Newbie on board
Hi everyone.
I'm a 42 year old (sighs, only a month off 43!) female recently diagnosed with MS. I live in Western Canada, am married, have two grown foster kids and a houseful of furry kids.
I just found out the diagnosis in the last couple of weeks and find myself reaching out rather blindly for help, especially since I am not getting much in the way of support from my GP.
I did some trolling around the board before signing up and I see that there are other Canadians here, and that they are having similar issues with their own doctors. We have a serious doctor shortage in this country and its been my personal experience, both with myself and with relatives I've looked after in recent years, that this shortage seems to be affecting the attitude of those who do practice here. Yes, I get their overworked and underpaid. But still.....
Here's my situation. I've had a lifetime of "minor" health problems that started early in childhood, ranging from unexplained, to chronic fatigue, migraines, IBS, sudden vision loss, numbness, depression and so on. I'm used to doctors, family and so-called friends treating me like a whiner and hypochondriac. All these "minor" problems stopped me from being able to work by the time I was 32. (Of course at the time, I thought I would get better rather than worse and would eventually be able to return to work.)
In spring of 2012 I lost over half my vision in one eye (again) and thanks to an alert optometrist, finally had someone pay attention. So many months and tests later, and an MRI revealing that I had a minimum of 20 brain lesions, along with my history led a neurologist to diagnose me with MS. He also believes I've had it for a minimum of 15 years - since the first time I lost most of my vision in both eyes for 8 weeks - and likely for much longer than that.
Okay, did some reading, got in touch with my local MS office and realize that yes, it absolutely fits with almost every single problem I've ever had. Yes, I freaked out even though I was half expecting the news. But lurking behind all this was the fear that my GP would be as per usual, non-supportive at best.
Sure enough I went to see him the other day for the first time since getting the news, and he spent the 3/4 of the visit telling me:
When I tried to protest that I have in the past, and do still, experience all the things he says I don't, he cut me off. Again, this is normal for him and I've learned the hard way not to argue with him because he would happily turf me to the street. But who would've thought he'd argue with an MRI and neurologist/opthamologist with 25 years experience specializing in diagnosing MS? I thought at the least he'd believe the neuro and start listening to me, but no, all he wanted to get me out of his office.
I want to SCREAM I'm so frustrated! I'm scared and know the neurologist who who will actually be handling my case is overloaded, so I understand why I have to wait another 4 months to see her before we can even talk about treatment, but what am I supposed to do in the meantime? I can't even ask my GP questions as he's made it clear, yet again, that nothing I say has any validity whatsoever. Of course he doesn't know about most of my symptoms or my history, because he never lets me tell him and refuses to read any of my records prior to just before I became his patient! (Oh, and he's very happy to constantly slam my past GP just about every time I see him. How very professional of him, hmm?)
And no, I can't switch doctors. No-one in my city is taking on new patients, for any reason. Believe me, I've been tried for 7 years since my last one closed his practice.
Okay, enough of a rant right now. I just really needed to get that out. Sorry.
I'm a 42 year old (sighs, only a month off 43!) female recently diagnosed with MS. I live in Western Canada, am married, have two grown foster kids and a houseful of furry kids.
I just found out the diagnosis in the last couple of weeks and find myself reaching out rather blindly for help, especially since I am not getting much in the way of support from my GP.
I did some trolling around the board before signing up and I see that there are other Canadians here, and that they are having similar issues with their own doctors. We have a serious doctor shortage in this country and its been my personal experience, both with myself and with relatives I've looked after in recent years, that this shortage seems to be affecting the attitude of those who do practice here. Yes, I get their overworked and underpaid. But still.....
Here's my situation. I've had a lifetime of "minor" health problems that started early in childhood, ranging from unexplained, to chronic fatigue, migraines, IBS, sudden vision loss, numbness, depression and so on. I'm used to doctors, family and so-called friends treating me like a whiner and hypochondriac. All these "minor" problems stopped me from being able to work by the time I was 32. (Of course at the time, I thought I would get better rather than worse and would eventually be able to return to work.)
In spring of 2012 I lost over half my vision in one eye (again) and thanks to an alert optometrist, finally had someone pay attention. So many months and tests later, and an MRI revealing that I had a minimum of 20 brain lesions, along with my history led a neurologist to diagnose me with MS. He also believes I've had it for a minimum of 15 years - since the first time I lost most of my vision in both eyes for 8 weeks - and likely for much longer than that.
Okay, did some reading, got in touch with my local MS office and realize that yes, it absolutely fits with almost every single problem I've ever had. Yes, I freaked out even though I was half expecting the news. But lurking behind all this was the fear that my GP would be as per usual, non-supportive at best.
Sure enough I went to see him the other day for the first time since getting the news, and he spent the 3/4 of the visit telling me:
- what an over-diagnosed disease MS was
- that the neurologist had diagnosed me on the most minimal of evidence
- what symptoms I did not have
- that even if I did have MS, which he graciously agreed to let me believe it, it was a very recent development and a very mild case, because after all, I got there under my own power and not in a wheelchair like "real" MS patients
When I tried to protest that I have in the past, and do still, experience all the things he says I don't, he cut me off. Again, this is normal for him and I've learned the hard way not to argue with him because he would happily turf me to the street. But who would've thought he'd argue with an MRI and neurologist/opthamologist with 25 years experience specializing in diagnosing MS? I thought at the least he'd believe the neuro and start listening to me, but no, all he wanted to get me out of his office.
I want to SCREAM I'm so frustrated! I'm scared and know the neurologist who who will actually be handling my case is overloaded, so I understand why I have to wait another 4 months to see her before we can even talk about treatment, but what am I supposed to do in the meantime? I can't even ask my GP questions as he's made it clear, yet again, that nothing I say has any validity whatsoever. Of course he doesn't know about most of my symptoms or my history, because he never lets me tell him and refuses to read any of my records prior to just before I became his patient! (Oh, and he's very happy to constantly slam my past GP just about every time I see him. How very professional of him, hmm?)
And no, I can't switch doctors. No-one in my city is taking on new patients, for any reason. Believe me, I've been tried for 7 years since my last one closed his practice.
Okay, enough of a rant right now. I just really needed to get that out. Sorry.
)
to get approved when it was so obvious to other doctors?
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