Rheumatology rock star

March 24, 2012

My rheumatologist is fantastic!  She sets the gold standard for medical care.  She went above and beyond yesterday!

I am very picky about doctors.  Actually, that’s a huge understatement.  I’ve received a lot of poor care over the years.  There was the pediatric surgeon with no compassion.  There was the internist who lied and told me a certain test didn’t exist even though it did.  There were the several who ignored my theories of what was happening with my body (and it turns out I was right.)  There were the many who simply wouldn’t admit when they didn’t have an answer.  That’s one of my biggest criteria: every doctor I see must be willing to admit ignorance when it’s warranted.  My standards are high, and I won’t accept inferior treatment any more.

At my first appointment with this rheumatologist, I told her early on that I understood that my condition didn’t have a particular name and that I was ok with that.  She looked downright relieved, then told me how it can take patients many years to accept that.  She was glad we could move on and focus on treatments.  I knew then that I liked her.  She understood.

Over the last several years she has been helpful and caring.  She only works three days a week, but if I leave a message with an urgent situation, she’ll call me back on her days off.  She’ll call me at 7pm if she’s been with patients all day.  I can always trust that she’ll call.  When I need to be seen and her schedule is booked, she always finds a way to squeeze me in.  She tells me when she doesn’t know what to do.  She’ll ask what I want to do.  She listens to my thoughts and theories and takes me seriously.  She trusts my assessment of my body, but conducts her own assessment as well.  I can actually trust her.  That’s not something I do easily.  And, of course, she’s good at what she does.  She’s knowledgeable.  She’s worked with other patients with my unique rheumatological situation.  If I ask her about something she’s not completely familiar with, she researches it and gets back to me.

But this week she really outdid herself.  I was blown away!  I’ve been on edge about signing up for disability insurance.  To make matters worse, there will be a big gap between short term and long term disability.  This is mostly because I got the paperwork for the insurance application on the first day of my rheumatologist’s 10 day vacation.  She’d told me she was going on vacation, but I didn’t realize what the timing of the paperwork would be.  Well, there was nothing I could do.  I sent her the forms, along with a note about the timing, asking that she not wait until our next appointment to fill it out.  I know how hectic things are after a vacation, but she’s been so responsive that I hoped she might do it within a week of getting back.  Boy was I wrong!

She got back from vacation on Thursday.  Early Friday morning she responded to my email and asked if she could call me later in the day to discuss the forms.  She called at the exact time she had said and then filled out the forms while we were on the phone!  She told me what she was writing and asked me questions about the various sections.  She told me she wanted to get it done right away because of my timing issue, then she apologized for not calling the day before!  She said she had to spend that first day catching up from vacation, which of course I understood!  Plus, we had a temperature and humidity spike last week, so I’m guessing that many of her patients were calling.  This paperwork is important to me, and I’m nervous about it, but I never expected her to do it on her second day back!  Her forms will get to the insurance company before mine!  (She faxed hers and I have to mail mine.)

I’m not thrilled with my endocrinologist right now, and I need a new gastroenterologist, and I might need to see a neurologist, and I’m not crazy about my PCP, but thank goodness that the one doctor I rely on the most, the one who provides so much of my care, is so fantastic!  I wish I could find more like her.  I wish we all could!

Good luck to you all in your search for good doctors.  Let’s hope there are plenty more like this one.  We all deserve them.

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Posted by chronicrants

Fearing disbelief

March 5, 2012

When I was in 7th grade, one day I suddenly had a lot of pain in my wrist.  My parents brought me to a doctor, who told me to wear a splint for 6 weeks and it would be all better.  Boy was he wrong!  This was to be the first of many symptoms.

Fast-forward to the tender age of 17.  I had seen many doctors – internists, orthopedists, surgeons (yet for some reason, no one suggested neurologists or rheumatologists) – and they didn’t know how to treat me.  They suggested I see a different kind of doctor: a psychologist.

I have nothing against psychologists.  In fact, I have a big problem with the social stigma surrounding mental health in the United States.  But in this case, it was upsetting that the doctors all thought this was in my head.  Then some family and friends started to think so too, and that was even worse!  Some thought that I was making up the pain in order to get attention.  Others thought that my subconscious was making up the pain.  It got to the point that even I started to wonder!  My mother was the one person who never believed their hype – she always knew that the pain was real.  I am so thankful for her.  I can’t imagine what would have happened to me if she hadn’t been in my corner.

My disability benefits were due to run out last week, and try as I might, I can’t get the overworked case manager to call me and tell me if I’m approved for a few more weeks.  I was worrying about this today when I suddenly realized why I’m so nervous: I’ve had years of people not believing me, and what if the insurance company stops believing too?  Those doubters when I was 17 were only some of the doubters I’ve faced.  There have been so many.  I still face the problem now, but I have a better handle on dealing with it.  With an insurance company, though, it can be very hard to argue. There’s no real person to convince, just an entity.

Now that I’ve recognized the fear I feel, the lasting affect of those years of being doubted, I hope that I can overcome it.  I hope that I can feel confident that people will believe me (or at least that I’ll convince them easily enough.)  It will take a lot of work; afterall, I’ve been facing the disbelief for many, many years.  Still, now that I recognize it, it’s time to get over it.

I refuse to waste any more energy on worrying about what other people think.

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Are you better yet?

March 2, 2012

When I was a kid, my family would drive to visit family several times a year.  The car trip took forEVer… 4 whole hours!  There was a decent amount of “Are we there yet?” coming from us kids in the back seat.  The longer we were on the road, the more emphasis the “yet” received.  We wanted to be there already!

I know everyone means well when they ask how I’m feeling, and when I’ll be ready to go back to work, but what I’m hearing is “Are you better yet?”  I try to remind myself that they only want me to be healthy, but it’s weighing on me.  Do they really thing I’d be better and return to work without telling them?  Do my close family and friends think that I’d be doing great and not let them know?  Asking constantly is simply not helping.  It’s pressure.  Every time they ask, and I tell them I’m not doing better, I feel like I’m letting them down.  They are disappointed.  I understand why they’re disappointed, but my natural instinct is to want to make them less disappointed, and I can’t do that, so then I feel guilty.

This is INSANE!  I feel guilty because I have to tell people that my health isn’t improving?!?!?

Everyone is different.  Some people may want to be asked about their health constantly.  That works for them.  It does not work for me.  I am mentally crafting an email now that I can send to everyone asking them to back the hell off.  I just need to figure out how to say it a bit gentler….

 

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The double standard of pursuing treatments

February 9, 2012

But they must have some idea how to treat you!?

I’m so sick of hearing that, but somehow I found those words coming out of my mouth today.  I hate when people say that to me.  I’ve accepted that there’s no straightforward treatment for my CIs, that the best we can do is slow things down.  I’ll never be “healthy.”  I can handle that.

But I hold my friends’ health to a different standard.  Sure, the doctors can’t cure me, but they must be able to cure everyone else!  Besides, my friend has a diagnosis.  They know what’s wrong with her!  Why can’t they fix it?!?

I get very protective over my friends.  She knows this.  And she’s known me for ages, since years before I had any symptoms.  So when I made that comment, we both just broke out laughing.  Imagine, Ms. R of all people suggesting that there must always be a cure!

It’s a double standard of sorts, but one that I’m fiercely protecting; I want my friends to be cured.  All of them.  Even if I never get better, that doesn’t mean they won’t either.  I want them to keep fighting for results.  And I’ll be there to support them the whole way.  I just hope they don’t give up.

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