Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Worse Dr. Visit Ever


So...today I had an appointment with a new Rheumatologist which I plan on never going back to. That wasn't the original plan of course but after listening to him that is what I have decided. The visit went something like this....I get all checked in at the front desk and I'm taken back and the usual weight, height, temperature, blood pressure, pulse, short history is taken. I change into a gown, then in comes the doctor. Seems nice enough. He begins with family health history then wants a short rundown of past illnesses and hospitalizations. Wants to hear why I'm there and what I think is going on. He then does a physical exam in which he checked out my joints, skin, pressure points and strength. By the time he's done, I'm in tears as he's got everything hurting and caused my back to go into a spasm. So as I'm sitting there crying he starts telling me how the body responds to pain and that people with fibro have these broken pain receptors that wrongly report pain from the source to the brain. Then he goes into how he feels about fibro. The things he starts saying absolutely blow my mind.First, he says that anyone with fibro should never have been put on Social Security Disability with only a diagnoses of fibro and nothing else. He does not think that anyone with fibro should ever be collecting SSD. He tells me that even though I consider myself a stay at home mom and home maker, I should be out working somewhere as to keep my body and mind busy so I don't notice the pain.Second, he says that I need to start seeing a psychiatrist. As he put it, it's probably depression or something worse that's causing the pain...some sort of underlying mental issue.He also tells me that I need to stay out of bed and go to the YMCA and start taking yoga, Pilates or some other form of exercise classes. He tells me that I need to eat more and gain weight. He goes on to say that people with fibro should not be taking pain medications or sleep aides as they are not necessary so he doesn't prescribe them. Lastly, he said he would order a slew of test to see if there was anything else going on but if it turns out to be just fibro then I should just go back to my primary care doctor.OMG....he's telling me I'm lazy, it's all in my head, I don't need anything for the pain and he doesn't want to be bothered if it is.....ONLY FIBRO!That was the biggest waste of two hours of my day!