Dealing with Doctors

The visit

We’ve all had doctors that are always in a rush. They hurry you along, asking you to get to the point, and they’re out of there before you know what happened. You are paying for their time, and this is your health and your life at stake here. Warn the nurse if you have a lot to say before the doctor sees you. This way he’ll know and can deal with his other patients first, giving you all the time that you need. You need to speak up and address everything on your mind.

Doctors know far less than what you would think – it’s up to you

Doctors are used to dealing with only the most common of problems. They don’t know what to do for anyone coming in with an unconventional illness. They will run their tests, find nothing wrong, maybe try a couple of medications, but then they’ll be left scratching their heads. You can’t walk into appointments just hoping that the doctor will come up with a great idea for you – you need to have an agenda for every appointment. I understand that when you feel like crap, the last thing you want to do is research things on your own. However, once you find that first drug that makes you feel a little better, that will be just enough to help you looking for more.

Doctors often don’t understand the medications they prescribe

Doctors have a short list of medications they try people on, the drugs that are pushed on them the hardest. For example, go see a rheumatologist for your joint pain, and they will throw Neurontin and Lyrica at you. Look around your doctor’s office: You might notice that every piece of stationery has a drug name on it. The drugs you see advertised on TV are also the ones being pushed on doctors. They are not prescribing unique drugs for your unique problems, they are prescribing the most common heavily-advertised drugs that vaguely treat symptoms similar to yours. The dose of each medication is very important as well, which doctors do not always understand. 10mg might not do anything, but suddenly relief comes at 30mg. Often they will try you on the introductory dose and then move on. For many medications, the starting dose will be completely ineffective, especially for those suffering from particularly debilitating illnesses.

Educate yourself

The internet is a great resource, so take advantage of it! When looking up drug information online, don’t just look at the “WebMD” type of sites. These will tell you the “official” information provided by the drug companies themselves but don’t tell the whole story and won’t tell you what to expect. Look up sites where users discuss their personal experiences. There may be effects, side-effects, concerns, and warnings that you won’t see on WebMD. I used to think drug experience sites like drugs.com and erowid.com were just full of junkies trying to get high… no, often these people are sick and desperately trying to feel better – just like you and me.