into my file, where I'm sure I'm clearly labeled for my frequent hospitalizations, would not even come talk to me as promised. He sent the hospitalist in to tell me that he believes my pain medications are the cause of my symptoms (I later consulted with 3 different pain management specialists to see if that was even possible & they all said there is absolutely no medically sound reason for such a judgement, that it would not make any sense for it to be my pain medication causing my issues & that unfortunately, they see this scenario happen frequently to their patients by uninformed doctors who know nothing about pain management & simply act on stereotypes & bias rather than science & facts.
Even though my tests showed a significant adrenal insufficiency, Dr. Crantz refused to treat it & instead advised, through the hospitalist, that I "stop taking all of those pain medications." The very medications that help me function through level 8-10 chronic pain. Medications I have taken for years w/o a problem.
The only thing Dr. Crantz's advice would accomplish is to set me back significantly in my treatment & put me through unnecessary, unbearable pain. He refused to speak to me face to face to discuss my concerns & questions despite his promise to come back. And his promise to not send me home w/o answers was not truly fulfilled. Giving me "answers" that were not medically sound & that were based on an unethical bias & stereotype towards me is not an acceptable answer.