My first ever Gundersen E-Visit!

Yes, that’s part of my colon.

Many years ago, when I was working as a garbageman for the City of Manchester, NH, I went home on a Friday afternoon with some pretty serious lower abdominal pain.

It was so bad, that on Saturday morning, I ended up in Elliot Hospital. I thought I’d pulled a muscle. Couldn’t move without excruciating pain in my gut area. Was difficult to even stand up straight. And I was in my mid-20’s at the time, so it just seemed very strange.

After many tests and a few days in the hospital, they told me I had diverticulitis. And I vividly remember the doctor saying that it usually occurs in older people. Not in someone in the prime of their life.

They gave me some Cipro and Flagyl, told me to eat healthier, and gave me a list of foods I should avoid.

Fast forward several years and a few dozen flare-ups of the diverticulitis, I’d become an expert at knowing the moment when it was starting to rear it’s painful head. A tiny tinge of discomfort in my bowels, the inability to poop…it was an all too familiar feeling. I’d had enough. I decided to have a colon resection to take out the bad part of my colon and hopefully enjoy some semblance of a normal, diverticulitis-free life.

Since my colon resection several years ago, I’ve only had three to four instances where I had to once again get a round of meds to battle my symptoms, and one of them occurred this past Friday.

It started in the morning…that old familiar feeling in my gut. I wasn’t 100% sure it was a flare up, because I’d actually pooped a couple of times on Friday morning, but as the day wore on, I could tell it wasn’t just indigestion or constipation. We had dinner plans with Puck & his wife, and I should have called over to Gundersen earlier in the afternoon, but I’m an idiot and waited until 4:30 before getting on the phone.

Unfortunately, I was unable to get a nurse on the phone, and I was really worried that I’d end up in the emergency room on Friday night or Saturday, just to get sent home with a big bill & a prescription for a few meds that I’d taken many times in the past.

So, I logged into my Gundersen MyChart to see if there were any other options to request a prescription at 5ish on a Friday, and lucky me, under the menu tab on the top left, there was the option to begin an E-Visit.

I’d never had an E-Visit in the past, so please excuse me if this is NOT news to you.

I was on my phone, so it required me to download the app first, then create a login(which seemed a bit redundant since I was already logged into my MyChart account), and then I answered a few questions, and a few minutes later, I was face-timing/Zooming/etc. with a doctor.

He checked out the answers I’d given when signing up, asked me a few more questions, and agreed to send in a ‘scrip for the two meds I’d need.

From start to finish, it took about 10 minutes to download the app, sign up, finish the questionnaire, and talk to the doctor. Shit was slicker than grease! Now, I haven’t seen the bill yet, but for something like this, where I don’t really need to physically go to the hospital, I HIGHLY recommend it!

Again, I apologize if you’ve already used this service and think I’m an idiot for not knowing about it sooner, but I was extremely impressed with how simple & smooth the whole process was. Many thanks to Gundersen for this option!