@ess77 What a miserable situation you have been in. Doctors who don't respond to portal messages, particularly an important one like this, need to be brought to account. I like to use portals because then I know the doctor sees exactly what I have said, not a transposed message from the phone. For something like this though I would definitely try to get through on the phone.

It's great to have the backup of Mayo. I feel the same, I go to Mass General for almost everything except my PCP and I am confident of how they will handle things.

I hope you get this resolved very quickly and are back on the road to good health.
JK

@ess77 and all, Getting hold of a physician can sometimes be a challenge because many aren't given administrative time in their day to answer and return phone calls. I am sorry you had this experience with your PCP. I hope you are able to work out a better system to contact them in the future. Many doctor's offices have processes for patients who need assistance after hours or when they can't reach their usual doctor.

At Mayo Clinic, transplant patients are all given a card with an after hours phone number to contact the organ transplant physician on-call. This number reaches someone 24 hours a day/7 days a week in case of a patient emergency. Our hope is that our patients use this number in situations similar to yours, when they need assistance, but don't feel the situation requires 911. Many other hospitals have a similar system. Everyone should ask their doctors how best to contact them during and after business hours. Of note, patient portals are nice for communication, but keep in mind they should not be used for urgent matters. While we usually handle messages within a day, Mayo Clinic has a 2-4 day turn around expectation to patient portal messages. If you require immediate assistance, the portal may not be your best method of contacting your doctor as it may take them a day or more to get to your message.