Cynde - Doctor search

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Cynde,Heya neighbor! I'm in Mt Vernon, DebbieC in Anacortes, and Gloria just over the border in BC.Glad you're interviewing your doctors, make a good choice before you decide on anything! If you need any references further north, I treated at the Everett Clinic GI department, still have some good nurse contacts and my liver specialist was excellent.SteveLife is much more fun when thought of as a scavenger hunt as opposed to a surprise party. Jimmy Buffett [ ] Clinical Encounter Report

Hi

Well I went to that new Doctor and asked him a bunch of questions. Like, Do you know the Standard of Care for HepC patients? That woke him up a bit. I got referrals for ultrasound, my last one was a year ago. And there’s a new hepatology clinic in town; so I got a referral to that. I’m in Seattle, BTW.

The other hepatologist, Maggie Shuhart, does a clinic every Thursday morning at the charity hospital, Harbor View. Now there is another one, at Swedish Hospital, in conjunction with their new Transplant Clinic. Since I’ve already talked to Shuhart and been to the Harbor View clinic, I decided to go see what this new hepatology clinic is all about.

There was recently a case here in Seattle where the hospital refused to give a liver transplant to a Medical Marijuana patient, because they consider Medical Marijuana users “drug addicts.†So I said to this new General Practitioner, well, that sounds nice over at Swedish, but they won’t give me a transplant because I use Medical Marijuana. But he told me that the new Swedish hepatologist had spoken to their clinic, and said that they are no longer absolutely refusing transplants to MM users.

Not that I want a transplant; it’s about the most revolting, disgusting thing I could imagine. But the body has this way of wanting to live, and who knows what I would decide when the time comes.

I want to thank, I think it was Teri, who recommended I go into these doctor visits with the attitude that I have my sick baby, my liver, and I have to take charge and press for answers. It worked for me, and I felt more grown up than I have . . . well, ever.

Cynde