By the middle of November 2007 I had been seen by over 10 doctors in Central and Northern Florida, had lost over 2 months of work in 2007 alone and had lost over 3 pints of blood - incidents at my house, at work, in the car... very scary.
I also lost over 60lbs of weight between November 2006 & December 2007. I know that many doctors looked & saw a large woman & saw fat instead of intelligence in their way of thinking. That didn't help me at all.
And the ulcer got worse. Every time someone needed to do a test or a biopsy to "see what was going on."
While I don't mind diagnostics, I DO mind that my wonderful female women's care primary doctor at the VA made sure that I had up to date culture reports for every doctor but those doctors STILL had to do their own labs and create even more wound boundary jumping not to mention billing nightmares. It has taken me over 4 years to be able to pay off up to 2006. I have no idea when I will be able to BEGIN to pay off 2007's 20%'s or what is going to happen in the rest of 2008. I have a house, I have a small farm. I have AFLAC but even they don't cover the outpatient services that I've been getting for the past 3 months or the hotel that I've had to stay in while getting those services. Why not do this in Central Florida where I live? Because everywhere I went; the money was more important than the patient. Time and time again; looking at the charges for the treatment that I needed; I could not afford to touch these hospitals in the Central Florida region. That isn't to say that this Miami hospital is much less but it is enough of a difference that I felt comfortable with the idea that I could spend TWO MONTHS trying to heal this wound enough so that the Graft doctor, the premier doctor for Collegen Injection grafts; could graft my leg. But, not he's stated, until the infection was under control. Which brings us back to square one. At this time in January 2008; we're up to almost $200,000 in combined insurance money and my 20%'s plus my personal investment to stay in the area for treatments without reduction of the wound - after having numerous crush tests to check for oxygen and blood flow to the wound & then wound matrix and saline poured into the LIVE WITH NERVES wound to "help shrink" the ulcer prior to the graft, the wound has actually GROWN 3 more centimeters in diameter. {think of the wound matrix as a reverse petrie dish just waiting for every opportunistic germ in the air in a hospital setting and you see why I'm not thrilled with getting it even apart from the appalling pain of the saline in the open wound.} NO ONE wanted to be the doctor to try to figure out WHY I had the infection and WHAT was infecting it. Everyone down here wants me to have my PRIMARY Care doctor do it. My primary care doctor isn't an expert in wounds, in spider bite ulcers and her hands are tied WITH ME IN MIAMI. As my VA doctor; she cannot refer outside to doctors; only with the VA & the VA adamantly REFUSES to believe that brown recluse spiders are here in Central Florida. They can only see the Cellulitis and the three CURRENT DRUGS that are used to combat it. All of which are toxic to both the liver and the kidneys and all three of which I am allergic to. They are also overwhelmed with the influx of newly injured Veterans and trying to get appointments as well as timely help has all but dissappeared from the scope of Veterans all over American, not just Central Florida. All in all the rallying cry through out is....You have to do this, you could lose your leg! NO! REALLY? Like it was a revelation to me or something. But there has been NO original thought. Once a doctor saw me for my alloted 15 minutes, my chart would be returned to the file wall and I SWEAR that no one thought of my case again until I was due in for another visit. EVERY DOCTOR so far has come up with the SAME diagnosis, NEVER looked at any other underlying causative effect that might have increased the infection rate & ONLY focussed on the obvious older attacks of cellulitis; and either bandaging the wound or trying to heal the secondary infection instead of addressing the underlying infection. Even when I would find references online to possible other causatives and would bring them to these doctors; I was dismissed for my assumptions that I could think of better things than "his expert opinions as a doctor". I cannot tell you how many times even here in Miami that a doctor has basically dismissed my ideas and suggestions out of hand; simply because they didn't come from a licensed doctor. Unfortunately I can also tell you that it has come from both male & female doctors on occasions as well. It took a paramedic responding to an incident at work where I bled all over the floor before noticing that the wound was bleeding; to say that in their experience in Central Florida running the ambulance corps; my kind of spider bite wound was RARELY cured; that my best bet was to seek out a graft specialist, try to reduce the infection and get a graft. NO DOCTOR ever admitted to not being able to heal the infection. EACH ASSUMED that it was "just" a case of cellulitis & a stupid patient. This stupid patient has an undergraduate degree in Anthropology, Archaeology, with a minor in computers and law; work on a master's in education and who is currently is working on her naturopathic doctoral thesis in herbal supplementation towards a healthy lifestyle. This stupid patient is a registered Advanced First Aider, BLS CPR for infants, adults and seniors and has other certifications to teach adults in both private & military settings. The only healing times that I logged with my leg and my primary care physician can attest to this; with her culture work; was when I would have to go for long periods waiting for a new patient appointment with yet another referral doctor;and I was allowed to work with herbal and over the counter medications. THEN the wound would stabilize and although it wouldn't shrink, it NEVER grew, in my care. Every time I have begun working with another doctor or hospital the FIRST THING that they want me to do is to STOP using what is working and use only their suggestions. When I do that; within weeks I end up getting yet another dose of Cellulitis in the leg; again between the screw holes top and bottom; and they STILL treat me as if it is MY FAULT; that I have caught the infection from what has to be THEIR treatment area. Look at the facts. The wound is never open unless it is being cleaned, matrix is being added or they need to look at it to see if it is "progressing". One dermatologist told me that I wasn't infected enough for him to take the referral from the previous wound care doctor. Then he did a swab culture on my leg even though I had come over WITH a culture report for him. Less than TWO DAYS LATER; I had a VIRULENT ATTACK of Cellulitis that ultimately lost me the nail on my big toe. All calls to the doctors went unanswered; NEITHER doctor had a covering doctor available to take my calls & the response by both of the the nursing staffs was: "Go to your nearest hospital & the doctors will contact you there on Monday!" Not to mention that I had just come off of that restrictive 13 week bedrest by the referring doctor's orders plus the hospitalization for the MRSA which never surfaced while I was in the hospital and COULD NO LONGER afford to miss work...I self treated and went to the VA for covering antibiotics instead. By the time that I finally got to the referring doctor; who said that his staff had never given him any messages from me in over two weeks; his response to my report of the referral doctor visit, the initial comments, the swab culture & the subsequent infection; was to send me a letter divesting himself of my treatment, ostensibly I suppose to keep me from suing him for sending me to the dermatologist in the first place. thank you Central Florida
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