Now THIS is a doctor!

I had an inkling this was a more inclusive practice when the practice manager answered in Afrikaans but then giggled at herself when I responded in English and corrected herself.

She was extremely talkative over the phone. Giving lots of information. More than I needed, actually! And she came across as very kind.

I hadn’t wanted to go to that office. I’d had a bad experience with the gastroenterologist in Claremont. And another Afrikaans orthopedic surgeon also did me wrong, so I was nervous. But the other area where there are gastroenterologists on my network is more Muslim-friendly. My sister was admitted there and the nurses weren’t as kind to non-Muslims as they were to Muslims…

I showed the professor’s picture to my husband, assuming he’d also agree that I was setting myself up for disappointment if I made an appointment at his office. Instead, my husband thought he was perfectly safe! I should have shown him the orthopedic surgeon’s photo then he’d have known why I had a trauma response to his face! They are same-same language, same age…

But that’s where the similarities end.

He was so thorough that he even checked my heart, seeing as AS can affect it. He explained how AS sometimes impacts the intestine, stomach and said the magic words, “..and sometimes they have chronic gastritis…”

BINGO! Remember the gastroenterologist who said it doesn’t exist!? Grrrrr. The one who refused me a colposcopy?

So, I’ll be having not only a colonoscopy, but a gastroscopy too. He also plans to biopsy my wall even if it looks healthy, to check for h. pylori. Five days after my bladder surgery is when I booked for it to be done. I might be too brave having it so soon and so close to my bladder, but I want all the theatre stuff over and done with.

Husband is kinda worried the bladder issue is cancer and I’ll need more surgery on that same date. I don’t know! Maybe I’m stupid to be so blasè about the growth, maybe I’ll worry just as they wheel me into theatre, but I honestly think it’s yet another benign one like the ovarian tumor and the uterine polyp. I’m only worried about the recovery process.

His office manager was also a dear. Very informative, very kind. She definitely said a lot, but she’s lived long and seen bad and good doctors so I forgive her the extraneous stories. They were cute. Just not good for a patient in pain. (She used to work at a large hospital but had taken pension and retired when she was asked if she could fill in for the Prof’s office manager temporarily. Which ended up not being temporary after all.) She too was dismayed that the other gastroenterologist refused to do a scope on me. She muttered, “I wonder who HE trained under!” (Prof does a lot of training and two of the gastroenterologists the rheumatologist had suggested were trained by him-but are not in my medical aid network.

I don’t know if medical aid will pay for another gastroscopy but there’s only one way to find out, right? Thankfully with there having been gastritis found every time I have endoscopic procedures shows them that I’m not just wasting time, and my last colonoscopy was in 2014, so there is no way they’d not pay for THAT.

People, I felt seen. I felt heard. I knew I deserved to be rested and for him, it was an invited thing too. He even told me of a medication that would protect my heart and reduce AS inflammation- he said it’s brand new research. A tablet that is take once a day. Pity I can’t tell my rheumatologist to try whatever it is! I didn’t catch the name. He also suggested ways of dealing with my IBS-C and the worsening of symptoms thanks to the tablets I’m on.

He’s a keeper. He and the office manager truly show respect and concern. It made up for the bad doctors. I told a patient who was in there waiting to be seen that she’s in the right place. I told her I’ve had colonoscopies very often and apparently had one when I was seven years old (I don’t recall) and seen different gastroenterologists and he’s one of the best.

Let’s hope for rapid recovery and that the scope for the colonoscopy especially, doesn’t make things worse for my bladder, recovery. And that there’s nothing TOO concerning inside this body!

Oh, about the orthopedic surgeon… I went to him after two GPs couldn’t help my heel pain and shoulder pain back in December 2021. They tried… They cared. They believed me. The one even tried injecting my shoulder joint with cortisone but the joint was “maybe calcified” and he couldn’t get the needle into my joint no matter what he tried and no matter how many times he pulled the needle out and poked me again. I wanted to be done! He was sweating and feeling so bad! But now I know it’s AS (seeing as my shoulders have lost mobility too.)

The orthopedic surgeon spoke to me, a very obviously non Afrikaans person, in Afrikaans. He didn’t ask me any questions such as, “How long have you had these painful areas? What have you tried? He ignored me when I told him that when I raise my arms, I had started hearing cracking. Instead he told me that his shoulders also get sore sometimes, that everybody’s bones crack, and didn’t even address my heel issue. He hurried me out and I felt like crying.

The only tears I’d have shed today were tears when the office manager -after I told her and the patient that theirs was a practice that cares-said that God puts us where we should be, that if her husband hadn’t needed open heart surgery, they’d have been gone to an overseas country that I won’t name. Instead, she stayed on at the job when the lady she was subbing for wasn’t available anymore, and she helped calm the fears of the lady who’s brand new to sickness