Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Drs make mistakes too apparently.

So I was at the hospital Monday getting a mole removed. I've waited over a year to get one on my face done.I'm tired of kids asking me if I'm a witch. I tell them I am, but I don't usually eat kids for dinner.
Sadly the dr couldn't do it. She wants me to see a plastic surgeon because she couldn't remove it without leaving a big hole. I did get her to remove one on my arm that suddenly turned black. I'm not worried about it, but my sister was pestering me about it so I got it removed. Everything was fine. At first. All through the check in, the waiting, the choppity chopping, here was the conversation, repeated several times, with several staff ending with the surgeon and her nurse "so, you have a latex allergy?" Me "yes". She whips the mole out and I'm done and voila I get stitched up leave the hospital. I come home for a bit, not feeling really awesome. Kind of feeling dizzy and weird, and no idea why. My arm is turning a really weird shade under the bandage wrap. I go back out after 20 minutes at home to pick up the younger kids then off to get my oldest up at the highschool. As I'm waiting in the car for him, the freezing is starting to wear off. It's been almost an hour since they finished me up.
I still feel strangely like I got high or something. My arm is mottled purple around the bandaid. I'm thinking weird, she didn't say purple, she said it will be white for a while.
I sit there looking at the see through bandaid. Super slow wheels turn in my head as I'm feeling weirder by the minute. My 4 year old daughter who I just picked up from school pipes up from the backseat, "Mom, how come your band aid doesn't look like my special safe (latex free) band aid? it looks like the old ones we had" And Ding ding ding, I finally know why I feel totally bizarre and why my skin feels on fire around the frozen zone.
Ripping off the bandaid, I see my skin is beginning to rash and look ugly under there.
No harm no foul overall, but what on earth is the point in telling them that you are sensitive to something, if they aren't really listening?
It is worth mentioning that the surgeon actually called me on my cell shortly after that, having attempted to reach me at home, upset because she had realized her error, and wanting me to come in and switch it. She had called my house, my drs office, (where my dr wasn't actually sure because it didn't say on my chart I was allergic, but she felt like she remembered something)to when she finally reached me, and I was able to say, everything was fine and I already taken care of it.
But seriously, what if my daughter hadn't said something? The weird way I was feeling, I don't think I would have put two and two together on my own, cause that has not happened before.
I do know that I can't use cheap toilet paper, or some mascaras, or cheap nasty elastic underwear or socks...Certain fruits cause me grief and I recently learned it was because they are often a problem for latex sensitive people.
Latex, definitely not my friend, and I clearly have to be more vigilant on my own behalf from now on!