Just Lynn

One woman. One name. One hell of an attitude!

Dr. Dreamy’s assumption

Written By: witchypo - Sep• 09•14

Damn! I’m disappointed in my doctor!

Last month, I booked an appointment for a shoulder injury and, when nothing could be done for that, tried asking about some other problems I’ve got.

Briefly, I let him know these problems had accumulated over a number of years, that I’d reported most of them to him (or my former GP) and that, since some were odd and appeared without other symptoms to help diagnose them, I’d been told that all I could do was ‘wait and see’. I also let him know that for the past year or more they’d, together, affected most aspects of my life, so I’d decided to ask about them together on the off-chance it’ help figure things out.

I reminded him, too, of a couple of prior visits: one, for a burning sensation in the skin of my left wrist, and another for pain in the same arm that he’d diagnosed as ‘tendinitis’. Then, I asked if the two issues could be connected, and whether or not tendinitis could spread(?)

When he said that the pain it causes could feel like a ‘burning’, but that tendinitis does not ‘spread’, I confessed to being confused. ‘You see, I’ve got painful, tendinitis-like cramps everywhere… neck, arms, legs, feet… My joints hurt as badly as when I was cleaning hotel rooms.’ I told him. ‘I’ve had an on-again-off-again headache for about a year. I’m still not sleeping, and I’m constantly exhausted and can’t focus…’

‘Okay, drop the tendinitis crap,’ he told me, sternly, ‘I think I see where you’re going with this now…’ and ‘I don’t know who you’ve been talking to or what you’ve been looking up, but we’re going to get to the bottom of this.’

Shocked, I almost questioned that, but I needed his help. So, I kept my trap shut, submitted to the tests he ordered and, when I went back for the results, he announced that he had ‘good news’. ‘Its not what you thought it was,’ he said, smugly, and informed me that an active Epstein-Barr virus was the cause of all my problems.

The problem as I saw it, however, was that he’d quite clearly recognized my problems as matching the symptom set of a particular disease. Rather than saying ‘that sounds like…’ and checking me for it, though, he’d simply assumed that I was misrepresenting information and that I didn’t have it. Then, he’d used his tests to find the first plausible diagnosis, so he could prove himself ‘right’.

That’s not to say that I don’t have EBV but, according to what I’ve read, close to 95% of all North Americans have it by the time they’re in kindergarten, and the symptoms are such that they could easily be confused with other problems. I also read that EBV often manifests as ‘mono’, which I’ve never had, and usually affect a host for 6 to 8 months, while many of my problems have been with me for years.

Of course, once he’d given his diagnosis, Dr. Deamy said that we could still address my individual problems but I’ve, since, gone back to discuss the test results and he made it clear that his verdict wasn’t to be questioned.

So, it seems the only option I’ve got is to wait 6 to 8 months and if the symptoms haven’t cleared up, go back to him to see if he’s willing to re-think his decision. In the mean time, though, that means I’ve got to live with almost constant pain and the fear that something else might be causing my problems.

No freakin’ wonder I’m disappointed!

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