I am unsure

So I have had the same doctor for pain management, Dr G, for a good six years now because of my back pain and later fibromyalgia. We have had a good relationship and he has helped control my pain. I have always liked him and thought he was doing right by me.

I have a friend, L, who has been also going to him for pain management for her issues, which have included curvature issues with her spine. We have compared notes and treatments in the past and both like him.

I had lunch with L this week for the first time after some extensive back surgery last spring. She told me she will never see Dr. G again. He continued to treat her pain, never referred her to a surgeon or anyone else, or sent her for more scans. As a result, her back surgery was much more extensive than if she had had the surgery five years ago. She is very mad at him.

L got a new primary care last year who referred her to a surgeon for her back pain who told her she should have had surgery years ago. But Dr G is an anesthesiologist so he didn't ever refer her to a surgeon.

Now I do not know what to think. Dr G has always told me there is now surgical cure for my pain and I have believed him. I have also done some research on my own on potential back surgery and found that back surgery is very iffy in most cases so I have continued to agree with him. I know every patient is different but this makes me unsure about the whole situation.

I find this very disappointing and disheartening in that we assume a doctor has our best interests at heart but L clearly had a different experience. Dr G believes in medicine to treat pain as that is what he does as an anesthesiologist. A surgeon always believes that surgery is best because that is what they do. Patients get stuck in the middle. And we want to believe that what our doctors tell us is in our best interest.

I think I need to shift my focus from believing Dr G is always correct to doing some double checking. And I have a plan. I see Dr G this coming Friday as a follow up. But then I see my new primary care in a couple more weeks and I will talk to her about my pain issues, particularly my back. I do not want unnecessary surgery but I do want to do whatever I can to feel better.

We must trust our doctors but sometimes we need to do a little double checking. I don't like that part.

A busy week

I have a busy week scheduled. Some how, I have four doctor appointments, plus I need to work two days, go to the gym three days, and keep packing to move. Oh, and find a new place to live.

Tomorrow, Sunday, we are having our neighbors over around 9am so they can take a look at our house to see if they want to buy it. I am giving them first dibs because they are nice and I know they have been  house hunting for a while. But that means today I have to make the house look semi decent so they can actually look at it tomorrow. Then we are going to four open houses in the afternoon.

Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I have doctor appointments. These are just a major time suck and I need to remember everything I want to ask them all (that means I need to start write them my questions down). And I need to get bloodwork done.

I think I am going to work Monday after my first appointment and then another day later in the week, maybe Thursday.

Oh, and did I say my back is giving me lots of pain these days? That could make me whiney.....

Being a complainer

There is a difference between complaining and being a complainer. I complain sometimes, we all complain. And we should. We should speak our minds and make our wishes known. But if we complain too often we can become complainers where we are either Chicken Little or the Boy who cried Wolf so that when we have real complaints, they get lost or overlooked.

Here is a tale of a complainer who complained so often that her complaints became overlooked and she ended up diagnosed with stage IV thyroid cancer and died from it which lead to a malpractice suit.

I think there are a couple issues in this story. The patient complained so much and spent so much time talking about other issues that it became difficult to discern real medical issues from other issues. Of course her doctor could have done more to figure out the cause of her symptoms but he and a specialist could not find anything that significant and attributed the diagnosis of acid reflux  as the cause, which is very common.

When I am the patient, I come in prepared for my appointment with a list of questions to make sure they were all addressed. I would have also kept the list from one appointment to another to make sure something is being done to find out what is wrong with me. And if it dragged on to too many times I was back in for the same thing with no change or resolution, I would get pushier and want more options.

With my medical background, I know you are never too young, too old, or too anything for a diagnosis.

I also know all medical personnel are busy and need to be told a story about a complaint. Don't say 'I have a pain', say 'I have a pain when I do this or eat this', etc. We need to make it easy for my doctors to get to the bottom of the problem. We don't need to share pictures with them or tell them about the rest of our lives. We need to give the  medical professionals as much information relating to our health problems to help them help us.

We should not be complainers but we should tell about our complaints so we do not end up like the patient in the story.

The new doctor

So I met my new primary care yesterday. I think I like her. What's interesting is that what she is concerned about with my health are not the same things as my other doctors.

First of all she called me anemic. My red blood levels have never been the same since chemotherapy. Even though my last chemo was in December of 2007. No one else has ever said something about it. But she said its not that bad since its within one standard deviation of normal (that took some recall of calculus and statistics to make sense).

Second of all, she was interested in what she called my missing blood counts - Vitamin D, Vitamin B12, cholesterol, and more. So I am going for a whole pile of blood tests probably tomorrow morning because they require fasting.

Third she wants to see me with all my test results in about a month to get back to me.

Finally, she talks a lot. But she also listens. So I guess this has a chance.

Call me optimistic.