So, as you know, I picked up an infection during my colonoscopy procedure. After the procedure, I had some really nasty side effects. I had lots of pain and discomfort, on top of quite a bit of drainage, and even bleeding. This was not quite what I signed up for. When I complained about these things, and asked why Dr Foley didn’t perform the fistulotomy, she responded with, since there was muscle tissue, she did not want to do the fistulotomy. When you cut muscle tissue, she said there were quite a bit of complications that could involve severe side effects. So I took her out her word. That was a huge mistake.

Seeing Dr Foley in general was a huge mistake. Listening to her was the second mistake. I assume because she had a medical degree in something, that meant she was an expert at it. I’m starting to get ahead of myself. So let’s go back to the complications.

I was having pain, discomfort, discharge, everything not fun. Imagine having stitches in your ass, and just trying to go about your regular day. It’s not great. However, thanks to Dr Foley this was my predicament. Three stitches, and they all sucked. I kept asking why, and how this happened, and I never really got a response. I got a lot of shoulder shrugging. Lots of shoulder shrugging. I don’t think that’s normal when you’re seeing a medical practitioner, and you’re asking questions about the procedure they performed for your bowel health. However, I stuck with her.

Now this is one of the more offensive parts of the story: I left multiple voicemails, and wrote in several messages, about these side effects I was having.

I’ll even list them for you like I did in the email. 

-1500% increase in the amount of hot flashes

-Severely daily bouts of diarrhea

-Sleeping 12 to 14 hours a day

-Physical exhaustion

-Hair loss

-Chronic pain in my anus

-Chronic bowel pain

-Missing work due to exhaustion

-Loss of income due to missing work

Now, I read over all of the paperwork they gave me for the surgery and the colonoscopy. None of that was mentioned. Not even once. When I complained to her about these things in person, her response was actually shrugging, and saying “Hang in there.” You see, now I know the difference between a good doctor and a bad one. When you tell a good doctor you are having complications from a procedure they performed, they actively try to find out what went wrong. When you see a bad doctor, they shrug and say “HANG IN THERE”. If she actually paid attention to the fact that I said none of this was happening before the colonoscopy, we all could have been spared a lot of trouble. So as you can assume, I was quite distraught. In the meantime I’d seen the gastroenterologist she recommended. He put me on two different biologic medications. We’ll get to him later.

So I keep telling her, before the colonoscopy, I never had these problems. She informed me, it’s most likely a Crohn’s flare up. I inform her, I’ve never had a Crohn’s flare up before, so that doesn’t make any sense. So here’s the disturbing part I, as I mentioned earlier: I gave her an out. I specifically asked if she did not feel comfortable with her knowledge of treatment, and if she would like me to see someone else. I gave her a pass, but her ego was so damn big, she had her medical assistant call me and leave a voicemail. Her medical assistant said that, “Dr Foley feels she is fully capable of treating you. It’s your right to get a second opinion, but Dr Foley said she is fully capable of treating you herself.”

I guess I’m the idiot, because I believed her. I’m actually quite upset with myself, because I let this happen. I saw a doctor who didn’t know what she was doing, and I kept going back. Now, I did look for a different doctor, however my insurance said she’s the only specialist in the area. So I was kind of stuck with her.

So here’s another kicker. I found out Dr Foley lied. Reading her surgical notes, she said all three stitch placements were superficial. Then, to my face she says there’s muscle tissue. During my last meeting with her I asked if she actually checked for muscle tissue, and she said yes there was definitely muscle tissue involved. Well, the MRI said differently. There was no muscle tissue involved. So either Dr Foley’s an idiot, or she’s a liar. Maybe there’s a third explanation, and she can inform me of that. I don’t know if she will, because she never answers any of my questions. At least now, it’s just ignoring me, when I was her patient, it was a lot of running around and not giving answers. 

Until next time my wonderful readers.

Click here for Part 3