My Grandma has been seeing this “doctor” for the last few years and we’ve never really liked her. She doesn’t listen to what we have to say because she is the “doctor” and knows better. The thing is, she’s not an MD. She’s just a Physician’s Assistant.
My Gram has been going there since she moved to the High Desert in 2004 and has never actually seen the MD in the office. All of her appointment’s have been with the PA.
I know that some PA’s are probably great and actually know what they are doing, but she doesn’t.
When I moved back to California the Summer of 2006 I stayed with my Gram for a few months. At that point I realized that she was frequently out of breath just from walking down the hall from her bedroom to the livingroom. I’d go with her to her appointment’s and tell the “doctor” this, she’d listen to her lungs, stick the oxygen sensor on her finger and say she was fine.
She was anything but fine. After having a minor stroke she was diagnosed with COPD and asthma. Considering she started smoking when she was 18 and quit when Rapunzel was born we were surprised that she didn’t have emphysema too.
COPD kinda works like this. If your lungs were a balloon just out of the package it’s nice and compressed, this would be when you exhale. If you were to blow up the balloon, inhale, and then release the air, exhale, some air would still be trapped in the balloon. This is what happens with COPD. You can take a good breath in, but you can’t expel all the used oxygen when you exhale. So, when you take another breath in you aren’t really getting enough oxygen.
Our little detour brings us to the beginning of July. My Gram had an asthma attack, which brough on a panic attack, which made the asthma attack worse. This landed her in the hospital for a few days and thenm a care center for another week. The entire time she was in the hospital and care center she was on continous oxygen. Which is what happened every time she was in teh hospital. Yet when she would go home they would say her oxygen levels were fine and she didn’t need it.
It seemed that no matter what we did we couldn’t get them to test her when she was walking around or just after she’d been walking. They always tested her while she was in bed. Well, I talked to the social worker at the care center and found out why they said she didn’t qualify. Something the PA and nurse’s wouldn’t do, they just said she didn’t qualify. In order for her to qualify her o2 levels had to drop to 89 or lower, at rest her levels were 93.
The good thing was that when she left teh care center she was going to have a nurse and physical therapist come out to evaluate her at home. The day the nurse came out she fell trying to sit on the couch while talking to the nurse. Other than bruising she wasn’t injured, if you don’t count her pride. It was the best thing that could have happened. The nurse said, I’m calling the Dr. and telling them you need to be evaluated for home oxygen, if you weren’t out of breath you wouldn’t have fallen down.
That was music to my ears. the next morning a RN came over and listened to her lungs and checked her oxygen levels while sitting, she wa at 94. She had her get up and walk to her bedroom with her walker, about 50 feet, and checked her again, she was at 83. The RN actually did a double take, because at first she thought it said 88.
Two days later Apria called and said they were bring out a condensor for her and portable tanks. They even left a five foot oxygen tank in case her power went out. She was prescribed two liters 24/7. After two years of trying she had oxygen within a week of coming home.
This brings us to Tuesday, the RN came out and checked on Gram. When she left she called my Mom and said take her to urgent care because her lungs don’t sound clear.
The urgent care Dr. gave my Gram a different inhaler because the Advair wasn’t working well enough for her. he also said that she needed to see a pulmonary specialist.
My Mom took her home and made an appointment with my Gram’s “doctor.”
Thursday, my Mom gets my Gram to the doctor with her walker and portable oxygen tank and everything seems fine. Until the “doctor” walks in. She literally walked in the door, took one look at my Gram and said, “Oh, no, you don’t need that;” and made her take it off.
When my Mom explained that the RN had her tested and determined that she needed it the “doctor” disagreed. When my Mom said that the urgent care Dr. also recommended that she see a pulmonary specialist, she responded with a flat out “no.” She said that the RN didn’t know anything because she ddin’t have enough training. She even went as far as to say that the urgent care Dr. didn’t know anything either because he was just a physician’s assistant with one year’s experience and not an actual doctor.!! So is she!! She’s not a Md, she’s just a PA!!
My Mom almost told her that a PA is who almost killed my Dad nine years ago when she misdiagnosed the begining of diabetic shock as a stomach infection and sent him home with an antibiotic on Friday. On Sunday he was in the hospital in a diabetic coma. My Mom is a better than person than I am because I would have let her have it. All of it.
The nurse took my Gram’s levels and of course she was fine. But when my Mom told the nurse to have my Gram take a walk down the hall and then check her everything changed. My Gram didn’t get more than three steps when her levels dropped.
Then the “doctor” said, well I guess I’ll go ahead and write a prescription for you to have oxygen 24/7 at home. We’ll make arrangements to have it delivered to you.
My Mom just looked at her like she was an idiot. I mean where does she think my Gram got the oxygen tank inthe first place, the o2 fairy? My Mom told the “doctor” that my Gram already had a condensor, five portable tanks, and a large back-up tank if the power went out. the “doctor” just kinda said, well, oh. She even had the gall to tell my Gram that she had the right to see the MD for a second opinion. No s**t, really???
I don’t know what or who this lady thinks she is, but I can’t wait until my gram starts to see someone else. Just writing this has made my blood pressure rise.
We’ve known for years that she needed oxygen. It’s nice to see it finally happen.
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