Wife gets sent for a abdominal CT scan using intravenous contrast by doc. Imaging provider gives her this stuff to drink instead. They can do both types. She tries to bring this up at the scan. They make her feel like she has no idea what she’s talking about. Documentation throughout the whole process has intravenous specified. It required intravenous.

Results come back basically unable to analyze of course for the initial reason for going.

You ever experienced anything like this?

General home BS always happens while I’m traveling on business.

Bullet holes in the abdomen would get a IV because they would leak the drink. Double contrast of both IV and drink for no holes though. They said the more contrast the better the radiologist can see.

Intravenous is for your circulatory system (blood veins, etc), drink is for your digestive system. Depends on what they were targeting.

Doctor was wanting circulatory imaging. Orders were for circulatory. Imaging did digest.

Turkey, go back and politely tell them you want the right kind of CT scan and you are not paying a dime for it. Because they messed up, the cost is on them. And when the radiologist gives the bill for the read, tell them they are going to pay that as well.

That is just a plain mistake. The doc misread the order or "thought something" that wasn't accurate, either way, its on them not you.

I’m guessing this was in a general surgery center? We had something similar last year when my wife had a miscarriage. She had to go have the 6 week old fetus and all the stuff that goes with it removed, to help her body start healing vs still trying to grow a baby.

The looks and shame she felt were out of this world as the nurses prepped her. It wasn’t until we saw the chart it said “abortion”.

Apparently the technical term for abortion and the technical term for what she was having done are virtually the same, except for 1 word and these nurses aren’t smart enough to know the difference. Thankfully I the procedure was handled by her normal doctor and not a general surgeon

Oh, Sh!t.............

That's awful.

I get CT scans every 6 months as a hodgkins patient and i get both. I.E. the drink and the contrast dye. All depends on what they are looking for. Another tip. If i use my insureance i pay 1100.00 they charge ins co 3k. The last one i asked to pay cash upfront. My price 400.00

Some doctors and nurses instantly take offense when they are questioned, by a patient that is somewhat educated on the subject. Stand your ground next time. I've had to do it only two times on behalf of family members. I've won the argument both times.



^^100% agree

With Diverticulitis, I’ve been give both, one time they gave me the drink because my kidney blood test came back elevated. The intravenous can be rough on unhealthy kidney. Mine are fine, they were just being safe, but non the less why I got drink over the intra

Im not a Doctor just relaying my experience.

Just FYI, that was on the doctor who sent in the information to the surgery center about what the procedure was. Normally in a situation with a incomplete miscarriage and a need to clean the dead baby and placenta and stuff out, they term that a Dilation and Curretage, or D&C for short. I have never in all my medical experience heard of someone going in and having a D&C and calling it an abortion. If the baby was dead already, there is nothing to abort, it is a D&C. If the baby was still alive, then it would be called an abortion due to aborting the babies life. Essentially the same procedurally, just different from the intention stand point.

I am certainly not trying to make light of a terrible situation to be found, no one who wants a baby ever finds those situations fun or enjoyable. Just letting you know why there are terminology differences and it wasn't the surgery center's fault for the term change. That was on the doc or at least the office the doc works.

And one final clarification of what you said: no one should EVER have surgery from a surgeon they were not consented to have surgery with and no one should EVER have bait and switch surgery where you think it is one surgeon doing the surgery and another pops in and does the consent and surgery. People in general need to way more proactive about their health care and not just go along with the flow because someone says so. If something doesnt make sense, question it. If the question draws bad answers or makes people answering the questions mad, then just find somewhere else to go...there are plenty of options out there for anyone to have substandard care these days.

I personally value it when my patients ask questions as it shows they understand what is going on and allows me to build the trust relationship more. I have told many patients I would not do their surgery as their expectations were out of sync or if they say they don't trust something in our system or someone who works in my office...I fully expect the ability to change docs and say no to patients to go both ways and it should.

Yep, D&C, that’s it. We saw what the doctor had sent over, and what the surgery center had written down, it was 2 different things. Our doctor was mortified. But, that’s the issue with general surgery centers, luckily our doctor was the one performing the surgery.

That’s a day I’d like to forget, so I may not have the terms right either.