Reply #23: Damn right! I've got permanent ulnar nerve damage because of my insurance coverage... [View All]

[cascadiance]

I had a decently paying contracting job earlier, but because it was a small outfit, I had a pretty cheap health insurance coverage package.

Anyway, I was having a lot of problems of numbness and spasms in my left hand that I went to see my "primary care physician" to get help with... I rely on my hands for my livlihood, being an engineer. It was starting to get out of hand so to speak.

He told me not to worry too much about it, that it was something happening as I was getting older. Just "nerves" or something like that.

I asked to see a specialist, and the appointment he wanted me to see in their network was minimally quite a few months out just to see him.

I looked through my insurance plan and noted that I could get coverage for someone that was out of network too. I found my own specialist that could see me within weeks.

I went to a neurologist to get checked out. The neurologist had me get X-Rays from my original doctor's office, did other tests, etc. and concluded that I had some severe ulnar nerve damage in my elbow, which was caused by a combination of usage issues that abused the nerve near the elbow joint through being on the phone a lot for my job (I'd been doing a lot of customer support then), driving with my left elbow bent and a lot of the time sitting on an open window when driving, playing a video game machine a lot recently then, etc.

His recommendation was:
1) I should look to getting an operation where my nerve would be rerouted around my elbow joint so that it would no longer be pinched by bending the elbow, and if done quickly, could reverse some of the nerve damage that was starting then.
2) I shouldn't only take his word for it and I should get a second opinion to confirm this to be the best course of action.
3) If I got the operation to NOT have an orthopedic surgeon do it, but demand that a neurosurgeon do it, since if done wrong, could really screw up usage of my left hand permanently and be worse than the condition I already had.

I went back to my original doctor on this, and they said they'd refer it to their head physicians, and to wait a bit while they talked it out.

After a few weeks of them hemming and hawing, they came back and:
1) sent me to an orthopedic surgeon to follow up with (even though I specifically told my doctor of the neurologists stipulation I should go to a neurosurgeon).
2) I went to the orthopedic surgeon they referred me to. This guy acted as if I hadn't seen ANYONE yet (I don't think he'd looked at my neurologist's report at all) and wanted to go through the same round of tests all over again. He wanted to do the same X Rays over again. I pointed out that his hospital already had X-Rays that they'd done for the neurologist that I'd just seen.

Anyway, I got so uncomfortable with the unprofessionalism, etc. that this "specialist" was showing, that I said to myself that I was better off not getting the surgery done at all than trusting these guys and getting it messed up, so I turned it down and now live with a permanent numbness in my left pinky as now the nerve damage is permanent. I tried to get treatment through unconventional means later such as accupuncture, etc. but that didn't really help either.

Thank you U.S. Health Care! Thank you for providing me coverage that screwed my elbow/hand up that probably wouldn't have been screwed up if I had health care coverage shown in the other countries of Sicko, which I just saw earlier tonight.

Well, that's MY "annecdotal" story!