Sent letter to first surgeon who played waiting game.

So I decided that I wanted the first surgeon to know what ended up happening after he decided what my course of treatment should be after my appointment on April 30th.

So I wrote a letter and put a lot of thought into it, and asked some friends in the medical field with help writing it.

I didn't want to be rude, but I wanted him to see things from my perspective and what I had gone through up to the point I was in the hospital and then afterwards when I decided to go for a second opinion.

Here is the letter I wrote.

Is it too harsh? Or did I get my point across?

Dr. XXXXXXX,

I wanted to take a moment to thank you for treating me while I was in XXXXXXXXXX Medical Center on April 13-15, 2015 with what the ER doctors thought was a bad gallbladder, and also my follow up appointment on April 30th, 2015 in your office.

After being presented with the treatment plan (another month on the BRAT diet, and Reglan instead of Zofran to see if it helped with my nausea) I decided to do some research on my own, listened to my body and decided to seek out a second opinion on my case.

By the time of my appointment on April 30th, I had been on the BRAT/soft diet for close to 3 months. I had a stress test, 2 ultrasounds, an upper gi, an endoscopy, a HIDA scan, and countless blood work. Even while I was following the restricted diet, I was still getting sick after every meal, and was losing considerable amounts of weight. I was miserable and in pain every day. I got to the point where I dreaded eating because I knew 60-90 minutes later, I would be sick. I had to give up hockey because I didn't have the physical energy to play because of the diet. In the end I had to listen to my body because I wasn't getting better.

The surgeon who I went to see for my second opinion came to the conclusion that my issues were more than likely being caused by a bad gallbladder. They recommended that I have it removed. They went over the pros and cons of the surgery and that in their cases, the removal of the gallbladder relieved the symptoms in 75% of the cases. They left the decision up to me and after careful consideration and thought; I went ahead with the surgery. The surgeon also had me have a CT scan before the surgery to make sure there weren't any other issues. The only other issue it showed was that I had a fatty liver.

I had the surgery on June 8th. I was kept overnight due to some excessive bleeding when they performed the liver biopsy, due to my fatty liver. The next morning, I had breakfast and lunch at the hospital before being discharged and for the first time in 4-5 months, I didn't experience any pain, nausea or dry heaving after eating. At my follow up last week, the surgeon told me that my gallbladder showed signs of chronic disease and contained 7-10 stones. The surgeon also told me that they see at on average a case a week like mine where all the tests come back normal, but the gallbladder is the culprit causing all the issues.

Since the surgery, I have not had a single symptom that I had experienced during the previous 4-5 months. My appetite has returned. My eating habits have returned to close to normal. I don’t feel sick anymore after eating. I don’t get nauseated or dry heave. I don’t experience any pain in my back or under my ribcage after I eat. I haven’t had to take a single Zofran either.

Again, I wanted to say thank you for attending to my medical needs while I was under your care, but I am relieved that I was able to find a surgeon who was flexible enough to take their patients input and concerns into consideration as well.

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