Bean...and other Dr. Elariny patients...

Please tell me you got an ultrasound on your gallbladder, because what you've described sounds just like my gallstones. Even if your gallbladder is removed, you can form gallstones in your duct which can cause intense pain in the center of your stomach that comes in waves. It's worth checking out. Good luck and hope you feel better soon.

 Bonnie: Thank you so much. I appreciate your words of wisdom. Its really no fun to be in pain and feel like I am being attacked on a board where I felt I could come to talk about all my issues with what is going on. 

I hate the ER's but kept hoping there would be someone who would think of something else and then I would get some relief. I really hope the EGD sheds some light on this pain and what can be causing it. 

You can still come here for support.  Other than one person, everyone else is being pretty supportive.

I hope you get answers so that your pain can soon be a thing of the past.

You are doing the right thing.  Keep after them until you get answers that will bring you relief.

Michele

Honey, it's one person who's being a pain in the ass, well, and a second person who should never have started this thread in the first place, but she does a lot of stupid things in life. Use your block button, at least until you're feeling more like yourself again. Customize the forum to your needs.

I continue to harbor strong suspicions that your endometriosis has spread enough to make you miserable in new places. I'd wonder about gallbladder, too--don't remember if you still have yours. (Details blur together sometimes.)

We all remember Bean's tantrums when she was not getting the attention she wanted from Dr. E. She's revising history with every post about it.

It just seems strange that so many doctors have requested your surgical reports to no avail. Could you do me a favor and call Dr. E.'s office to verify the fax number that they use to process these requests? I'm thinking that there might be a chance that the number you have been providing might have a number transposed or something and the requests are landing in the trash at a used car dealership.

It can't hurt to double check, anyway. Your husband can call for something like this since hearing them is a problem for you on the phone.

I also agree with whoever above suggested taking Prilosec twice daily. I couldn't have survived without it and I still take it once daily. Hopefully, this will resolve your GERD/reflux issues.

I am so sorry that you are still in pain and dealing with the frustration of not discovering the cause. But, I have to say that after exploratory surgery by Dr. E. and a contrast CT scan, any relation to your DS has been reasonably ruled out. That is probably what he meant when he wrote that you didn't need to follow up with him on your discharge instructions. He probably DOES still want you to follow up with him regarding your DS, but he has done what he could for THIS issue and ruled out a bariatric surgery cause.

Do you have a gallbladder? Is there any chance this is pancreatic? There are other avenues to explore now.

Best wishes to you for a speedy resolution to this problem. xoxo

Please keep in touch.

These are valid points.

 Goodness!  I'm so concerned for you OP and hope you are able to get this resolved soon.  But this is really the first time I've read of other people having problems with Dr. E's staff, especially Alex.  I met a woman at the exercise group last week who said she decided to go with another surgeon because of Alex.  I had the impression prior to this that everyone adored Alex;  the surgeon reviews of Dr. E have raves about her.  I haven't yet met Dr. E (my pre-op appt was with Dr. Saba), but Alex and Curtis yes.  

Kim, I hope you don't give up on trying to get this resolved, and I hope that you will still come here and post about it.   You didn't mention if they did do a sonogram of your gallbladder?  Man I hope you get this resolved soon and are feeling better, but even so, that doesn't change the fact that this office has clearly CLEARLY dropped the ball on getting your records to you.  And they shouldn't tell patients to email them if they don't answer the emails, for goodness sakes!  It is so unprofessional!  

I am so sorry that you are still in pain and dealing with this for so long. I'm shocked that you & your doctors have been unable to get your OP reports after multiple tries, sure sounds fishy to me too. I pray that you get the help you need & your pain is lifted
Leslie

Editing to include HHS link:

http://www.hhs.gov/ocr/privacy/hipaa/administrative/privacyr ule/index.html

Operative reports are on file at the hospital and should be requested from the hospital medical records department. Under HIPAA guidelines, one is entitled access to your own medical records with a proper release of information unless the records are being used in a legal case (subpeona is required for legal cases, I believe) or could possibly harm them (example, psychotherapy notes). The release of information needs to be on a HIPAA compliant form and one is required to pay any associated administrative fees. If one is asking another physician to get the records, then that physician needs to have a proper authorization to obtain the information from the patient and must make the request to the hospital using the appropriate HIPAA compliant forms.

I obtained my operative report from INOVA Fairfax years ago without incident.

My experience with Dr. Elariny was and continues to be very good. I had DS post op issues and remember being very frustrated. I learned to be persistent and to take a very active role in my own health care. I also learned that panicking and stressing about it did not help; it actually exacerbated the problems I was having and made it difficult to diagnose the actual cause. It took a while, but we figured it out and got it fixed. I have followed up with Dr. E for years for non-DS related issues found during my pre-op testing and have had good experiences. Just had to learn to be my own advocate and to be persistent. Something else that helped me was to really practise the philosophy that you 'catch a lot more bees with honey rather than vinegar.' I had to keep in mind that I needed the people on the other end of the phone, in the office, the hospital, etc. to help me and to treat them accordingly.

Kim, so sorry you are going through this. I hope that you get answers soon.

Sharon