Saturday, February 28, 2009

Live like an ostrich

Roc's health has been our overwhelming concern the past week. To recap: I took him in to our regular vet because of a coughing/hacking sound he makes about once a day. I thought he probably needed some new medication to deal with his gastric reflux. Since it was our second visit for the same issue, our vet recommended some x-rays and blood work.
When I went to pick Roc up, the vet was extremely concerned about some anomalies she found in his x-rays: his trachea was constricted near his heart, his lungs were expanding extremely unevenly, there was an indistinct shadow in his stomach.
We decided that to figure out what we were dealing with, I should take Roc to the veterinary specialty clinic for an ultrasound of his abdomen.
I did, and it wasn't fun. The internist and the radiologist decided, probably without ever laying hands or stethoscope on Roc, that they "did not appreciate any abnormalities" in the x-rays. I kept after it, asking about and pointing to the areas of concern on the x-rays.
But they'd decided that nothing was wrong; offered no explanations and basically made me feel like I was an idiot, wasting their time, and suffering from Munchausen by Puppy Proxy syndrome.
I went back to our regular vet, whom we know, trust, rely on and respect. And we talked about Roc. The upshot is that whatever's going on with him doesn't really matter. If we were to discover tumors, what could we do about them, considering their location and probable lethality? We'll treat his symptoms, we'll keep him happy and comfortable. And if we lose him to any of the nasties the x-ray suggested, we're going to report those "specialists" to the American Veterinary Medical Association.
We actually hope the specialists were right. But we're not counting on it.
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1 comment:

Johann The Dog said...

Oh wow, that's different! Have to tell you that one doc sent my Mum once to another doc because they were convinced Mum was diabetic?

Well, the second doc said that she wasn't even close! She thought bout having the first doc pay for the second docs visit, but was so happy she wasn't sick she forgot about it.

Docs, can't live with em, can't live without em, sheesh! BOL! Glad there wasn't anything found. Feel better Roc!!!