Don't give up !!

Posted , 6 users are following.

I write this post to give hope to those who do not feel confident with their doctors (endo, rheumatoid etc.). After seen 2 endo, I finally, after research, find an endo that I feel confident !! The important thing is to never give up! It's very important to feel comfortable with the doctors who care for our health. It fully agrees with prednisone withdrawal, but according to what my body can accept and not what is written in books! Last endo I saw made me a sermon to the effect that cortisone could lead to death! I did not want to see him anymore. Do not give up and choose your physicians and specialists with whom you feel confident!

Have a good day and I hope to give you a positive thing !!! 

0 likes, 7 replies

7 Replies

  • Posted

    Oh Karyjo - what great news! You are lucky to be able to have the choice though - in the UK it isn't as easy via the NHS and I get the impression many US contributors have great difficulty finding a rheumy who takes their insurance cover, never mind having a wide choice near to where they live.

    So very good luck with your new endo - and reducing pred of course!

  • Posted

    I am not unhappy with my doctor but as eileen Points out...we get what we are given unless we have a complaint. We don't go looking for specialists, we are allocated them and just hope they are good. I asked for a chest doctor for my emphysema and was told, sorry he is too busy so I had to put up with his registrar or wait 18 months. As it is I have had to wait 9 months. So unfortunately your post, which is very nice, does not offer us much hope. Glad for you though.

     

  • Posted

    Most drugs can lead to death! This is why we see a competent and throroughly trained professional who will prescribe for us safely.

    Yes, all drugs can kill, or make us extremely unwell, perhaps permanently. We still take drugs when we need them.

    Prednisolone is a fairly safe drug compared to alternatives. Its side effects are very well known because it is an old drug that has been used in millions of cases. Compare this to recent drugs, whose side effects are not so well known.

    Good to hear you have changed your doctor as his opinion sounds unprofessional. Your treatment should be negotiated, not an ultimatum.

  • Posted

    Everyone should be able to choose his doctor !! As I already told my neurosurgeon: I choose my garage to repair my car, it's the least that I can choose the one that will "play" in my brain!

    I'm really sorry for you who can choose their doctors!

    I wish the good doctor for you will be on your way!

    Have a nice day and dont 'give up!

    • Posted

      It's a culture thing Karyjo - what you don't know you don't miss in many ways!

      In most places in the UK there will be a choice of a couple of primary care practices, each with more than one GP. It pays to do your research about the practices first before joining, it is possible to change afterwards but more often than not they have quite strict rules about how far away you can live from the practice. In most practices you can choose which doctor you see. 

      In secondary care your GP refers you - but to some extent you have a choice of which hospital you are referred to so again, research pays. You very often don't have the choice at present of which consultant you see - it used to be that your GP could write to a specific specialist and s/he would see you, no longer.

      Here in northern Italy I have a named GP in a single-person practice. I was given a choice of two, the GP in my village was over-subscribed and I went to the next nearest - I could now move to another in my own village but I like my GP so much I won't. She worked in rheumatology, she's the ideal one for me. In the hospital I am assigned to the person who specialises in the thing I have wrong with me. Not my choice - but it works well and it doesn't cost me a penny to see my GP or be an in-patient. Just the same as in the UK. Both there and here I DO have a choice if there is someone I want to see particularly who also does private work - I can pay the full cost myself.

      State medicine isn't all bad.

  • Posted

    Thank you for this and I'm pleased that you have found someone who can give you the treatment, care and understanding that you deserve.

    My rheumatologist is OK, but I do battle with my GP, who wanted me off Prednisolone within a year and seems to think that I shouldn't be feeling any symptoms of PMR/withdrawal, while taking it.  I'm gradually educating him, even though I shouldn't have to be doing this.

    Interstingly enough, when I joined a local Bannatynes fitness centre, the personal trainers and physiotherapist there, were all very aware of PMR and had a good understanding of it.  They were very keen to create a programme for me that wouldn't put my muscles under too much strain and would prevent me from generally over-doing it and getting fatigued. The exercises done in water are particularly helpful.

    • Posted

      That's interesting - wasn't Darlington by any chance? One of the NE support group ladies is/was a member there and I'm sure she'd have educated them!

      I didn't know what I had was PMR at the time but the pool and a few of the instructors at the Chester-le-Street gym kept me going for 5 years - it is the one thing I miss about living there.

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