hummingwolf | (no subject)

Today I had an appointment with a new doctor, a rheumatologist. From the rheumatology group's website, I had learned that they're a busy practice, heavily involved in research, terrifically up-to-date. So naturally I figured that I'd be seeing my newest physician in a nice, modern office, probably in a multi-story office building.

When I got to the address on my referral form, I double- and triple- and quadruple-checked to make sure I'd gotten it right. "Am I really," says I to myself, "supposed to see a doctor at [Abstract Noun] Animal Hospital?!"

Heavy sigh. Called up the number on my referral form, rediscovered that my primary provider's receptionist really does need to work on her penmanship, then walked half a mile to meet my newest physician in a nice, modern office in a multi-story office building.

Filled out forms detailing my life history and the life histories of all my known blood relatives, talked to the doctor a bit, was encouraged & think that he really does know what he's doing, or at least is keeping up with the research reasonably well. He wants me to go to a psychiatrist, not so much for the psychological aspects of illness as for the fact that the drug he thinks I should try next is one that my flavor of Medicaid might be more likely to pay for if it's prescribed by a psych. rather than a rheumy. Fair enough. Also, he wants me to go to a physical therapist associated with the practice, because that physical therapist apparently loooooves fibro patients. Or something like that. Sounds good to me--there's a huge and potentially agonizing difference between PT from someone who knows fibro and PT from someone who doesn't.

Also got more blood taken. Seems my veins should be ready for pop quizzes at any moment these days. Unfortunately, these people did not have any Bugs Bunny band-aids.

For the first time since I started getting Medicaid benefits, I saw what a doctor's actually charging. Whew! I truly hope you taxpayers will be getting your money's worth.

On the way home, I saw a goldfinch flitting amongst sunflowers. Nature is rarely so color-coördinated.

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Glad that you're finally getting some good medical care.

Yeah. One big help in getting good medical care is finding someone else to pay for it!

Don't worry about eating up taxes. The war on Iraq should take care of that. . .

True. But I still get a bit of sticker shock seeing a specialist's fees, even if I'm not the one paying.

i haven't had a chance to post this, but i wanted to tell you, anyways:

i went to the clinic, which turned out to be an urgent care clinic and not a long-term care clinic. leave it to the county to have an *urgent care* place that takes appoinements that are sometimes two weeks away or more. ahh, the dance of poverty..

but anyway... when i was there he wanted to have me get labwork done when the lab was open this week. (it was saturday) he filled out one of those nifty pink labslips and gave it to me to take up there when i came back...
and written bold as brass up at the top, in the little box that says "diagnosis"...
"Fibromyalgia"

i got a chuckle out of that. this doctor saw me and mostly just talked for less than half an hour. i had to explain what my actual original disorder had to do with nerve and muscle issues. and when faced with that little square to fill out, *that* is what he came up with.

thought you might be entertained by that. ;)

Heh. Before I got diagnosed with fibro, it was always interesting to see what doctors put in those little boxes. Sometimes they get a bit creative there. But since FMS is defined as a syndrome, it's probable that you do have it, technically.

i wondered about the possibility of that. i wasn't sure exactly how it was classified.

i have had some serious doozies when it came to those little boxes. my old doc would escalate my head cold to "pneumonia" when he felt dramatic about it.

but yeah.. i have wondered if it were possible that my symptoms stemming from my damage might fall under some catagory that would make it slightly easier to explain.

but i did get amusement over that one, because i always said my fibro friends understand best what i am dealing with.

it was a tossed-off diagnosis, but it did get me thinking. and i will have to do some (more)research.

i may ask you at some point to recommned some good sites.

i have wondered if it were possible that my symptoms stemming from my damage might fall under some catagory that would make it slightly easier to explain.

Depends on who you're explaining it to. If you're going to a doctor for the first time for some specific new problem, you're possibly better off *not* making things easier for them. Too many doctors still think that fibromyalgia is either (A) a nonexistent ailment and proof that you're hypochondriac (though this is less common now that more research is being done), or (B) an explanation for whatever new symptom you might have and a reason to send you away with no help because, hey, it's fibro, must be nothing serious.

Then again, if you find a new primary doctor, it may be worthwhile to bring up the possibility that the FMS diagnosis might be a good fit. If nothing else, you may become eligible for any clinical trials being done in your area.

When it comes to non-medical peoples, most of them won't know quite what the fibro label means anyway, so you'll probably end up with the same amount of explaning to do.

leave it to me to start with a rare, little-known genetic disorder that may or may not have led to a little-known, hard to pin-point, muchly misunderstood syndrome.

did i ever tell you that everytime i have gotten truly ill, a paper has ended up being written about me or the treatments used on me? somewhere there are pictures of the inside layer of my irises in some medical texts or journals. my mum used to say that when they were doing trials on new meds, they should just follow me around and write down all the side effects, because i would get all of them, including the rare ones that happen to like one in 50 million...

half the things i have been hospitalized for over the years are still not technically diagnosed. they are unexplained, and it is not known why they got better. or why they didn't.

pheh. i even got a very mundane problem with one of my knees... but then it turned out the real problem was that my knees apparently have an extra bit of tissue on them for no obvious or explainable reason.

somewhere, on my medical charts, one of my doctors actually wrote the word "weird". it's offical.

oh, i hope this doc really does get you some results, cb. this sounds very promising!

godlfinches are so *cheerful* looking! good setting for one, too.

That goldfinch startled me! Well, I startled it first, I think. Very good sight to see on my way home, even if dim light from a cloudy sky did lessen the effect a bit!

It's sort of nice to know that psychiatrists are good for something...

I thought your reaction might be something along those lines!

Yay! I was easy to predict. (This is a good thing. More often I'm so hard to predict that after I have a reaction sometimes people refuse to believe it.)

Is it that you're hard to predict, or that you don't fit so well into people's ready-made boxes?

That could be it. Apparently many people think I look like a square, which must be why they keep trying.

(Pun intended. Nowadays when people fall over in shock at the things I say, I don't bother yelling at them. I just vacuum around them.)

It's conceivable that you are a square. Problem could be that too many people have forgotten everything they ever learned about geometry.

Vacuuming seems like the best choice. The unexpected noise might wake some of them up eventually.

Glad the doc seems on the ball.

I can't help but wonder if going to the vet would not have been the better choice. After all the SS board seems to always screw up, and might have found the vet more acceptable.

Heh. You may have a point, but my flavor of Medicaid will only pay for a specialist with a referral. Sadly, my referral was not for a consultation at [Abstract Noun] Animal Hospital.

{abstract noun}

sound like you sent me a Mad Libs Message.

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