How important?

[notsure]

How important has it been for you to have a general practitioner that understands MS?

Hello everyone. I was recently diagnosed with MS. Lesions on the spine, and optic nerve. For a long time I have been fairly nonchalant about my healthcare. I am in my early 30's, and have always been in good health up until now. So I never bothered to have a primary care physician. With my MS diagnosis I figure this needs to change, but I am curious whether i should seek someone out who has other patients with MS or not.

I am already involved with a neurologist who specializes in MS as well as a neuro-ophthalmologist, but I wonder if my PCP should be familiar with MS patients.

Thank you for your time.

[jreagan70]

If your primary care doc isn't providing any of your MS care, it probably isn't important if they aren't particularly up on MS. Most PCPs -- and even specialists who aren't involved with MS -- aren't. One of the things I like about my primary is that she doesn't know a lot about MS so she stays out of it and leaves my MS care up to me and my specialists.

If you need to have your primary write prescriptions for MS symptom meds for you, then it is helpful that they already know something. At a minimum, they have to be open-minded to learning things about MS they don't know in order to help you, and you have to have good communication with them.

I asked my primary recently to prescribe baclofen for me because I haven't needed to see my neurologist for awhile. She wanted to apply general knowledge about muscle relaxers and told me that muscle relaxers aren't generally recommended and wanted to prescribe a benzodiazepine instead. But when I told her that baclofen is still the drug of choice for MS, she agreed to prescribe it for me.

How important it is to have a primary who understands MS depends on different factors. It may take some trial and error to find what works for you and your primary.

[pennstater]

Agree with jreagan. My PCP, internal medicine doc, leaves MS up to my neuro. Neuro copies him on all testing and appointment notes.

When a new issue comes up that could be MS or could be something else, PCP does tests to look for other causes, then says, discuss with your neuro if his tests don't show anything.

So he knows enough, but doesn't cross over the line. He knew enough that when I presented with LHermites, that most likely MS and ordered the MRIs with and without contrast, but sent me to neuro for diagnosis. He told neuro he suspected MS based on history, but also smart enough to know not his area of expertise and did not mention MS to me.

[notsure]

Thank you both for your responses. I will try not to worry too much about how much my PCP knows about MS and just worry about finding one I like.

[DXB]

Quite important

Ms is a rare disease therefore it's becoming an increasingly specialized topic to the point the term MSologist has been coined !

I say seek specialized advise as your GP is unlikely to have the expriance dealing with symptoms and prescribing DMSs ..

How important has it been for you to have a general practitioner that understands MS?

Hello everyone. I was recently diagnosed with MS. Lesions on the spine, and optic nerve. For a long time I have been fairly nonchalant about my healthcare. I am in my early 30's, and have always been in good health up until now. So I never bothered to have a primary care physician. With my MS diagnosis I figure this needs to change, but I am curious whether i should seek someone out who has other patients with MS or not.

I am already involved with a neurologist who specializes in MS as well as a neuro-ophthalmologist, but I wonder if my PCP should be familiar with MS patients.

Thank you for your time.

[marti]

Sometimes I wish my PCP didn't know about my MS. Then everything else that comes up wouldn't be lumped in with it and they might just get to the real answers about these other problems.

[pennstater]

Sometimes I wish my PCP didn't know about my MS. Then everything else that comes up wouldn't be lumped in with it and they might just get to the real answers about these other problems.

Marti,

Just because your neuro knows about MS doesn't mean they should attribute everything to it. I would consider shopping around at some point. I know you are changing neuros, so may want to wait until that settles. But you want a PCP in your corner and not taking the easy way out.

[palmtree]

Thank you both for your responses. I will try not to worry too much about how much my PCP knows about MS and just worry about finding one I like.

That's the most important. Finding one you like isn't that easy these days. The rules about not seeing 2 doctors at the same time are getting so so rigid. They were intended to stop doctor shopping for drugs but sick people are the innocent victims of over regulation.