Diagno$i$ Reflux
What do people without medical and drug insurance do? I have been sick for over two months. During that time, I have had X-rays, CT scans, been prescribed several different (and pricey) medicines, had blood tests, lung function tests, even a test of my sputum. And I have gone to an internist, an allergist, two pulomonologists, and an ENT doctor. The statements from my medical and drug insurance policies are starting to filter down to me. It’s involved thousands of dollars. With all of this, the end result seems to be:
You were really sick, had something that was in your lungs. You’re better. We don’t know what it was. It’ll take another couple of months to fully recover.
Today’s visit was to an ENT specialist. It’s been so long and complex, I actually gave him a one-page bullet-point summary of all my symptoms with a time line, who I have been to, what the diagnoses have been, what tests I have had, what medicines I have been on, and the latest thinking from my lung specialist that the coughing was acid reflux induced.
He looked into my ears (cleaned out some wax), nose, and throat. He sprayed some stuff into my nose that deadened that side and my throat. Then he inserted a lit optic device into my nose and down to my larynx. He said that where the vocal chords come together, it was red, but this was to be expected from 10 weeks of coughing—each time you cough, it slams the chords together. Since there are no lymphs that clear vocal chord bruising, it would be a while before they healed and this is the cause of my hoarse voice. However, he did not see damage to the area of the vocal chords that would be caused by acid reflux.
Bottom line, then, was that he really loves acid reflux as a cause of many things, if I have any, it’s mild and not the cause of the coughing. He ascribes what I had/have to some virus that got into my lungs.
So when I asked for diagnosis votes, those of you who said “Some unknown confluence of things that no one will really figure out and will go away some day” are probably correct.
Think of the vein punctures, spitting, radiation, doctor visits, medicines, and insurance costs I could have avoided had I followed your advice.
You were really sick, had something that was in your lungs. You’re better. We don’t know what it was. It’ll take another couple of months to fully recover.
Today’s visit was to an ENT specialist. It’s been so long and complex, I actually gave him a one-page bullet-point summary of all my symptoms with a time line, who I have been to, what the diagnoses have been, what tests I have had, what medicines I have been on, and the latest thinking from my lung specialist that the coughing was acid reflux induced.
He looked into my ears (cleaned out some wax), nose, and throat. He sprayed some stuff into my nose that deadened that side and my throat. Then he inserted a lit optic device into my nose and down to my larynx. He said that where the vocal chords come together, it was red, but this was to be expected from 10 weeks of coughing—each time you cough, it slams the chords together. Since there are no lymphs that clear vocal chord bruising, it would be a while before they healed and this is the cause of my hoarse voice. However, he did not see damage to the area of the vocal chords that would be caused by acid reflux.
Bottom line, then, was that he really loves acid reflux as a cause of many things, if I have any, it’s mild and not the cause of the coughing. He ascribes what I had/have to some virus that got into my lungs.
So when I asked for diagnosis votes, those of you who said “Some unknown confluence of things that no one will really figure out and will go away some day” are probably correct.
Think of the vein punctures, spitting, radiation, doctor visits, medicines, and insurance costs I could have avoided had I followed your advice.
posted by Bud Hirsch at 3:24 PM
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