Sometimes the consequences of being completely dismissed by my doctor were minor. In high school I started getting rashes on my mouth that became increasingly bloodier and difficult to deal with. At one point my mouth was actually sealed almost completely shut by scabs for about a week, leaving me unable to speak. My dermatologist insisted relentlessly that it was the result of dry skin, and kept telling me to apply chapstick or Vaseline. As it got worse, it became his mantra: just keep moisturizing. After a couple months of hell, I realized that the rashes were an allergic reaction to all of the gunk I was putting on my mouth; once I stopped moisturizing, they went away. To this day I can't have ANYTHING on my mouth (not even the natural stuff like Burt's Bees), and I live with chronically chapped lips (sexy!).
Sometimes the consequences were not so minor: I spent almost an entire year in pain and vomiting almost daily because my GI doctor insisted that I'd simply become lactose intolerant, when the truth was I'd been living with an undiagnosed infection in my esophagus that was only getting more severe as time went on. I ended up dropping out of college (I had a full scholarship and everything!) because I was so ill. That was no minor consequence.
So yes, I have trust issues when it comes to doctors. I won't be seeing my last OB/GYN again, as she disappointed me in several respects with the way she dealt with me after my miscarriage. I'm seeing a new OB/GYN today and I found her just like I've found every other doctor I've ever seen: I picked her name randomly out of my insurance directory. I intend to talk to her about our efforts to conceive and to maybe get some bloodwork done, and while I don't expect her to work miracles or be able to answer my every paranoid question, I do hope that she is confident in her knowledge without being cocky, sensitive to my concerns instead of dismissive, and able to communicate her professional opinion without being pushy or condescending.
Wish me luck.
1 comment:
Good luck! What is it with doctors being such snobs? Get over yourselves. You should have seen the doctor I dealt with when I blew a disc - what a prick. I wrote an angry letter to the practice and got back every cent of the $100 I wasted there to see him.
I think that even though it's a pain in the ass to waffle around forever between doctors, once you find that perfect doctor it will be like finding a friend - you can trust them, talk to them openly, and they will treat you as a mature adult, not as some uneducated child who knows nothing about their own body. THAT is why the searching is worth it. Stick in there.
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