I meet my endocrinologist multiple times a year as part of my normal health checkups, and she tests A to Z of bloodwork as part of it. Last year around this time she identified that I was borderline low on ferritin, a iron store indicator. Men don’t have a low iron problem generally, and she definitely jumped into high gear. She asked me to see a gastroenterologist and discuss about my GERD issues as well as this level. The first appointment I got with the gastro was at beginning of this year, who quickly dismissed my endo’s concern saying that since all my other markers were optimal it meant nothing.
Then during spring when my ferritin marker was still low, my endo sent a strongly worded email to the gastro demanding that he do a endoscopy and colonoscopy to rule out bleeding or other bacterial or concerning issues. After meeting the gastro again he agreed to heed my endo’s advice “to be safe” and scheduled the exams. Those exams finally finished 2 weeks ago with final review with the doc today, almost 1 year after my endo had initially asked me to go through all this.
The result - thankfully, nothing of concern was found. I was right, the gastro beamed, but he also mentioned he’s glad that I have a caring doc like my endo who put in that effort and energy to cross out all the dots, and that I should appreciate it. And I’m like, she’s been my doc for more than a decade now and I trust more than anyone else around me. I am sure next time I meet her, she’s not going to dismiss it but it will make her happy.
That said, its a telling take on american healthcare system. It took me almost a year since she asked me to do these tests to rule out anything concerning. A year is a fucking long time for something to get worse, but here we are dealing with the sad state of american healthcare system that it takes this long to do this. Its one of those things I feel like places like Bangalore in India are so much better. I could’ve literally walked into hospital and been done with these exams within 15 days tops.