Around last Christmas of 2021, a friend I'll call Steve told me that he had mild to moderate pain that started on the right side of his back, at a level that would roughly align with the area 2 inches below his shoulder blades. Over time, the pain radiated around his abdomen toward a spot slightly above his solar plexus. He told me that he had gone to see his doctor about it and the Nurse Practitioner (NP) who saw him told him that she thought it was an H. pylori infection and told Steve to schedule an H. pylori breath test for the first week of February with the lab.
When Steve called the lab in early January to schedule the test, the person he spoke with said that they don't schedule this particular test for people his age (79). He called the doctor's office and talked to the receptionist, and told her what had happened. and she said that it was not up to the lab to make that decision and that Steve should have insisted they do the test because the doctor had ordered it. Steve then asked to speak to the doctor, and the receptionist said that that was not possible and that Steve would have to schedule an appointment to see the doctor again. After telling the receptionist that he had already seen the NP, the receptionist told him that it didn't matter and that he would have to schedule another appointment. So Steve told the receptionist that he would schedule the appointment, but it would have to be with the doctor and not the NP, so the receptionist said fine, and the conversation was over.
I could see and hear the frustration in Steve as he was relating his experience. He told me that he had previously had cancer, and he was apprehensive that it might have come back, and that was what was causing his pain, which he mentioned was getting worse. He went on to tell me that about an hour later, the doctor called him to say that they were going to skip the H. pylori test and have Steve take front and back abdominal x-rays instead. They ended up taking those x-rays in late January, and the doctor got back to Steve as soon as he reviewed them.
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