Back in October I had lower back pain and was told that there really is not much I can do besides some physical therapy 3x a week. That was just not in my budget since my co-pay is $30 a visit. Fast forward to January I went to my primary doctor mentioned to her about the back pain I have been in and she sent me for a MRI. Turns out I have an infection in my L4/L5 vertebrae in my lower spine. It is called discitis and I need to see an orthopedic surgeon asap. I set up an appointment with an orthopedic surgeon but in the meantime did my own research online. Everything I read said that I need to have a biopsy done for them to figure out what type of antibiotic I need and then the next step is to have IV antibiotics for 6 weeks. I went to see the surgeon and he put me on oral antibotics for 4 weeks and told me to come back to follow up in 2 weeks. I questioned what I read and he told me that he is sure this will do the job and I will be fine in a week or 2. Two weeks later I go for my follow up and at this point I am in even more pain. The orthopedic surgeon tells me that infection is gone and referred me to see a pain management doctor to have steroid injections done for the pain. I asked him how does he know the infection is gone and believe it or not his response to me was ""do you have 5 years because I went to school for 5 years to know what I know and you cannot even begin to understand what I know unless you have 5 years to dedicate to medical school"". I could not believe he said that to me. I got up left and went to the pain management doctor who is in the same large practice as this jerk was in. The pain management doctor first words to me were ""how do we know the infection is gone cause I cannot do anything until I know for sure it is gone"". I told him what the jerk said to me and he could not believe it and also told me the treatment he gave me would never work to kill the infection. I went to see another doctor the next day and he did an x-ray the infection has gotten worse and he admitted me to the hospital. He told me I needed to have a biopsy done and receive IV antibiotics and that an Infectious Disease doctor would be able to tell us what the correct antibiotics would be for the type of infection I have. While in the hospital on Saturday I saw the infectious disease doctor and she told me that since this jerk put me on oral antibiotics she cannot do the biopsy because the oral antibiotic would just screw up the results and I have to wait at least a week and she released me from the hospital. So here I am waiting for the oral antibiotics to be out of my system so that I can get the biopsy and hopefully be on the road to recovery. The pain has gotten worse and I am on vicodin just to be able to get through the day. So I am telling my story to vent but to also let everyone know to not just trust a doctor cause he is a doctor. You have to be your own doctor and if something does not seem right do not sit back thinking he is the doctor and knows what he is doing. Stay away from this egotistic jerk that has no right to be cause he is not that great of a doctor.
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