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Today's Doctor Visit

Typical of today's subhuman care in the US.

So we started talking about my irregular bleeding which has started again. And she looks up my chart and she's like, two years ago we saw what we "thought" was a uterine fibroid. But I can't guarantee you it's not cancer. (Basically it's an unidentified f-ing object) But it's probably just a fibroid and the bleeding is cause it got bigger.

So, I'm sitting there like, you let me go for TWO years and never once said you weren't sure it was a uterine fibroid. And never told me to get it checked out further. That's just classic.

IMO, it's hormonal cause I just switched doses on the thyroid med again and I've been going through massive stress with the crazy relatives. Plus the soy that got into my diet. Soy makes me bleed. And too much dairy lately, too. But what she said did bug me!

The rest of the visit was just the same as usual. They always comment on my blood pressure and I always have to explain that it's totally normal for a POTS patient.

The insurance company refuses to pay for the real Levoxl, the pharmacy wanted me to pay twenty bucks a month for the real thing, so I said no, give me generic junk again. So I guess I'll just suffer with the bad side effects forever. I can't afford more money a month.

She had no answers for me on my Lyme arthritis or anything else really. Just keep on taking what I'm taking, bloodwork in two months, and see you again in January.

And I left feeling like I'm not really getting much care.

Comments

alex3619
Hi Carrigon, this is so common a story that I have heard something like it three times this week now. The push for fast doctor visits and avoiding "unnecessary" testing is part of it, but doctors are complicit in this. They have the power, collectively, to fight it. They choose not to for the most part. Those who do are labelled as mavericks.

Good doctors are rare if you have ME or CFS. This will not change until the medical culture changes, and that requires a whole new generation of doctors growing up with the latest science on ME.

Bye
Alex
 
jimells
I wouldn't give you a dime for a six-pack of doctors. Overall, they are useless, no, worse than useless; it takes me two or three days to recover from dealing with one.

So your doctor believes that POTS is a real disease, and that you have it? That's a near-miracle right there.

I have to be my own doctor. I get copies of all the lab and specialist reports. The last lab report showed borderline deficiency for Vit D, but the idiot doc said my vit D was 'optimum'. Of course it didn't matter what the report said, because she had already concluded that I have no illness, I just need a psychotherapist and exercise.

I asked her if she believed CFS was a real disease. She said no. At that point I knew it was a waste of time and my limited strength to deal with this doctor. So now I have to look for another one. Again. I said to her, "there are a million people in the US with this disease, and we are all faking it?" I got no reply, of course.

In a bizarre irony, she accidently prescribed something that is helping the (undiagnosed) POTS. Like your doctor, she was over me about my BP. But the fact I can't work is irrelevant, because she can't measure that. If they can't measure it, or choose not to, it doesn't exist.

She tried to bully me into taking the atenolol, threatening to withhold the Imitrex for migraines if I didn't get my BP "under control". I found I am able to tolerate 1/8 dose. The nurse was 'shocked' that I was only taking such a small dose without the doctor's 'permission'. Does this dose reduce the BP to numbers acceptable to the doctor? I don't know, and don't give a damn.

I've been sick for eight years, and I still don't have a diagnosis, beyond 'uncontrolled hypertension', 'attention seeker', 'non-compliant', 'drug addict' (according to Social Security consultant), and the handy-dandy all-purpose 'depressive disorder NOS'.

Alex, are the new doctors actully learning anything different? The one I fired yesterday was quite young. Seems like all she learned was how to bully patients.
 
alex3619
Hi Jimmells, no I don't think that most new docs learn anything different ... yet. Most schools have a page or a couple of pages on CFS and nothing on ME from what I can gather.

However the WPI is near a medical school and have the intent of teaching medical students about ME. That can only be an improvement.

The information is out there to understand a lot about ME. The medical culture not only doesn't reinforce such learning, it actively works against it. Which is why I say that medical culture has to change, and then new docs be trained, to see a real widespread difference.

In the meantime any doc who wants to can read the research. Very few of them do.

Bye
Alex
 
Carrigon
My doctor's office, yes, they do believe POTS is real. However, they don't know what to do about it. I know a million times more than they do. Both my doctor, and the assistant or nurse, whatever she was believed me about POTS.

There are 24 million people world wide who have CFIDS/ME and climbing. We all present with basically the same symptoms/conditions/syndrome. And yet, we are still being ignored.

To me, if you do not learn new things, it doesn't matter what your degree is. You could have twenty degrees and phd's behind your name, but if you refuse to ever learn a new thing, all it makes you is an idiot with a lot of pieces of worthless paper. And there are alot of idiots out there. I don't understand how they can be so ignorant of what goes on in the world. Especially when it comes to medicine and disease. There are new viruses and new bacteria and new fungi turning up all the time. Disease is an everchanging thing. New diseases emerge over time. New physical conditions emerge over time. Disease and medicine do not stand still. And just because you can't always see it with your eyes doesn't mean there isn't an infectious agent present.

Tests mean nothing if you test for the wrong things. And medical guidelines are inaccurate when not everyone's body can conform to those things. It is the medical and food industry that has been messing with salt and blood pressure for years now, and they have created POTS, just like they have created thyroid disease in doing so. Not everyone's body can handle low blood pressure. People with POTS do better when we read higher. Forcing us to be lower makes us sick.
 
C
jimells;bt5774 said:
I wouldn't give you a dime for a six-pack of doctors. Overall, they are useless, no, worse than useless; it takes me two or three days to recover from dealing with one.

So your doctor believes that POTS is a real disease, and that you have it? That's a near-miracle right there.

I have to be my own doctor. I get copies of all the lab and specialist reports. The last lab report showed borderline deficiency for Vit D, but the idiot doc said my vit D was 'optimum'. Of course it didn't matter what the report said, because she had already concluded that I have no illness, I just need a psychotherapist and exercise.

I asked her if she believed CFS was a real disease. She said no. At that point I knew it was a waste of time and my limited strength to deal with this doctor. So now I have to look for another one. Again. I said to her, "there are a million people in the US with this disease, and we are all faking it?" I got no reply, of course.

In a bizarre irony, she accidently prescribed something that is helping the (undiagnosed) POTS. Like your doctor, she was over me about my BP. But the fact I can't work is irrelevant, because she can't measure that. If they can't measure it, or choose not to, it doesn't exist.

She tried to bully me into taking the atenolol, threatening to withhold the Imitrex for migraines if I didn't get my BP "under control". I found I am able to tolerate 1/8 dose. The nurse was 'shocked' that I was only taking such a small dose without the doctor's 'permission'. Does this dose reduce the BP to numbers acceptable to the doctor? I don't know, and don't give a damn.

I've been sick for eight years, and I still don't have a diagnosis, beyond 'uncontrolled hypertension', 'attention seeker', 'non-compliant', 'drug addict' (according to Social Security consultant), and the handy-dandy all-purpose 'depressive disorder NOS'.

Alex, are the new doctors actully learning anything different? The one I fired yesterday was quite young. Seems like all she learned was how to bully patients.
Click to expand...

Have you considered getting tested by the Fatigue Clinic in northern California? Sorry, I'm too tired to dig up the info at the moment, but they were very helpful to me. If you are interested (or anyone else), send me a private email, and I will send back to you the telephone number, location, and email of the Director.

Sounds like this doctor was toxic. Time to move on.

Chloe
 

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Carrigon
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