Friday, July 28, 2006

(Most) Men are Dumb!

So yesterday one of Marshall's co-worker's comes by the house while I'm at the library and tells Cain that Marshall started having really bad chest pains yesterday at work, that he fell up against a wall clutching his chest and that he got sick to his stomach and really dizzy, AND that if we wanted to keep him around much longer we better take care of him.

FIRST off, no grown person should come and tell a CHILD something like that about their parent. SECOND, don't tell US that we better be taking care of him. That made me so mad I was just boiling. Now I know the guy meant well, but he had no right coming here and saying any of that to Cain. He should've stopped by and told Cain to have me call him, or that he'd call me later. (And another thing, if he was so concerned about Marshall, why didn't he call 911, or at the very least stay and help Marshall finish the job they were on?)

We beg him to take care of himself, but he never has and it's a huge fight to get him to go the doctor. He's a grown man. I do all that I can do to get him to go.

I did tell him last night that I was making him an appointment today and that he WAS going and that I didn't give a rat's butt what he said about it. I did just that, too. He griped and moaned and fussed about it all day, but we did go to the doctor.

What happens when we get there? Well, we waited for freakin' ever to see a "real" doctor, and not just the practitioner, or whatever those people are. By the time we got back there, the doctor we wanted to see had to go do a surgery and basically we waited all that time for nothing; we had to see the practitioner anyway.

So Marshall tells him the symptoms that he had the day before, that his arm keeps going numb, he got sick, and dizzy, and that his chest hurt like someone was crushing it. The practitioner asks if he has a history of heart disease or anything like that in his family and Marshall told him no. Then he proceeds to tell him that *I* think he had a heart attack or something of the sort, and he knows that he's not, but that *I* always insist he gets checked. (That really made me mad, by the way). What does the doctor do? He listens to Marshall's breathing. He doesn't do an EKG or anything else. He tells Marshall that since he has no history of heart disease that he's not worried about it being a heart attack.

He goes on to ask more about the numbness in Marshall's arm, and they discuss that for a while. Marshall continues to fuss about me asking him to come there, and that he KNEW it wasn't a heart attack and he and the doctor kind of laugh about it and basically just make me feel like I'm an idiot for making him go.

The "doctor" goes out of the room, comes back in WITH A MEDICAL BOOK and starts saying, "Now listen to this..." and "Check this out...." He reads something out of the book then he has Marshall raise his arms above his head and open and close his hands to see if his arm will go numb. He then goes on to say that he thinks Marshall needs physical therapy.

Granted, I'm not a doctor, but if someone tells me they have crushing chest pain, dizziness, nausea, etc., then from everything I've ever read/heard, I'm going to assume that something is wrong with his heart. Wouldn't you?

Now don't get me wrong, it's not like I WANTED it to be something wrong w/his heart, but wouldn't it be better to be safe than sorry? I just don't get it. At any rate, apparently whatever the crushing pain was, was of no concern to the doctor (he even SAID he wasn't concerned). He's just going to treat Marshall with anti-inflammatory meds and send him for PT. Does this make sense?

And I don't know, I've been awfully emotional lately as far as Marshall is concerned. But I felt like Marshall and the doctor both just think that I overreacted. Heck, I KNOW Marshall thought that. But you know, he's my husband, he's my everything, and I wanted him to go have his heart checked because, after what his co-worker said, I assumed that it was the right thing to do. I left there feeling empty and basically like the things I say don't matter much. I don't know...maybe I did overreact. I hate second-guessing myself. :(

On a much, much happier not, my buddies, Tim and Jennifer are having a baby! Congratulations you two. And FYI, "Rachel" is a pretty name for a girl OR a boy. :D *hugs to you both* I'm so excited for you. :)

Appetizer
What's the funniest dream you can remember having? I can't remember what it was at this moment, but about a month ago I woke myself up laughing. And I was laughing hard, too! :)

Soup
If you were a dog, what breed would you be, and why? I would be a Doberman because they're just so darn beautiful.

Salad
Continue this sentence: "I get confused when..." I try to listen to two people at once.

Main Course
Name two things that need to be done, but you are procrastinating in completing. I need to get some photographs together for a few local shows, AND I need to clean out Brooke's room, which also doubles as the attic right now.

Dessert
When was the last time you tried something new, and what was it? I ate some chicken soup that a buddy gave me the recipe to. It was pretty good. I'll share the recipe later.

5 comments:

jen said...

Okay... so that practitioner is an absolute QUACK!!!!! Those are 100% typical symptoms of a HEART ATTACK!!!! You must make Marshall go to another doctor! Go look up his symptoms on the web and show them to him, and I would put big money that it says these symptoms must be checked out!!! (much more than...if you have no history!!!!)

O' Tim said...

Call me a dumb old man, but how would he have a history if HE NEVER GOES TO THE DOCTOR???

Getting sick, dizzy, chest pains and arm numbness don't sound like something to treat with physical therapy.

Anonymous said...

I told you that doc was incompetent! He has no business in practice.

Val Ewing said...

Hmmmm, I saw a patient in our waiting room with the same problems...told my boss [not an MD, but Dr of something else}. I offered to call 911. The patient refused ~ sorry to say the patient died two days later of heart failure.

OKAY this NP is an idiot. A complete workup is DUE!
DUH.

rachelpennington said...

Well now the hard part will be talking Marshall into going to the dr. because HE thinks *I'M* the one in the wrong. He's a goober.