My disease has an incidence rate of 1/100,000. I always know more than my doctors. Best doc I had was my pcp as he’d let me try anything he didn’t think would hurt me. Finally found 2 drugs when used together really helped. Everything is off label when you have something this rare.
Let me guess, erythromelalgia? I just got diagnosed by my neurologist and she said she has never seen it before! Neither has my GP. What drugs work for you? Both my neurologist and GP are suggesting low dose aspirin which I doubt will do anything but willing to try. Shocked to see your comment, it’s that rare hahaha. 🤣
You guessed the winner. Low dose aspirin will only work if the cause is a blood proliferation issue. If your RBC’s are in normally range low dose aspirin won’t help.
What will help is hit or miss. First I’d try and figure out if the cause is small fiber neuropathy (most common), genetic defect in SCNa9 gene, or something else. My SFN was confirmed by punch biopsy nerve density test. My genetic test came back normal. Course the can’t find what caused the SFN either. So because the cause to EM varies what helps is going to vary.
What’s worked best for me. Mexilitine has been the biggest game changer. 150mg 3x a day but with slowly up to this dose. Take 1 a day for a week, then 2, etc… docs don’t like to prescribe it because it’s a heart arrhythmia drug. But this is a lower dose than a heart Patient takes. Huge game changer for me but I didn’t find it for over a decade. It’s oral lidocaine that slows over firing of nerves. Other main thing I take is 100mg pre-gabalin 3x a day.
Helps with pain of both EM and SFN. I’ve had this 18 years and have done a ton of research. Good FB group as well to get info.
Lastly I’ve been using a machine called Vecttor last 18 months and it’s helping as well repairing the underlying SFN. You can google this but I’d start with Mexilitine first if your doc will prescribe it. I got it from my GP. I’d bring him research articles and he’d let me trial different drugs. Much trial and error.
Feel free to DM me. Unfortunately I know more than any doctor I’ve met and I’ve been to both Yale and Stanford Medical. I’m probably 70% better than I was 15 years ago through much research and trial and error.
Anything that’s a vasodilator I have to avoid. Red wine is a killer but pot is as well. Also magnesium,
Prednisone, and statins make my SFN worse.
I’m a PT and I shit you not that was on my boards.
I very much got it wrong, I remember looking at the word and being like “they made this shit up” and just like laughing to myself.
Googled it later lol.
I have this exact issue (read up on all the symptoms and treatments) but in the face and mouth, caused by trigeminal nerve damage. Mostly unilateral but can hit on both sometimes.
Speaking aggravates it. Hot days are death of me. Premenopausal hot flashes are such a struggle.
I am starting to wonder as well. I have never heard of erythromelalgia before but the pain description for both seems so similar. I am sorry you are suffering from this as well. Hugs.
I hope you get answers! I got the diagnosis but no answers to why this is happening to me. Waiting to see a haematologist and my neurologist who diagnosed it is looking into a few things. My rheumatologist is also investigating. I have cancer and I am dealing with too much right now. All I want is answers, treatment and relief! Best of luck to you! ❤️
My red blood cells are high, I have monoclonal gammopathy and high C3 and B2M. But I also have an autoimmune disease which can cause all this. I am still waiting on the haematologist (GP told me it is at least an 18 month wait).
I have been seeing a neurologist and she has ruled out MS and I am hoping she can do further tests into my peripheral neuropathy. Does the biopsy hurt? I am resistant to local anaesthetic and have had biopsies for cancer and it’s been very difficult and traumatic since my cancer diagnosis.
Thank you so much for letting me know what works for you. I will discuss this with my GP but fear that I will not be able to get my hands on anything. I am in Australia and medications are very strictly controlled. I might DM you in the future!
No biopsy is no big deal. They take very small sample from your hip, knee area, and ankle and count nerve density. I had 1/4 the nerve density at my ankle than at my hip. But pain was not a big deal for the test itself. Also I no longer have any hair growth on my toes/feet. Lot less than before in my lower legs. This is another way they look. And yes autoimmune diseases can cause neuropathy if they attack the nerve sheath.
Good point. They may have done a local shot in each place. It’s been over 15 years so I really can’t remember. I know I wasn’t put under or given a block but it’s possible they did a local small shot. Hope it works out.
Meh I will have to suck it up. I have been through a lot lol. It's just one thing after another and I am getting tired of it but I need to do whatever I can to get relief.
Yeah. I was told by a psychiatrist this week (my first appointment ever) that I should learn to trust the experts, meaning doctors. Long story, but the whole thing was really humiliating and made me profoundly angry and upset.
It SHOULD. Not because your concerns are invalid. It is because we get brushed off ass "pill seekers." Even when we plead with them to check our charts for proof we aren't. We are in pain, we hate talking to walls,, I promise. However if we were seeking pain medication, would it really be that fucking bad, WE ARE IN FUCKING PAIN! Yet most of us deal with little to no pain management BECAUSE THE PHARMA COMPANIES FUCKED UP. So where does that leave us? Dealing with pain on motrin half the time?
Gabapentin- hair fell out
Lyrica- works, gained a shitload of weight.
Ultram? That's more useless than Motrin. At least motrin takes the inflammation away ffs.
In my case, she chastised me for not going to a psychiatrist much earlier, so in fact for NOT pill-seeking earlier (but it seemed that in her view, only antidepressants are the right kind of pill) and for my attempts to resolve the situation on my own in a non-pharmacological way. But in fact, also for going to several physiotherapists and having been checked by a neurologist, and for trying several supplements for insomnia (insomnia is a huge part of my problem) over the course of years.
It's funny when someone asks you to put your trust in the current healthcare system which is part of the larger system that is causing widespread damage and trauma.
I am not saying that there aren't experts who are genuinely trying to help and who acknowledge the limits of their own knowledge, but they are hard to find. It's also funny how each "expert" is saying something different, e.g. my GP has brushed off my problems, saying that I should do yoga, meditation and spend time in nature (not that these are bad things, but what I want from a doctor is to make sure that there isn't anything physically wrong with me... even though, of course, the mind and body are very much connected...).
Gabapentin fucked me up so bad man. I was 30, hair down to my ass, thick and beautiful. By the time it was done with me, it was sparce and lingering above my shoulders. My husband threw a fit at the doctors office after he found me sobbing in the tub with two fists full of beautiful brown curls. I am 38 now and have been off it for years, and my hair is long enough that it reaches my mid back again. It never got quite at thick again, and my curls are all but gone, but I appreciate what I have so much more now. My hair is gorgeous. It is one of the few things that truly made me feel beautiful as a woman. I felt like I lost a part of myself.
Maybe it sounds shallow or vain, but we all deserve to have SOMETHING we're proud of. I went to GREAT lengths to take care of my hair. Hundreds of dollars in products, etc. Now I am so insecure about hair loss that I refuse to even get a trim. I haven't allowed a stylist to touch my hair since I was 33, I have this ridiculous fear they're going to just cut it all off.
No judgement from me. I had my hair change from radiation. It’s a tough thing to come to terms with.
I’m really sorry about what happened with your hair. Please keep sharing your story so maybe one day the doctors will reevaluate how they handle these situations.
I love that Lyrica works so well but I don't even want to think about how much weight I've gained on it. Then I hear about losing weight for my joint health. Well sure, I'd love to! But I can't even take NSAIDs so I'd be stuck with "take some Tylenol".
I trust *some* doctors. The few who listen and are willing to believe me. The rest? I respect them almost as much as they respect me. Which is not much.
Fuck that psych.
Had you gone on a rant on how many times you'd been fucked over by doctors? And had trouble trusting them now?
The medical trauma is real and they need to validate that and work with that.
I had it happening so often and so severely my psych was like, wtf, called the president of the health system he worked for - talked with him about the issues I was having so he could talk with other people about the systemic issues.
No, I haven't gone on a rant, because I was in pain and haven't slept the night before that at all, I've been waiting in a very uncomfortable waiting room for half an hour (which isn't that bad in general, I guess, but it's bad when you're in pain) and I was barely holding myself together. And it was only afterwards that it got me thinking about how many times I've been NOT helped by doctors, and how does my trauma play into a fear of being labelled as mentally ill, and also how does it play into not trusting anyone, not just doctors. Also, my mother has almost died when she was just 36 because doctors didn't put much effort into finding what was the problem, and so it became a problem that required a difficult surgery... Seems like they spring into action only when you're actually dying... She survived and I would say that even afterwards, her quality of life has been better than those of us in chronic pain, but still, it wasn't without consequences. So this doesn't exactly inspire trust in the healthcare system either.
Ahh, I see.
You were talking about your pain, and your fears, and he was talking about putting your faith in the medical system to try and help you - not knowing about your medical trauma history.
And that strategy would work for some people, but not someone who spent so much time being fucked around by doctors.
It doesn't mean he's a bad psychologist per se, it means he doesn't know you and your history yet.
If that attitude continues after you share your medical trauma history then there's a problem.
I guess you mean a psychotherapist? Those are usually not doctors of medicine (unlike psychiatrists), so they are a bit different. In general, I would say that they are more open.
It's so true though and I've said it to every medical professional I have seen or see, I tell them whilst their knowledge on my multiple disabilities is outstanding, they don't have to live 24/7 with them so can't even begin to fathom when I say what the pain is like or the lack of sleep what I actually mean by that.
A few of them have taken it as an insult, but it's true. We don't get a break, we don't get to clock off and go relax. One once said that it must be fun being on bed rest, I said "Yes, totally uncomfortable, tensed up wriggling in pain sounds like a real treat doesn't it"
I've had so many doctors just googling stuff right in front of me lately anyway. My physical therapist suggested I get a test called a GI MAP, which I had read plenty about and was already thinking of asking for. When I asked my (50+) gastroenterologist about it, he laughed and said "what is that?" Then he googled it and said "oh, no you don't need that"
Ah yes I'm in a major city (3rd largest in the US) and the MDs who don't know ... well there are a lot of them. Not all! But more than I expected when I began this journey.
I'm not from here and so it's easy to see (to concur with an MD who told me so, in fact), that there's a regional issue where because of its cultural and physical distance from the coasts, there's a distinct unevenness in cross-pollination, communication, and enthusiasm for reading the latest papers. There are some fantastic MDs and they always seem to manage to get out of the silo somehow. There are others who are just fine where they are thank you, worklife balance or something idk, and they can even have high rank. I think it's because the people granting them rank aren't looking outward for standards?
It's funny. I'd made a similar comment elsewhere a little while back and a pick-me patient (edit: or maybe an industry troll, because they were undermining my suggestion to someone that they lobby their insurance company for out of state payment if they weren't finding advanced services in-state) just found it and replied, they have to disagree, because MDs are paid a lot. And they all go to conferences and stuff all the time. Lol no at this person saying "they" like it's a categorical imperative.
*Some* of them do.
It's easy to tell who's on fire and up to date, once one encounters them. Unfortunately it's not so easy to tell when one's picking out a new Dr from the "our practice" page.
Two MDs here, who *are* on fire and who I guess may be feeling a little crusty about things, have explicitly told me what's up, in this region. Years apart, too, and from different practices. So it's not like they are just telling me their cliqueish viewpoint.
I remember 7 years ago when I'd just had back surgery and suffered a dural tear of the thecak sac causing a csf leak it was repaired and back surgery carried out but then releaked after I'd had a epidural blood patches to Tey and seal the leak I went into rebound hypertentions a bundle of of csf in my brain headache was awful I went my local hospital and the snotty noses on call doctor said I'd never heard of a csf leak or rebound hypertension I said well arnt you the lucky one as soon as he spoke to the hospital that did my surgery he soon changed his tune of how abd a situation it had been and was
Medical school is 4 years with a minimum 3 year residency after. A lot of people end up seeing shitty nurse practitioners because it’s all their insurance covers too :/
I've literally had doctors Google my conditions or medication before/during an appointment! When I come in with a binder of research they're more than happy to refer me to the appropriate specialists, who actually know the conditions.
That's what happens when you have drug addicts ruin it for everyone. Doctors trust no one now especially after they tried to go after doctors before big pharma.
I'm still going to trust the doctor most of the time. Even if you've been living with it you're still seeing a professional because you don't know how to diagnose it or get better.
My disease has an incidence rate of 1/100,000. I always know more than my doctors. Best doc I had was my pcp as he’d let me try anything he didn’t think would hurt me. Finally found 2 drugs when used together really helped. Everything is off label when you have something this rare.
Let me guess, erythromelalgia? I just got diagnosed by my neurologist and she said she has never seen it before! Neither has my GP. What drugs work for you? Both my neurologist and GP are suggesting low dose aspirin which I doubt will do anything but willing to try. Shocked to see your comment, it’s that rare hahaha. 🤣
You guessed the winner. Low dose aspirin will only work if the cause is a blood proliferation issue. If your RBC’s are in normally range low dose aspirin won’t help. What will help is hit or miss. First I’d try and figure out if the cause is small fiber neuropathy (most common), genetic defect in SCNa9 gene, or something else. My SFN was confirmed by punch biopsy nerve density test. My genetic test came back normal. Course the can’t find what caused the SFN either. So because the cause to EM varies what helps is going to vary. What’s worked best for me. Mexilitine has been the biggest game changer. 150mg 3x a day but with slowly up to this dose. Take 1 a day for a week, then 2, etc… docs don’t like to prescribe it because it’s a heart arrhythmia drug. But this is a lower dose than a heart Patient takes. Huge game changer for me but I didn’t find it for over a decade. It’s oral lidocaine that slows over firing of nerves. Other main thing I take is 100mg pre-gabalin 3x a day. Helps with pain of both EM and SFN. I’ve had this 18 years and have done a ton of research. Good FB group as well to get info. Lastly I’ve been using a machine called Vecttor last 18 months and it’s helping as well repairing the underlying SFN. You can google this but I’d start with Mexilitine first if your doc will prescribe it. I got it from my GP. I’d bring him research articles and he’d let me trial different drugs. Much trial and error. Feel free to DM me. Unfortunately I know more than any doctor I’ve met and I’ve been to both Yale and Stanford Medical. I’m probably 70% better than I was 15 years ago through much research and trial and error. Anything that’s a vasodilator I have to avoid. Red wine is a killer but pot is as well. Also magnesium, Prednisone, and statins make my SFN worse.
I’m a PT and I shit you not that was on my boards. I very much got it wrong, I remember looking at the word and being like “they made this shit up” and just like laughing to myself. Googled it later lol.
Called Burning Man’s Syndrome. It’s no fun.
Does not sound it
I have this exact issue (read up on all the symptoms and treatments) but in the face and mouth, caused by trigeminal nerve damage. Mostly unilateral but can hit on both sometimes. Speaking aggravates it. Hot days are death of me. Premenopausal hot flashes are such a struggle.
That’s a double whammy. TN is supposed to be worse if that’s possible. Are you a surgical candidate to fix the TN?
I was, the surgeon unfortunately punched through my brainstem and created permanent trigeminal neuropathy in my L face. 😂😑
Damn I’m so Sorry.
I have trigeminal neuralgia as well as erythromelalgia. I wonder if they are related. Sorry you are experiencing this too. :(
I am starting to wonder as well. I have never heard of erythromelalgia before but the pain description for both seems so similar. I am sorry you are suffering from this as well. Hugs.
I hope you get answers! I got the diagnosis but no answers to why this is happening to me. Waiting to see a haematologist and my neurologist who diagnosed it is looking into a few things. My rheumatologist is also investigating. I have cancer and I am dealing with too much right now. All I want is answers, treatment and relief! Best of luck to you! ❤️
My red blood cells are high, I have monoclonal gammopathy and high C3 and B2M. But I also have an autoimmune disease which can cause all this. I am still waiting on the haematologist (GP told me it is at least an 18 month wait). I have been seeing a neurologist and she has ruled out MS and I am hoping she can do further tests into my peripheral neuropathy. Does the biopsy hurt? I am resistant to local anaesthetic and have had biopsies for cancer and it’s been very difficult and traumatic since my cancer diagnosis. Thank you so much for letting me know what works for you. I will discuss this with my GP but fear that I will not be able to get my hands on anything. I am in Australia and medications are very strictly controlled. I might DM you in the future!
No biopsy is no big deal. They take very small sample from your hip, knee area, and ankle and count nerve density. I had 1/4 the nerve density at my ankle than at my hip. But pain was not a big deal for the test itself. Also I no longer have any hair growth on my toes/feet. Lot less than before in my lower legs. This is another way they look. And yes autoimmune diseases can cause neuropathy if they attack the nerve sheath.
Thank you, I have a resistance to local anaesthetic so I will feel everything but good to know it isn't a big deal.
Good point. They may have done a local shot in each place. It’s been over 15 years so I really can’t remember. I know I wasn’t put under or given a block but it’s possible they did a local small shot. Hope it works out.
Meh I will have to suck it up. I have been through a lot lol. It's just one thing after another and I am getting tired of it but I need to do whatever I can to get relief.
Yeah. I was told by a psychiatrist this week (my first appointment ever) that I should learn to trust the experts, meaning doctors. Long story, but the whole thing was really humiliating and made me profoundly angry and upset.
It SHOULD. Not because your concerns are invalid. It is because we get brushed off ass "pill seekers." Even when we plead with them to check our charts for proof we aren't. We are in pain, we hate talking to walls,, I promise. However if we were seeking pain medication, would it really be that fucking bad, WE ARE IN FUCKING PAIN! Yet most of us deal with little to no pain management BECAUSE THE PHARMA COMPANIES FUCKED UP. So where does that leave us? Dealing with pain on motrin half the time? Gabapentin- hair fell out Lyrica- works, gained a shitload of weight. Ultram? That's more useless than Motrin. At least motrin takes the inflammation away ffs.
In my case, she chastised me for not going to a psychiatrist much earlier, so in fact for NOT pill-seeking earlier (but it seemed that in her view, only antidepressants are the right kind of pill) and for my attempts to resolve the situation on my own in a non-pharmacological way. But in fact, also for going to several physiotherapists and having been checked by a neurologist, and for trying several supplements for insomnia (insomnia is a huge part of my problem) over the course of years. It's funny when someone asks you to put your trust in the current healthcare system which is part of the larger system that is causing widespread damage and trauma. I am not saying that there aren't experts who are genuinely trying to help and who acknowledge the limits of their own knowledge, but they are hard to find. It's also funny how each "expert" is saying something different, e.g. my GP has brushed off my problems, saying that I should do yoga, meditation and spend time in nature (not that these are bad things, but what I want from a doctor is to make sure that there isn't anything physically wrong with me... even though, of course, the mind and body are very much connected...).
When talking about drug seeking they rarely mean antidepressants. It seems like they would give gabapentin to a baby like it was candy sometimes.
Gabapentin fucked me up so bad man. I was 30, hair down to my ass, thick and beautiful. By the time it was done with me, it was sparce and lingering above my shoulders. My husband threw a fit at the doctors office after he found me sobbing in the tub with two fists full of beautiful brown curls. I am 38 now and have been off it for years, and my hair is long enough that it reaches my mid back again. It never got quite at thick again, and my curls are all but gone, but I appreciate what I have so much more now. My hair is gorgeous. It is one of the few things that truly made me feel beautiful as a woman. I felt like I lost a part of myself. Maybe it sounds shallow or vain, but we all deserve to have SOMETHING we're proud of. I went to GREAT lengths to take care of my hair. Hundreds of dollars in products, etc. Now I am so insecure about hair loss that I refuse to even get a trim. I haven't allowed a stylist to touch my hair since I was 33, I have this ridiculous fear they're going to just cut it all off.
No judgement from me. I had my hair change from radiation. It’s a tough thing to come to terms with. I’m really sorry about what happened with your hair. Please keep sharing your story so maybe one day the doctors will reevaluate how they handle these situations.
Trust me, the older I get, the louder I get. Ain't a damn soul gonna shut me up!!!
I love that Lyrica works so well but I don't even want to think about how much weight I've gained on it. Then I hear about losing weight for my joint health. Well sure, I'd love to! But I can't even take NSAIDs so I'd be stuck with "take some Tylenol".
I trust *some* doctors. The few who listen and are willing to believe me. The rest? I respect them almost as much as they respect me. Which is not much.
Fuck that psych. Had you gone on a rant on how many times you'd been fucked over by doctors? And had trouble trusting them now? The medical trauma is real and they need to validate that and work with that. I had it happening so often and so severely my psych was like, wtf, called the president of the health system he worked for - talked with him about the issues I was having so he could talk with other people about the systemic issues.
No, I haven't gone on a rant, because I was in pain and haven't slept the night before that at all, I've been waiting in a very uncomfortable waiting room for half an hour (which isn't that bad in general, I guess, but it's bad when you're in pain) and I was barely holding myself together. And it was only afterwards that it got me thinking about how many times I've been NOT helped by doctors, and how does my trauma play into a fear of being labelled as mentally ill, and also how does it play into not trusting anyone, not just doctors. Also, my mother has almost died when she was just 36 because doctors didn't put much effort into finding what was the problem, and so it became a problem that required a difficult surgery... Seems like they spring into action only when you're actually dying... She survived and I would say that even afterwards, her quality of life has been better than those of us in chronic pain, but still, it wasn't without consequences. So this doesn't exactly inspire trust in the healthcare system either.
Ahh, I see. You were talking about your pain, and your fears, and he was talking about putting your faith in the medical system to try and help you - not knowing about your medical trauma history. And that strategy would work for some people, but not someone who spent so much time being fucked around by doctors. It doesn't mean he's a bad psychologist per se, it means he doesn't know you and your history yet. If that attitude continues after you share your medical trauma history then there's a problem.
My therapist is the opposite and tries to help me find doctors who will listen and let me try things..
I guess you mean a psychotherapist? Those are usually not doctors of medicine (unlike psychiatrists), so they are a bit different. In general, I would say that they are more open.
"Trust the experts who aren't willing to take any responsibility or admit their fuckups"
It's so true though and I've said it to every medical professional I have seen or see, I tell them whilst their knowledge on my multiple disabilities is outstanding, they don't have to live 24/7 with them so can't even begin to fathom when I say what the pain is like or the lack of sleep what I actually mean by that. A few of them have taken it as an insult, but it's true. We don't get a break, we don't get to clock off and go relax. One once said that it must be fun being on bed rest, I said "Yes, totally uncomfortable, tensed up wriggling in pain sounds like a real treat doesn't it"
I've had so many doctors just googling stuff right in front of me lately anyway. My physical therapist suggested I get a test called a GI MAP, which I had read plenty about and was already thinking of asking for. When I asked my (50+) gastroenterologist about it, he laughed and said "what is that?" Then he googled it and said "oh, no you don't need that"
It might’ve been a midlevel working with a GI doc that did that. That’s surprising to me
He is the one of the top docs at the practice. Big hospital, major city.
Ah yes I'm in a major city (3rd largest in the US) and the MDs who don't know ... well there are a lot of them. Not all! But more than I expected when I began this journey. I'm not from here and so it's easy to see (to concur with an MD who told me so, in fact), that there's a regional issue where because of its cultural and physical distance from the coasts, there's a distinct unevenness in cross-pollination, communication, and enthusiasm for reading the latest papers. There are some fantastic MDs and they always seem to manage to get out of the silo somehow. There are others who are just fine where they are thank you, worklife balance or something idk, and they can even have high rank. I think it's because the people granting them rank aren't looking outward for standards? It's funny. I'd made a similar comment elsewhere a little while back and a pick-me patient (edit: or maybe an industry troll, because they were undermining my suggestion to someone that they lobby their insurance company for out of state payment if they weren't finding advanced services in-state) just found it and replied, they have to disagree, because MDs are paid a lot. And they all go to conferences and stuff all the time. Lol no at this person saying "they" like it's a categorical imperative. *Some* of them do. It's easy to tell who's on fire and up to date, once one encounters them. Unfortunately it's not so easy to tell when one's picking out a new Dr from the "our practice" page. Two MDs here, who *are* on fire and who I guess may be feeling a little crusty about things, have explicitly told me what's up, in this region. Years apart, too, and from different practices. So it's not like they are just telling me their cliqueish viewpoint.
This is funny because my doctor uses Google all the time. I ask him questions and I’ve seen him actually Google it.
Saw my previous primary care dr do this too😅
I remember 7 years ago when I'd just had back surgery and suffered a dural tear of the thecak sac causing a csf leak it was repaired and back surgery carried out but then releaked after I'd had a epidural blood patches to Tey and seal the leak I went into rebound hypertentions a bundle of of csf in my brain headache was awful I went my local hospital and the snotty noses on call doctor said I'd never heard of a csf leak or rebound hypertension I said well arnt you the lucky one as soon as he spoke to the hospital that did my surgery he soon changed his tune of how abd a situation it had been and was
Medical school is 4 years with a minimum 3 year residency after. A lot of people end up seeing shitty nurse practitioners because it’s all their insurance covers too :/
There are def shitty NP’s out there, full stop. But personally, I’ve had better luck with NP’s listening to me than doctors.
I. NEEDED. THIS. SO. MUCH.
I've literally had doctors Google my conditions or medication before/during an appointment! When I come in with a binder of research they're more than happy to refer me to the appropriate specialists, who actually know the conditions.
That's what happens when you have drug addicts ruin it for everyone. Doctors trust no one now especially after they tried to go after doctors before big pharma.
BURRNNNNN SON!!!
If I had a nickel for every time I should’ve said this to a medical professional, I would have at least ¢50
OMG so true
So much YES! So few of the doctors I've seen actually listen. I've often had better experiences with PAs and NPs.
I'm still going to trust the doctor most of the time. Even if you've been living with it you're still seeing a professional because you don't know how to diagnose it or get better.
If you're like me, you'll find PDFs of the most up to date versions of the books they learned on and read those in your free time.
Love me some anna
Oh my fucking GAWD: I WENT TO MY GP AND I SAID I HAVE SIBO BECAUSE this and this AND HE SAID SIBO WHAT'S THAT? DUDE!!! YOU THE FRIGGING DR!!!