Feeling dumb for calling my doctor...

Oct 30, 2012

I'm two months out from RNY and i've been having pain just under my rib cage on the right side, typically after I eat. It's not the same kind of pain that I get if I eat too fast or don't chew well enough, it's over to the side and different. I've been dealing with the intermittent pain for about a week and a half now, but yesterday I also started having pain in my lower right side.

When I went to my pre-op, my surgeon said he and my abdomen are married. If anything needs to be done to my abdomen, he's the one to do it. I completely get that. But how do I know if what I have going on requires a bariatric surgeon to look at it? I feel dumb for calling my doc because what if it is something stupid like gas pain? (again, this pain is different and I can make it worse by pushing on the area.)

I'm just afraid he's going to think I'm extra paranoid about these pains, but I don't know what I don't know and it's frustrating me. I don't want to be one of "those patients" that calls for every little thing, but I also want to make sure I see someone who knows what's going on post-surgery. Also, I haven't called for anything since my first week post-op.

I guess working in the medical field has me over-thinking this whole thing about how doctor's think about their patients. I KNOW how doctors and nurses are, though; even though they SHOULDN'T think about their patients as nuisances, but they do.

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