Tuesday, August 4, 2009

A better plan of action

We went to the neurologist today. And we saw the neurologist himself, Dr Watkins, instead of the PA that was giving us so much trouble. Dr Watkins was wonderful. He was barely all the way in the door when he was asking questions and investigating. He examined Selo chart, including all the history that was in there- the blood work from now back to when he first started on the meds a year and a half ago, the MRI and EKG and everything else from the other night at the ER, comments we've given in each visit. Dr Watkins listened to what we had to say, he let us voice our concerns, and he came up with a plan of action that is not only safe, but also agreeable to us.

Selo will be increasing his new meds a little quicker, until he is up to the full dose that Dr Watkins would like him to be at. Then once Selo is stable on those, and has no negative side effects, he will start decreasing the dilantin more. He will reduce by 100mgs at a time, which will get him off of it much faster. Also, he will continue to have the regular blood tests and neurology appointments he's been having, only this time they will be with Dr Watkins instead of the PA. Dr Watkins even lowered his dilantin slightly right now, because the level in Selo's blood showed that he obviously did not need that much to stay safe, and it was causing such a terrible problem.

We are much happier with this plan. Instead of a four month transition, this will be an 8 week transition. This means that in a much shorter amount of time, Selo will no longer have to deal with the drastically negative side effects of dilantin. He will be on a better medicine, that has less overall side effects, in a faster amount of time. And all the while it will be done safely and under the care of a doctor that cares. This plan is much more detailed, and Dr Watkins made sure we understood it completely and why he chose this plan of action. We felt like he wanted to work together to accomplish this, and we appreciated being included.

I was also impressed with the way Dr Watkins listened to our concerns about the PA, and how we felt so uncomfortable with the lack of caring and the dismissive approach he had with us. Dr Watkins ensured us that we may see him from now on, and will not need to see the PA again. We were appreciative that he was concerned enough about his patient to extend that level of service and caring to us.

2 comments:

Melissa said...

Sounds like you have a caring doctor, that's great!

Bobbie said...

This is great news!