Bad story just got badder

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

I guess I am using you to vent and to see if I am making the right

decision.

Here are the relevant facts about what has been going on with

my ERCP appointment:

In June my doc and I made the appointment for an ERCP

manometry. Because I am going under general anesthesia and

he only does them on thursdays, the soonest we could get all

the teams together was September 4th. While I was on vacation

he sent me a generic " dear patient " letter saying he was leaving

his practice and " good luck with your future endeavors " type of

thing. When I got back to work, I contacted the GI lab nurse (not

his) and she was just aware of his leaving and advised that I

needed to cancel the appointment (after all, no doc to do it). So

after a lot of hard work on her part, she managed to sneak me

onto another doctors schedule on the 5th of Sept. In the

meantime, the doctor-who-is-leaving nurse reassured me that

he would see that I had any meds that I need to get me through

the lapse. I have yet to find a new doctor to give me follow-up

care as the one who agreed to do the ERCP is doing only that,

nothing more. A friend is using personal contacts to get me in to

see the best manometry / pancreas guy here but has yet to

arrange it. Here's the kicker:

This weekend I had basically the worse four days of this since

the acute attack a couple of years ago. I called this am and

asked the doctor-who-is-leaving nurse if he could offer any

advice on how to deal with this, stop the colic once it starts and

to double up my script. seeing that I doubted that it would get me

through til I find a new doctor. He refused (he will give me a

small script though) and said that if I am so bad I need to move

up the ERCP. Now, I have no confidence in the way this guy has

handled the whole thing as far as not making any attempts to

transfer my care, and now for him to hold over my head the meds

that he promised, at the decision to let him do an " urgent " ERCP

with no plans made for any follow-up care once he leaves (he

could leave within a week of doing the procedure, if not the day

after, depending on when this is scheduled). I refused, but the

nurse said that I should think it over.

anyways, I am upset about this right now, and not making much

sense, but feel that I am being blackmailed, so to say. Should I

just do it and get it over with? or trust my instincts that say

something is not right? But then, I can hardly bear to think about

going on like this for another four weeks!

Any thoughts?

Laurie