June 27, 2007 by SUM.

The test results from the dermatologist’s office had come back negative; no fungus on my nail or other unusual medical condition in my saliva had been found. But the uncomfortable sensations in my mouth persisted whereas the grayish-black nail started to grow out. The tingling sensations in my mouth, which I had started to feel in January, had become now burning sensations on my inner lips. Therefore I decided to use only boiled water when brushing my teeth and sterilizing my toothbrush several times in boiling hot water.

On Tuesday, 15th March 2005, I visited the dental practice from Dr. C. in Bellevue for having my teeth cleaned. I informed the dental clerk from Dr. D. of my burning sensations, too. She asked me to bring my latest dental x-rays with me. At the dental office a few dental x-rays from my frontal teeth were taken, and Dr. C. compared the ones he had taken on that day to the ones taken last year at the Lake Washington Technical College.

While I consulted with different physicians, nobody actually had confirmed any unusual medical condition in my mouth with the exception that I felt those sensations. But that changed suddenly on Thursday, 24th March.

Later that afternoon I made myself some tea with a teabag from Bigelow. It was green tea with lemon. I actually used only one teabag for a whole teapot. The water I had used had been filtered and boiled, and I had left the teabag in the teapot for not more than five minutes.

As soon I took only one sip from the tea, I felt a sudden burn. My whole mouth was burning and hurting. I looked at my tongue, which was at that moment white. Immediately, I brushed my teeth and noticed that my tongue and the back of it were covered with little pustules; the back more than the front.

Since I didn’t know what had caused this outbreak, I assumed that something had been wrong with the water. Therefore I called the city of Redmond and reported this incident. After a few phone calls a city employee told me that someone from the Redmond city department would come by my house on Monday to take a sample of my water for testing.

The next day Friday, 25th March I made an appointment with a physician at James & Minor. Since it was an emergency I received an appointment the same day with Dr. N. He confirmed that my mouth and tongue were coated and prescribed me medication for a yeast infection.

Since the symptoms of discomfort in my mouth had already started in January, but nobody of the physicians, I had spoken with, had paid more attention than doing a saliva test, at that moment I thought that something had been wrong with the water to cause this outbreak.

In the coming weeks I would experience other symptoms that were more frightening. But I’ll describe the events in chronological order. In my next posts you’ll learn more of these not everyday experiences.

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June 24, 2007 by SUM.

On Monday, 14th February 2005 I consulted with Dr. H. at James & Minor. Before I saw him I spoke with his assistant G. who agreed with me that it had been strange that the physician at the other clinic had not requested a blood test the first time I consulted with him.

The visit with Dr. H. was quite different than the one I have had with Dr. P. As far as I remember both had been listed under the section for family physicians, but Dr. H. was listed under internal medicine. Dr. P. had barely spent time with me whereas Dr. H. did a physical exam and spent a lot of time asking me questions and entering data in his computer. I was in his examination room for about 45 minutes. I had told him that I had consulted a dermatologist’s office for the injury to my nail, but I had not received the results yet. Dr. H’s examination entailed looking in my mouth, too, and he said that everything looks fine. He prescribed a blood, urine, and stool test. The blood and urine test were done the same day at the clinic’s lab. I had to do the stool test at home.

At the lab a female nurse, A., injected needles in my arms to draw blood. Though I have fine veins, I’ve never had before the problem that a nurse wasn’t able to draw blood from them. But this nurse injected a needle in my left arm and on the top of my right elbow several times, but she always missed the vein. Additionally, she turned the needle around while the needle was under my skin of my upper right elbow. No other nurse has ever done this, and often I had blood drawn from me. While living in Germany I had been a blood donor. At that point I really started to feel very uncomfortable. After this nurse also said to me “There are sideways people don’t know about.” I actually got this uneasy feeling that she had missed my veins on purpose. Afterwards I requested that someone else should draw blood. And she called a male nurse.

The male nurse’s name started with the same letter A. A female nurse, R. assisted him. This nurse held the plastic containers for him. He said to me that he’ll use a smaller needle, and he drew blood from the veins on top of my right hand. While I was sitting in the lab, I noticed that another person stuck his hand through the curtain and placed a urine sample in a box on the wall opposite my chair. I was told that I had to place my urine sample in the same box, too.

On Sunday, 20th February, I noticed a red mark next to the injection from the needle injected several times on top of my right arm. In the middle of the mark was a blister. The diameter of the red mark was about ½ inch. The appearance of the red mark with the blister worried me.

I called a neighbor and told her about my red mark and the blister on it. She told me to report this in case drawing blood from me had been mishandled. After I had spoken to her I called James & Minor, and they paged Dr. H. He called me back on the same day and said that if the red mark would spread over my whole arm I should come the next day in the clinic otherwise it would be a waste of his and my time. After the conversation with him I wasn’t appeased. I had to talk to someone else about this matter. I called another person, and T. said that the physicians/clinics are actually being afraid of being sued, therefore they tell you that there is nothing to worry about.

I certainly didn’t feel better after these conversations. The next day I called my sister in Germany and asked her to ask the dermatologist in Germany what he thinks. She called me back the next day, Tuesday, and said that he had told her that I shouldn’t worry because the blister was not at the injection point of the needle and may have been co-incidental.

After this incident I just was hoping that nothing serious would develop out of this experience. But my confidence in nurses drawing blood from me was at a low point.

At that time I had not developed yet the severe symptoms in my mouth that show up after being exposed to too much radiation. At that time I only felt sometimes a numb feeling and some tingling sensations in my mouth, which I had already described to assistant J. at Dr. G.’s practice.

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June 24, 2007 by SUM.

On the day I came back from my doctor’s visit at Dr. G.’s office, I decided to research for a family physician with emphasis on internal medicine over the Internet on my insurance’s website, First Choice. I wanted to have my blood tested, but I didn’t want to go back to Dr. P.’s practice.

While researching the database from First Choice I noticed something strange. The data list stopped at the letter ‘O’. No data was available for a physician for internal medicine after the letter ‘O’. That didn’t seem right to me. Since I had to find a physician from this list, I decided to visit the clinic of James & Minor in Seattle and scheduled an appointment with Dr. H. for Monday, 14th February 2005.

Sometimes you notice things that seem a bit odd and you just take note of it. Within two days I saw two German built cars, a BMW and a Mercedes that had similar license plates at two different places. The BMW was parked at the Antique Mall were I had a showcase and the Mercedes at the place where I had my mammography done last year in November. On Thursday, 3rd February 2005 I went by the Overlake Breast Center to pick up my x-ray film from last year. Since quite a few strange things had happened to me for some time now, I paid a bit more attention of my surroundings.

On Saturday morning, 5th February, I talked to an elderly man who I had met a couple years ago at a Seattle Sleepless Singles meeting. He told me that he was going to their Saturday meetings. I told him that I’m not interested in going there anymore because I have heard one man saying to me or a woman who was sitting next to me “Now, no men runs after you anymore.” When I had heard him saying this to me or her or us, I was baffled. I didn’t know him. I didn’t know why he was mad at women. I just thought that he is an angry man. Afterwards I didn’t feel like going to the Seattle Sleepless Singles anymore because I didn’t know what this person actually had in mind. And later I wondered what he actually had done.

On Monday, 14th February 2005 I visited for the first time Dr. H. at James & Minor. There I had also a very unusual experience that I found alarming. I’ll write about this and the symptoms of radiation overexposure which developed more severely a little bit later in my next posts.

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June 23, 2007 by SUM.

Before I consulted another physician, a dermatologist, I talked to my insurance company and a few other people who I asked for advise, too.

On Wednesday, 26th January 2005 I talked to a specialist at my insurance company and asked him whether the insurance company has some kind of procedures that family physicians can go by when certain matters have to be examined.

The person on the phone replied that this is a matter of opinion and that I should go with what I feel. I told him that I felt uncomfortable that the family physician who had not seen me before had told me that my blood is okay, though my blood had not been tested. The specialist recommended that I write a complaint to L. H. in N. Y.

In the mean time I not only felt that I didn’t receive the appropriate medical care, I felt that something was not adding up right here.

On the same day I spoke to another neighbor and asked her for a recommendation for a physician. When I talked to her about not having a blood test done on the same day when I visited the physician, she said that physicians don’t get enough money from the insurance companies therefore they want you to schedule another appointment, a physical examination. And maybe then they request a blood test.

Here I would like to mention that, since I’m living in Washington State, I rarely called on physicians. I actually wasn’t knowledgeable about the healthcare or the health insurance business. While living in Washington State I have had on and off health care insurance. Before August 2004 I have had neither health nor dental insurance for a couple of years. In January 2005 I neither had a family physician nor did I know other physicians except Dr. F at the Bellevue Women’s clinic.

I believe that Dr. P. could have sent me to the lab for having my blood tested on the same day I had visited his practice at the Evergreen Medical Center.

Now I chose to consult a dermatologist, Dr. G., in Seattle. I had read an article about this dermatologist in the newspaper. Therefore I decided to give his practice a call. I received an appointment, but I was told that his assistant would take care of me because he was not accepting new patients.

On Wednesday, 2nd February 2005 I met his assistant J. and another female nurse. Before she clipped my nail, I asked her for a stool analysis. I mentioned that I had heard that an infection, a fungus, could be determined through a stool analysis. Her reply was that they don’t do this test.

On the same day, early in the morning, I had talked to my sister in Germany. She advised me to request a stool analysis to look for the cause of an infection, such as bacteria, or a fungus. She had asked a dermatologist in Germany, what kind of tests I needed to have done. The dermatologist recommended a stool analysis to see whether I had an infection. But J. told me that this test was not done at Dr. G.’s practice.

J. clipped parts of my nail for testing. And after I had told her that I also had sometimes a numb feeling and some prickle or tickle sensations in my mouth, which I had never felt before, she also swiped my mouth with a Q-tip to examine my saliva.

J. told me that the results of the tests would take about two weeks.

Here I would like to mention that in the coming weeks I would develop more severe symptoms of radiation overexposure. At some point I didn’t produce any saliva in my mouth for a couple of weeks. I’ll describe these experiences in more detail in my next post.

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June 19, 2007 by SUM.

When I arrived on Wednesday at the Evergreen Medical Center for my appointment with Dr. P. I had to fill out at first some paperwork because this was my first consultation with him. I didn’t have to wait for a long time to see Dr. P.

Before I met with Dr. P. a male nurse took my measurements, pulse and heart beat. Dr. P. himself looked at my thumb and asked me right away whether it hurts. After I had told him that it doesn’t hurt, he said, “it’s dead“ and “it could be a fungus.” Thereafter he told me that the medication is expensive and can cost about $600.00 and asked me, what I think should be done. I thought his examination is quite strange. I mentioned that maybe something could be wrong with my blood, and he replied, “The blood is okay.” I was more stunned. I knew that I neither had been a patient of him before nor had he asked me when my blood had been tested the last time; and everybody knows that blood conditions can change rapidly. I also told him that one of my uncles had had cancer on his thumb, and he said to me that he had never heard of this.

I actually started to feel that his examination was lacking more than competency.

I requested that my nail should be tested for a fungus. He gave me a clear plastic bottle and told me to cut the dead nail after it had grown out and bring it back to his office for analysis.

When I left his office my worries were not erased. They actually persisted because of his poor treatment.

After I had left his office, I went to the Microsoft company store to buy some software for a neighbor. A neighbor had given me a package of biscottis on Tuesday, the day before I visited Dr. P.’s office. He said to me that he and his wife had made the biscottis, and he asked me whether I could get him two Microsoft programs from the company store. Since I’m a former Microsoft employee and a member of Microsoft Alumni, I can buy Microsoft software up to a certain limit. I can give the software to others, but I cannot make a profit of it. But I can get the money back I paid for the software. Therefore I bought some software for my neighbor with whom I thought I had a decent neighborly relationship.

On that day I bought the software, gave it to my neighbor and received from him the exact amount I had paid for the software. When I saw him, I showed him my thumb and told him that I wasn’t satisfied with the service I had received today from Dr. P. Therefore I asked him whether he could recommend a good dermatologist in this area. He told me that his whole family goes to a physician in Woodinville and promised to send me his name per email.

Later I talked to other people about my office visit with Dr. P. And they, too, thought that his examination didn’t seem right.

I pretty much decided after this consultation that I wanted to consult with another physician, a dermatologist.

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June 19, 2007 by SUM.

As I mentioned in post Crest Night Effects - Part XVI, I not only developed injuries shortly after undergoing some preventive medical procedures in Bellevue, I didn’t receive adequate treatment either, after consulting with several physicians in this area who supposed to examine the cause of these injuries.

I’ll shortly describe my experiences concerning this matter in chronological order, too.

At the beginning of November 2004 I consulted with Dr. F. from the Bellevue Women’s clinic. Since a mammogram was due, Dr. F. wrote a referral for it. She also recommended a bone density test. A bone density test helps to detect the early stages of osteoporosis (decreased density of normal bone). Therefore I received from her two referrals: mammogram and DEXA scan. Both medical procedures were done within a month (November and December 2004); twice I was exposed to medical machines using x-rays (radiation).

The mammogram was done in November, and the bone density test at the Overlake Hospital facilities on Wednesday, Dec 8th. Though I had to wait for the DEXA scan in section 260, for the actual medical checkup I was summoned to room 200, which was outside section 260. While I was waiting in section 260, I saw nobody inside this area leaving this section for being examined at another location. Every person before me was called to a room inside this section. No wonder that I felt a bit uneasy.

When I left section 260, two women greeted me. It appeared to me that one of the women spoke with an accent, and at some point I thought I heard them speak in a foreign language with each other. They both operated the machine while asking me some questions. They also asked me a few questions about my operation in 1976. I not only had almost died that year because of a physician’s negligence, in the same year one of my cousins lost his life in a very dramatic way.

After these two procedures Dr. F. notified me that both checkups hadn’t come up with any health problems.

But suddenly in middle of January 2005 I noticed that a third of the top of my nail from my left thumb had turned grayish-black. Since I hadn’t injured myself, I was stunned to see an almost black nail. Therefore I knew that something else must have caused the discoloration. And at that time I had no idea what could have been the cause of this injury. But I was worried because I remember my mother telling me that my uncle Alfons had had cancer on one of his thumb, and he had to undergo radiation treatment.

Immediately I made an appointment with a physician to have my thumb examined. I called a family physician, Dr. P. on Monday, 17th January and received an appointment at his practice on Wednesday the same week. Later I’ll describe my office visit with Dr. P. and other physicians in other posts.

Here I would like to mention that during the following months I developed other symptoms of radiation overexposure. And I’ll describe these experiences in more detail, too. Keep in mind I wasn’t undergoing any radiation therapy; I only had undergone some preventive medical procedures at the end of year 2004 (mammogram and bone density test).

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June 16, 2007 by SUM.

Since June 8th I’ve written a short message to several lawyers who handle malpractice and personal injury claims stating my claims and pointing to my ShadowBlog site, where they can get more detailed information. Due to not receiving any reply from quite a few lawyers, I decided to contact a few more.

As of today I received two answers. One lawyer sent me the name of another lawyer. And I wrote this lawyer an email last Monday. Another lawyer wrote me to contact an attorney who I actually had contacted already at the end of 2004. And that lawyer had not only been not supportive, he had advised me to consult with the UW dental clinic where the malpratice took place.

The lawyer who wrote me today pointed out that “Damages including reasonable attorney fees can be awarded for filing frivolous cases.”

Today, I sent a short reply to this lawyer stating that my claim is not frivolous, and I’ll continue writing about my claims and pursue getting legal counsel to take legal actions.

Posted in Attorney consultation, Crest Night Effects, Personal care | No Comments »

June 12, 2007 by SUM.

Last Friday I wrote fife lawyers in this area an email and informed them of my malpractice and product liability claim. Though I received an answer from two of the lawyers I had written, neither one of them is interested in helping me to pursue my claims. But one attorney gave me the name of another attorney to contact. I wrote this attorney an email message yesterday, too. In the next few weeks I’ll focus on contacting lawyers and pointing them to my website where they can get some essential info about my claims.

While I searched for attorneys in this area and reading articles about malpractice suits in the newspapers, I read the article “What the state didn’t know about doctor, malpractice suit” in the Seattle Times. Reading this article reminded me of my own malpractice encounters after consulting with physicians in the Seattle/Bellevue/Redmond area. I not only got severely ill after some preventive medical procedures, I didn’t receive correct treatment either.

All this was very frightening, and I thought that I needed to report this at least to the Department of Health and an insurance company. Though I didn’t pursue any legal actions, I know I had to report the injury and mistreatment to someone who is responsible for overseeing the health care system. For me it was ‘the right thing to do.’ But after having read this article, I’m not sure anymore whether it was sufficient to report the incidents only to the Department of Health and an insurance company who didn’t investigate the case properly.

I’m coming to the conclusion that I should have taken legal steps in these cases, too. I’ll describe some of the malpractice incidents, in a chronological order as they happened, on this website, too, under the theme ‘malpractice.’

And I’ll keep you informed about my claims against the UW dental school and the company who manufactured Crest Night Effects and/or sold the product.

Posted in Attorney consultation, Wellness, Crest Night Effects, Personal care, Doctor's visits, General | No Comments »

June 9, 2007 by SUM.

In my previous post ‘Sponsoring a child’ I chose a picture of a door that belongs to the convent and church St. Pankratius of the Augustinian order in Hamersleben in Saxony-Anhalt County. St. Pankratius is now under renovation and will be finished in 2008. It belongs to the most significant Romanic facilities. Construction started about 1111 and the church was finished circa 1141.

I chose this door because my great-grandfather lived in Hamersleben, and my grandmother belonged to a religious order before she married in her late thirties my grandfather who was then in his fifties. At the moment my information about my grandmother is very scanty, but I know that she was a deaconess before she married my grandfather in December 1918. After my grandmother had married my grandfather, she worked as a district nurse in Warsleben/Ausleben.

Last year in fall, I toured this area for a couple days. Though I don’t know of any living relatives in this area at this moment, I love to visit this area because of my childhood memories. In the fifties I visited a few times with my father his mother, while she was still living in Warsleben, a town that is nearby Hamersleben.

I found Hamersleben quite intriguing. Right next to each other are two separate churches. One belongs to the Protestant and the other to the Catholic religion. Since St. Pankratius is under renovation I couldn’t go inside the former convent. I just walked around that place and took some photos. But I’m looking forward to my next visit.

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June 6, 2007 by SUM.

I decided in February of this year to sponsor a child again. I had done this before, but I had to quit this program when my financial resources prevented me from sending those monthly payments. After my financial resources had improved, I opted to support financially other programs for various reasons.

But this year I decided to sponsor a child again because my financial resources had sufficiently improved, and this time I felt that I’m actually able to sponsor a child in the long run.

So, what does the long-run actually mean. Recently, I read the article “Africa’s Storied Colleges, Jammed and Crumbling” in The New York Times. This article raises a very important factor that needs to be addressed, too, when sponsoring a child. The article points out that over decades basic education had been favored over higher learning, and Africa’s best universities are collapsing and becoming more like a warehouse for a generation of young people whose job opportunities in their society are as dim as their uneducated parents.

Therefore I also believe that it is not enough to sponsor a child only through elementary- and high-school education. A long-term approach is necessary to alleviate poverty and increase economic opportunities on the African continent.

I know that I not only want to sponsor a child that will be lucky enough to graduate from basic education, but out of luck attending an acceptable college or finding a job in her struggling economy.

Therefore I decided that I’m in for the long-run.

Posted in World Vision, Sponsorship, Wellness, General | No Comments »