Bad Visit To ER & Breach of Confidentiality

Dr. Ettinger and Ally

This was probably the first time I had a problem with getting treatment. I really felt it was unnecessary and even though he was so seemingly nice in person, and even held my hand ?, when he was walking out the door, I noticed a different expression on his face.

When I go in for migraine treatment, which I had to do today, I just expect "what works" and we figured it out so I haven't departed from that, and neither have ANY of the doctors in Wenatchee since I've been back from the East Coast. Even if they hate me, they've been professional or good about doing what has worked.

Which is very minimal: 1 shot ergotamine and 2 vicodin (100 mgs). The Vicodin takes care of pain and helps me to relax and then somehow the ergotamine fixes the base problem. Well, I still have a slightly nagging headache, not from migraine mainly, but it's still sort of there, and I am upset that this doctor decided to try something different and both he and the nurse were deceiptful in what they were doing.

I kid you not, I've had to have different docs and they know what I've been through with migraine so at the very least, they've ALL, even the ones who were so ornry before, all have just done what works. It's easy for everyone.

But no. Not today. And not only that, it wasn't 10 minutes after I'd left that I discovered someone had talked about the color of my underwear to everyone. The only people who saw it were Ally and the doctor. For some reason, I think it was Ally. I just cannot imagine the doctor wanting to tell anyone what the main color of my underwear was. That would be more of a malicious woman thing.

I noticed too, that Ally was uncharacteristically pleasant. It was like she was a totally different person when just weeks earlier she was so pissed looking and scowling at me, I had no clue why and what about, but I figured she'd been the one to call the security guard. So it was like night and day. I wondered if she had just changed her mind about me and then realized, no, she was only putting on an act.

So the doctor said he'd give me the standard, and then when she came back, she did say he'd ordered an anti-metic or antihistamine (which I'm allergic to and told him I couldn't take). So I said yeah, rather not. So then she said he ordered the liquid version of the Vicodin and she told me it was just like the 2 pills but in liquid form. So I said okay and she poured it from an opaque container into a little plastic cup. I drank it and then she was clearing things away and I said, "Could I look at the container please?" and she gave it to me and it was still almost half full of liquid. I just wanted to confirm it was Vicodin but I also noticed it was 500 mgs. So she tried to say something dismissively about there being some left but it wasn't needed.

So then, after I'd been examined by the doc (who saw my bra from the back at least) and then had a shot (by Alley, who saw my underwear), I still had the headache. It was throbbing and I said, "How many mgs do I usually get? I think this is too low, what I was given." She said she thought I'd gotten 7.5 or 750 mgs. I said, "How much was do I usually get? 10 mgs? and she said yes, and said that I had probably received about 7.5 mgs. Then I said, "Well, it didn't work." She said it was "just under" the amount. So she came back with more, this time pouring even less of the liquid into a cup. She said later, when I complained it wasn't enough (but helped slightly) that I had received 7.5 mgs and the doctor wouldn't order more. So I said to ask because this wasn't standard and I'd figured out what worked, and whatever this was, wasn't working. So then I started to think, those containers are 500 mgs each. I got a little more than half of one and then even less than half of the other. I probably got barely 500 or 5 mgs total. They refused to give me the standard dose even though my head still hurt.

I said to her, "What do you do with the rest if you're only giving me part?" and she said, "We waste it, with a witness present."

It is one thing to not give standard treatment which has been proven to work. It is another thing, to intentionally try to deceive a patient. And then pretend like you odn't know why it's not working like it should. Not only that, this is completely a waste of money and misuse of medical monies, to be throwing away medicine that should have been put to use on a patient that needed it.

I felt what they did was totally disrespectful in that they used a liquid form of Vicodin in order to pour out part and pretend that was the full amount and that it equaled the standard. Then, it was unethical to refuse to match the normal treatment, which after all this time, I and other doctors finally discovered WORKS.

So I had to manage with migraine still and then find a bunch of other things to take instead. It is still there a little bit. I didn't leave right away though because I felt sick and couldn't, and was still in pain.

So the other horrible thing that happened, is that they had turned the monitor on in the room, which just flashed ads, but no one used it for anything. So I was about to put my shirt on and this guy comes in, another nurse named "Jamie" who said he was German. I thought he had a southern accent but he said he was from here. He didn't see the color of my bra or underwear--I don't think.

So I go outside, after I'm done, and ALL these people are wearing my color of underwear in sweatshirts and shirts and other things. Not everyone of course, but a lot of people and some were walking down the sidewalk torwards me and laughing.

From the time the doctor saw my bra, and I was outside, it was maybe an hour. From the time the nurse saw my underwear, it was about 45 minutes.

It was like someone described what color and then broadcast it to everyone. Or a significant number of persons. And it was noticeable because it wasn't an ordinary color, or sort of, but not really common.

So, altogether, somewhat disappointing.