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The next ChronicBabe carnival topic is “how do you deal with the medical establishment.” Since I lost my insurance two years ago, I hadn’t dealt with them at all until last month when I had to go to the emergency room, and ended up in the hospital for 5 days with no pain meds. I had my first visit with a rheumatologist since Oct. 2007 on Monday, and that experience wasn’t a whole lot better. She wanted to give me a script for an antidepressant to help me sleep, because “lack of sleep is what causes the fibro pain,” (ummmm, lack of sleep isn’t the ONLY thing that causes the pain, I spent almost 33 hours sleeping Tuesday and Wednesday because I had a migraine, and was in MORE pain yesterday) and when I told her I can’t take antidepressants because they trigger manic episodes she gave me the # for the mental health clinic. Then I got to spend another 3 hours running around the hospital getting blood work and xrays, and left with nothing . . .
My current policy for dealing with the medical establishment is to avoid it whenever possible. If and when I can afford to go back to the rheumatologist that treated me for 11 years, that may change, since she and I had a decent relationship, but I don’t know. I don’t know if I can deal with the hassles of fighting off meds that I’m not willing to take because of the side effects and begging for the things that DO make a difference. I don’t know if I have the strength to be my own advocate, when I don’t even have the energy to get dressed on my days off, and I REALLY don’t know if I’m willing to give them $20 for a doctor visit, when that means cutting my grocery budget to $40 for a week for two people.
I think the real question is, do I want to give a doctor $20 to poke and prod, tell me things I already know, and try to give me scripts for things that I can’t take; or do I want to spend that $20 on a bottle of turmeric that will reduce the systemic inflammation that causes my pain and fatigue? Is spending 5 hours at the hospital having tests a better use of my time than spending that 5 hours writing an article that will actually bring some money INTO my budget, instead of taking money out?
I’ve felt worse in the month since the doctors got hold of me than I’ve felt in over a year . . . I’d found things that helped, and when I came out of the hospital the doctor told me I couldn’t use them any more, but didn’t offer me anything to take their place (except a pain pill that’s nearly useless, and that I can’t get any more of unless I shell out another $20 to go see him and he’s kind enough to write me another script. And who KNOWS if I’ll actually have the $36 to get the damn thing FILLED if I can get him to write it?)
I think my best bet at this point is to stay away from doctors unless I’m bleeding or having a heart attack . . . I have non-prescription options that work better than the pain meds they’re willing to give me, and I don’t have the money to waste on doctors that don’t do anything helpful and medication that doesn’t work as well as my other choices.
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Thanx for sharing your “medical establishment” story: makes me all the more grateful I do have a good pcp, and although we sacrifice in other areas to pay for it, at least limited health insurance. With my food allergies/intolerances, alot of the alternative treatments (I’d be really sick if I took tumeric, for example) aren’t possiblities so I have to rely on prescription meds more than I like. I think it’s important to seek out alternatives as you do! I’m interested in alternative and complementary medicine/therapies despite my allergies!
I have given up on specialists for my various health issues: most of my experiences haven’t been very positive. I had a decent pain management specialist (though it took me hours on public transport, and a long walk to reach his office) until he stopped taking health insurance! Couldn’t afford the price of non-copay office visits, let alone treatments! For some reason, the pain management clinics in my area don’t take insurance so me & my pcp are my pain management team.
“I think my best bet at this point is to stay away from doctors unless I’m bleeding or having a heart attack . . . I have non-prescription options that work better than the pain meds they’re willing to give me, and I don’t have the money to waste on doctors that don’t do anything helpful and medication that doesn’t work as well as my other choices.” Good luck with this! Keep us posted!
It’s all such a catch-22. Particularly when you know some of what is wrong and what is required to feel better, and some, you can’t know. But finding a decent doctor is terribly hit or miss, and that process can cost a small fortune before you get anywhere. By that time, you’ve wiped out allowed visits (if you do have insurance), or the co-pays have already cost a bundle only to arrive at the starting line. And if you have large deductibles, it’s all out-of-pocket (and generally out of reach) anyway.
I have no solutions. I only know I’m quite sick of the problems, and long for those days I vaguely recall when physicians established relationships with families and cared about their patients. I don’t blame the doctors, frankly. It was a very different time, and insurance companies didn’t tie the hands of those who simply wanted to help, during a day when doctors made house calls. Yep. I actually remember that. Seems like another planet.
Navigating the “sick-care” industry is getting harder and harder, and I’d love to be able to opt-out entirely. I’m beginning to think that The Health Ranger (www.naturalnews.com) has it right, and the point isn’t to get us well but to keep us sick enough to keep them in business without killing us. I KNOW that the pharmaceutical companies don’t want us well because if we don’t need their pills, they don’t make any money.
Hi Wendy, The Docs I work with prescribe a mood stabilizer medication about two weeks prior to initiating antidepressant therapy; this takes care of the mania trigger. Unfortunately, I don’t know of any who would move on to other medications until they’ve seen this approach fail. Once the re-uptake process is tinkered with, it can take a couple months to show benefit. MD’s see refusal to try as non-compliance. I’m not sure how to bridge the breach in perception between Docs & patients, but that’s exactly what it is.
When my kids were little, I would take $5 out of the grocery budget each week & put back for the occasional co-pay. That way, I had it without having to take it all out of one week. Sometimes it was the only thing that saved us!
I admire the way you’ve managed your symptoms. Thanks for sharing your info. with us!
~Sheila