I printed the image from the Intro. I thought it turned out lovely, and I even have a couple more digital prints done, and ready to put on substrates. Sorry this has taken so long, but to be honest, it’s exhausting going over all of this. It’s like reliving the last 3 months of nonsense and confusion, and it’s tiring. I get to relive all of the mistakes and ignorance I’ve dealt with over the past few months. I have a new surgeon now, and I recently did an MRI so hopefully I’ll have some more answers shortly. So let’s get down to business…
I guess we should start with some family medical history… My mother passed away at the age of 40 from stomach cancer when I was but a wee lad of 4 years old. I have a family history of stomach cancer on both sides of my family, so stomach and intestinal health is a concern for me. My primary care provider wanted me to get a colonoscopy, and suggested Dr. Foley. It was during my busy season at work, so it would have to wait a bit. Several months later I developed an abscess down under, and scheduled an appointment with her. Covid-19 hit, and things got delayed.
Several weeks later I finally saw Dr. Foley. She recommended a fistulotomy because the abscess had left a tract that did not heal. So far so good. She seemed well informed and confident, so I thought, “Ok, cool, whatever we need to do.” This was March. Covid lockdown made things a bit more difficult. I wasn’t able to schedule the procedure for a couple months, and we landed on June 18th at St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart. I had to do the colonoscopy prep, which was nothing nice, but I know lots of people do it, so it was not a big deal.
Day of surgery: I go in with my best friend. Had the fistulotomy described to me by a couple different people in the hospital that day. I had heard it all before. Sat in pre-op for about 2 hours, then got wheeled off for the big event! Everything up to this point went according to plan. I was ready.
I woke up to the after care nurse telling me I had the procedure and Dr. Foley would see me soon. According to my medical records his name was Chris. He was popping cough drops like they were candy. His throat was scratchy, and he kept stifling coughs. DURING THE TIME OF COVID, MY AFTERCARE NURSE WAS VISIBLY SICK. He constantly kept lifting his mask to pop cough drops. Needless to say, that is the last procedure I will be having at St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart. He said my stomach might be upset for a while and diarrhea or constipation after was common, and after a while took me out of post-op and back to the room I was in for pre-op.
Dr. Foley came in and told me she did not do the procedure as previously described. She said there was inflammation and did a biopsy, and instead I now had several drainage stitches in my undercarriage. It was not comfortable. I was not a happy camper, but I understood she was concerned about crohn’s disease. She recommended a gastroenterologist and told me to see her in a couple weeks for a follow up.
I went home with my accountabilibuddy, and she dropped me off at home. My throat was sore, but it wasn’t terrible. But about 2 days later, my throat was swollen, my glans were swollen, I was coughing, and I called Dr. Foley’s office on that Monday. I informed them I had a throat infection from the procedure and her staff recommended I go to urgent care. Guess what kids…. Yep it was strep! I got some antibiotics and it took a couple days, but I felt better. I informed her of this the next appointment I had, and she dismissed it.
Yeah, she dismissed it. Someone with two autoimmune issues had complications from a procedure, and she dismissed it. Well, that was where I made a mistake. I kept seeing her. Right then and there I should have left her office. If a doctor dismisses your problems, see someone else. I learned this the hard way. Trust me, it sucks learning it the hard way!
I wonder if she knew the aftercare nurse was sick. I wonder if she made any mistakes during the colonoscopy. I wonder why she recommended Dr. Fesenmyer as my gastroenterologist. I also wonder if that nurse was where I picked up Strep throat. I wonder why Dr. Foley didn’t think to check for any other complications. I wonder if anyone else got strep who had surgery that day. I wonder if any other patients have had negative experiences with Dr. Foley?
I have been wondering a lot of things lately. Unfortunately Dr. Foley is now notorious in my book for not writing responses to my questions (that’s a topic for a different post.), so I guess I’ll just have to keep wondering. I’ll reach out for a response and see if Dr. Foley has anything she would like to add. Maybe she’ll answer some of my questions…
We’ll see.
Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for more!
PS. I started asking around on Facebook, and if you know anyone who had issues including strep during the month of June while having surgery at St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart, I would love to hear from you. Also, if you have had Dr. Foley as a surgeon and have had any problems, I’d love to hear from you too.
***At the time of posting Dr. Foley has not commented.
Eric The Quilter 