Hospital Zine (3)
11/8/20 I only watched a bit presidential debate, but I was laughing so hard. Biden said, “we need to improve energy efficiency of our houses” Trump said “he wants you to have this tiny window. You know what, why not we just don’t use window, no window is the most energy efficient …” “Left?! I don’t know what I should call him” “even 200 feet away, he has this biggest mask that I have ever seen” 😀 Salute to our crazy past 4 years!
Page 4 Medical decisions
This issue may read heavy. But everybody perhaps needs to make medical decisions at some point. So I want to share my experience and hope to bring you some reference.
The earliest evidence of my sickness can trace back to the beginning of 2018. My blood pressure is abnormal when I was at the eye doctor’s office doing routine check-up. But I did not pay attention (advice here: be serious about your health at any time; an early treatment is always good). One year later in 2019 Jan, I again was told to have the abnormal blood pressure at the eye doctor’s office, so I went to see my local provider. She prescribed me some medication. I asked why I had this condition. She said “some people get this condition early in their age related to their family history. Maybe you are just that unlucky!” I asked her to refer me to Mayo. She said, “well, we can do any tests here that Mayo can do, I don’t see the reason for referral. Okay, how about let’s do a stress test for your heart.” The exam shows that my heart functions normal, but my intuition is that the story is not yet over. I talked to my family. My parents don’t know US hospital systems and felt incapable to help. My husband thinks that all the doctors are the same. Advice here: be an independent thinker!
In 2019 Nov, finally I waited until I can change my insurance. I then called Mayo and tried to make an appointment. Mayo made me fill all the survey forms and questionnaires before I can see the right-matched expert. By the time I saw my doctor, it was already May. My doctor was the top expert in this area. In the first visit, she proposed a hypothesis on what might be wrong with me and prescribed a set of lengthy exams. Later for a few months, I went through these exams and it turned out that every result was as she predicted.
Because of the covid, every hospital visit is like to go to the front lines. One time, I got up 5am something and drove about 3 hours to do a CT. At that time, my friend already told me that her father died from a similar medical condition. On my way, I suddenly thought “what if my CT results are not good, and I could mentally collapse and not able to drive back?” “SHIT, I’LL DRIVE BACK ANYWAYS”, I shouted at myself in the car 🙂 I remember that Ian Goodfellow said when he was waiting for his CT result, he was worrying that his research ideas are not able to be finished. I went for a hiking during the 4 hours I was waiting for my CT results. I was thinking what I am not able to finish but not what I am not able to get; indeed very few things matter. It was a very thought-provoking day for me 🙂 I drove back after all around 7 or 8pm that day. I felt so thankful for the smiles the CT nurse had given to me.
After the diagnosis is done, the choice is whether to take medications for the rest of your life or to do a surgery. The surgery cure is relatively new. I sat on my porch for a few days and literally read many papers to understand different perspectives. I finally decided to do a surgery and decided to go through it by myself. I felt happy to keep my family safe from covid and caused minimum troubles for them.
