reading my surgical report

yes it was very interesting reading!!

When I woke up after my surgery they showed me a picture of my uterus and how it had 100 fibroids on the inside and outside. Well I don't remember the picture since I just came out of anesthesia. I rememer staring at it but I don't remember what it looked like at all.

I talked to my doctor about it at my two week post op and he seemed surprised that they didn't give me the picture. He said he's going to request it for me. That was last Wednesday I'm not sure if he's really going to or he might forget since he had just come from emergency surgery to my appointment. Now that I know about the report and how detailed it is I am very curious about getting that too.

I think I'll call my doctors office next week and if they never did anything about getting the picture I'll call the hospital and get it myself.

good for you.Now we all just need medical dictionarys.

I had to comment on this. I have a chronic illness and my DH had a heart attack and a pulmonary embolism and internal bleeding for 34 days. So, I have been around the medical world for a bit of time.

Your medical records belong to YOU. They DO NOT belong to your Dr. Don't even let them begin to tell you that. This is a Federal Law. Under the HIPPA Law you have a right to your ALL your medical records just by asking. They can not refuse you. Now, they may stall you and tell you that your Dr. needs to review them with you. Actually, even that is a stall but a lot of people use it.

Now, some states have enacted some law by where they can charge you for your own records. You have already paid for them by your procedure.

You are entitled to all your records including Dr.s office notes - they call these clinicals, labs, surgical reports, pathology, etc. Everytime you have an MRI, CT Scan, etc. just ask them for a copy of the report and a CD of the films.

Just ask you Dr. for them. Call up and ask for Medical Records. If they push against your request, push back. Remind them that they are yours by Federal Law.

Everyone should have their own complete medical file. You never know when you are going to need it. Better safe than sorry.

Mecredi,This is great what you wrote.I hope everybody reads this.Maybe you should post this as a new thread.I can not express enough how much is in those records.

Hmmm, maybe you are right. I was just responding to the posting. Thanks for the kind words.

I had my TAH/BSO 3 years ago today !!!! Yea!!! And yes,Im one of those people who asked prior to surgery if I could "see" the organs-LOL,they said no,but would take a picture for me.It was very cool to see what had made so much trouble for me the last few years.Kind of like a closure thing..... Did the surgical and path report also.Everyone is different but for me it was very positive.Oh,and the hysterectomy -I have never regreted for one second.

After hearing how amazingly distorted my fibroid uterus was I too wanted to see a pic. My doc forgot to take one but drew me a picture. During my 2nd csection he had taken pictures and actually even had to do a myomectomy at that time just to get my uterus back in. While in recovery one of my OR nurses came in and said "Whoa when you said you had a baby in there along with a gang of fibroids, you weren't kidding!" Then she asked if I wanted to see the one that he ended up having to remove. Of course I said yes. Not bad...size of a large plum.
This time he did give me a copy of the path report before I was discharged, so I could read the description and see the measurements and weight of my alienlike uterus. The fibroids were actually stuck together in a way that took on a body like form.!!

LOLLLLLL--My uterus looked like a cow's head.It really did...My girlfriends laughed and made all kinds of funny jokes about it.While in the hospital I had put the picture next to the flowers.When ppl ooood and ahhhhhhd over the flowers they would pick up the pic and say " whats this?" .When i told them some would quickly put the photo down and look disturbed. It was funny.

I couldnt wait to read my surgery report. I work in the medical field and I am fascinated by everything also. But the biggest reason I wanted my report was that I had a longer than expected surgery and he had trouble with adhesions from my previous 3 C-sections and he had trouble with me bleeding, he had to keep stopping what he was doing and recauterize constantly. So I was very surprised when I got my report and it was not very detailed at all. He never mentioned the adhesions or the bleeding and I wonder why some dr.s do this and others are very detailed. He talked to me several times in the hospital about his concern over my bleeding and also about the adhesions as this is why he left my cervix. He told my husband he was concerned after surgery and me, and then even came back in at night and said that at a later date we need to look into why I bled so bad especially since I hemorrhaged after my second child. But then at my post op he kind of blew it off and then nothing on the surgery report! Confusing!!!