You know, it is not every day that you run into a good doctor. In the past few years, I have learned the difference between a good one and a bad one, and the secret to it all is if they truly care.
A few weeks ago, at the end of Ramadan I started to lose energy and get very sick. I started sleeping more, eating less, and I had fits of painful unexplained diarrhea. Then the diarrhea turned bloody, it looked like it had mucus in it, and the pain progressed. The kids were sick so I thought I caught a bug from them. Then I tried to explain it away as IBS, something my entire family seems to suffer silently with. My IBS is normally triggered by stress and opening this new business had put so much pressure on our family and finances. Then the pain began to increase to the point where I began vomiting then going in and out of consciousness when I had to go…which was about every 15 minutes.
After the incident with my dad, the idea of going to a hospital for care terrifies me. So, when I called my primary care physician on a Wednesday and was told she had no openings till Monday, I waited (this was even after I explained my situation). By now, I was physically unable to get out of bed or put anything into my mouth. On Monday, I went to my PCP only to find a Doc was substituting for her. We suspected Shigella, a bacteria that causes similar symptoms. I think I may have put that thought into his head because I had already researched enough to know that I had 1 of four things:
• A bacterial infection (hence the Shigella)
• Crohns Disease
• Ulcerative Colitis
• Or Colon Cancer (which killed my Grandfather)
He sent me off for some testing and started me on antibiotics (cipro).
I took my Antibiotics and I cried. In addition to all the pain, I now had a fever, chills, and some form of all day morning sickness. Any strong scent made me sick. I was miserable and my weight had officially plummeted 20 pounds.
I know that many of you reading this are wondering why I would put all this embarrassing stuff out there? Well, I cannot imagine not talking about it because I had never heard of this disease more than briefly before I got it. Millions of people are living with this debilitating disease and suffering in silence because it is embarrassing to tell people when you are crapping blood and fainting on the john.
Well, I waited and waited for the results. I called my Doctor and she called back letting me know she had not yet received my test results, so I waited some more. Waiting, when you are in such pain, is ridiculous. Looking back, I should have been forced to a hospital for immediate treatment but I fought everyone about going and in hindsight, I was an ass. After another week of waiting, I called her office on three separate occasions and no one called me back regarding the messages that I left. I started to freak out. By now, anyone who knows anything about me, knows my obsession with knowing everything about anything. My dad inspired this in me and to this day, anytime I see a subject I am not familiar with, I buy the book so to speak. On Friday the 16th I drove over to her office at 8 am and I explained to the woman at the front desk my situation. She told me I needed to see a GI. “WHAT??? How do you know,” I asked, “Do you have my file in front of you?”
“No, and I am not authorized to give you that information, please have a seat and wait.” Can staff do that? Can they blindly give medical advice?
So I sat. I waited until the nurse came out and explained to me that my results had actually been there since the 8th…yes the damn 8th! No one had bothered to call and tell me. She asked me to wait for the doctor who would further explain the results. When the doc arrived I was shocked. She asked me into a room and yelled at me for being rude to her staff. HELLOOOOO! I was not rude, I was frustrated I explained. I am debilitated. In order for me to have been able to even drive to her office, I had to sit for an hour and a half on a toilet so I didn’t have an accident on the way. She made me look like a liar…asking her nurse in front of the entire staff if she had phone records of me calling. The nurse replied with, “I think I only found one.” The Doctor then turned around and said, “We don’t make mistakes here.” Meaning I was lying! I stayed patient and asked for a referral to a GI. She gave me one that agreed to see me that afternoon. This is where my story turns.
Dr. Vichanni is an amazing, young, and attentive doctor. I think that he was a blessing from God! I arrived that afternoon and he patiently listened as I went through the pain and suffering of the past five weeks. I told him about my research and I and asked him if he thought I had colon cancer and he didn’t lie to me. He said, “I don’t know, we can get on this immediately and find out. I never say never.”
He walked me to the blood testing area, he walked me to the front of the office to make sure I was immediately scheduled for a colonoscopy, and he explained things to me to put me at ease. The weekend that followed almost killed me. I had endure laxatives (like I had anything left in me) and no food (which I couldn’t get down anyway) for the entire weekend. Now I had dropped close to 27 pounds. On Monday morning He preformed my colonoscopy and told me the good and bad news. The good news: I did not have colon cancer!!!! The bad news: I had Ulcerative Colitis. Arguably an incurable disease. Many people who suffer with disease end up with colon cancer and end up losing their colon. The prospects are not pretty.
Doctor Vichanni immediately started me on Asacol and waited till my results came in to prescribe Prednisone. I still could not down anything and I have to say that his follow up and patience with my questions were out of this world. I can’t say that I have ever spent as much time on the phone questioning and prodding anyone more than I did him regarding this subject. He patiently answered each and every one of my questions, he provided me with options and helped me make an informed decision. I had resisted using any kind of cortisone for my psoriasis over the years because of the harsh side effects but he convinced me that the benefit outweighed the cost and that with proper treatment I may be able to to go into a state of remission for many years and live a healthy life.
Today, he called me to make sure that I was doing well with the prednisone and I asked him about research done in Australia with Fecal biotherapy, or implantation. He asked me to bring in what I found and promised that if it seemed doable and realistic, that he would help me get the information I needed to get the procedure done. Just the fact that he was open minded to my need for information comforted me. I really did find that one in a million doctor. Dr. Nitesh Vichhani is a GI located in Sugar Land, TX and his number is 281-342-9530. I hope you this never happens to anyone I know but if you ever need a good GI give this man a try.
