THRIVE?????????

UHHHH NOT!!!!!! THANKS KAISER!

OKAY MAJOR RANT TODAY!!!!!

 If you aren't in the mood for major bitching this isn't the right place for you....however, if you want a real eye opener you have to read this!!!

Since November of last year my health has steadily gone down hill.  A lot of new symptoms and an increase in my normal symptoms.  Up until then I had been pretty much holding my own for the last few years.  Things were bad but not getting worse.  Then came November, my jerking intensified from nights and occasional days to anytime that I was sitting down relaxing.  My memory loss and concentration level was getting more and more obvious, sleep became next to impossible even with my sleeping pills, generalized weakness in my arms and legs was becoming a regular thing and the fatigue was unbelievable.

So I put together a list for the chief of Neurology at Kaiser Vallejo and hoped to find an answer to what all these symptoms may have in common if anything.
Here is the list that I gave the Neurologist:
Myocolonic Jerks
Memory Deficits
Concentration Deficits
Blurred Vision even with corrective lenses
Orthostatic Hypotension
Inability to regulate body temperature
Hypoglycemia
Intermittent weakness in arms and legs
Lack of Hand Coordination
Insomnia with sleeping pills
Fatigue
Lack of Sweating
Pain in hands

Like the picture above my could all my symptoms be connected together by one common thread.

The visit with the Neurologist went well (I thought) and he agreed to do an MRI.  He also said that he felt that I was suffering from brain damage but that he did not know what the cause was, possibly my Orthostatic Hypotension or my Hypoglycemia may be causing it but he wasn't sure.  He didn't believe the damage would be reversible regardless of what caused it and sent me on my way.  Never once did he acknowledge that any of these symptoms could be related to the other or that they could be linked by one common thread.  

I had the MRI and it didn't show any significant changes from my last one. The conclusion was Idiopathic brain damage, meaning brain damage from an unknown source.  Over the past few weeks though things have worsened.  I had tried everything that the Neurologist said to try but things were still getting worse.  The chronic fatigue has gotten so bad that for the last two weeks I have pretty much stayed in bed most days.  Or I have taken several naps throughout the day just to try and function.  It was time to get to the bottom of why my symptoms were worsening so rapidly and nothing Kaiser was doing seemed to work.  So I decided that I would seek out the advice of an Autonomic Nervous System Disorder specialist at Stanford Medical Center and set out to get my approval from Kaiser for an outside visit.

My Doctor's favorite diagnosis site.

I made an appointment with my GP who I have to say is the  nicest person you could ever meet.  He is friendly, sympathetic, takes time to listen, is super easy to get in to see and always responds quickly to emails but I would have to say he is probably the WORST doctor I have ever had!  His idea of solving any illness is to jump on WEBMD, look up symptoms and share the webpage with you!  I actually gave him the list of symptoms and he stated, "We can't go over all of these in one visit, so choose which one you want to work on for this visit and we can work on the others later."
REALLY!!!! People these are all connected, we are suppose to find the link!  I am sorry that WebMD doesn't have an area to list multiple items into one search engine but we need to look at this from a "Hey are these all connected?" point of view.

UH YEAH!!! But not with Kaiser this time!

Okay, I know, time to find a new doctor.  But honestly when you have Kaiser you don't have a lot of great choices when it comes to GP's and at least I know what to expect from my doctor and am comfortable with him.  Is that really what I should be looking for in a doctor?  Probably not, is it time to change, probably but really is there anyone better out there and how many years would it take to find one at Kaiser......probably a lot more than I even have the strength to get through so there may be some decisions to make during open enrollment season!

I do believe that the right environment is NOT at KAISER!

Now that I have given you a little background on the situation let me explain why I am so angry at good ol' Kaiser Permanente.  During all this craziness I have been talking to a gastric bypass dietician at Kaiser Richmond.  She is helping me to get my hypoglycemia under control which is actually not related to any of my other problems.  It is a side effect from the gastric bypass that is becoming more an more evident as more people opt to have this surgery...if you are considering it PLEASE DON'T!!!!! The side effects are not worth the ease in weight loss.  Anyway the dietician has been keeping an eye on my vitamin levels and working with me to raise them and thanks to her I have been pretty successful. 

You think a Neurologist would know this!!!!!

Yesterday I had a recheck on my vitamin levels.  This morning I got an urgent email from her stating that my B12 levels are way too low and that we have to get them up ASAP.  Now realize this woman has no idea all the problems that I am having with my autonomic nervous system.  Concerned at her concern I decide to look up the symptoms of B12 deficiency on the internet.  Heck it's what my doctor at Kaiser does so I could just save myself a visit!  Here is what I found out.  The symptoms for low B12 levels are as follows......I will put a star next to each of the items that are on my list that I gave to my Neurologist and my GP.

B12 Deficiency symptoms:

Weakness *

Fatigue *

Change in mental status *

Confusion *

Loss of balance *

Memory deficits *

In-proper circulation *

Muscle weakness *

Dizziness *

Vision Problems *

Pain in hands or feet *

Paranoia

Swollen tongue

HEY LOOK!!!! There's two symptoms that I don't have!!!!  Well I probably am going to get a little paranoid now that I know that the chief Neurologist at Kaiser can't put two and two together!

So riddle me this Batman....if you have a patient that you know has had gastric bypass, that you have seen their labs for the last three years, that has had low end B12 levels on those blood tests and this person hands you a list of problems that basically screams LOW B12 LEVELS!!! How do you miss that???? I am not a calm person right about now!  We are talking about a series of nervous system problems caused by low B12 that if not found and reversed within six months will probably become non reversible and it took over three years and a dietician at Kaiser to discover this??? REALLY????  Well I guess he got the non reversible brain damage part right.

And exactly what does Kaiser mean by Thrive????

THRIVE??? Does anyone here know the antonym for Thrive???? Yep that's right it's FAIL with a big fat capital F!  And that is exactly what Kaiser has done.  They have Failed.

 

And that Kaiser Permanente is your grade when it comes to helping your patients THRIVE.

Where do I go from here?  Well first I start major B12 injections to get my levels up.  Then I get to see what symptoms are and are not going to improve with my B12 being so low for so long.  Next I will probably still seek out the Autonomic Nervous System specialist at Stanford so that I have seen a doctor that I believe in.  Then, if and when I am feeling better, Kaiser and I are going to have a LONG, HEATED talk about THRIVING!