Follow up appointment- dr rant ;-D
 

So I had my follow up with my neuro today. I've known she was not great even before I went to her. Her reviews on line indicted so. But as all the good ones in my area had six month waits, and I wanted some tests run, I chose her just to...get those tests run.


But somewhere inside I believed that she would at LEAST be able to give me something to go with. anything.


Today I go in. All she literally says, your MRI was fine. You EMG is fine. Then asked the same four questions she always asks. Then proceeds to look through MRI in front of me - it was her first time looking at it. We blazed through it. she literally rolled through it so fast it was perfunctory.


Then she just said, ok, I will right you a prescription for neuropathy. I could give you an MRI for your spine but for now a prescription, I think is fine.


Really?! Is this the state of our modern medicines? (Ok. I've known this for years but still lol). So, because it would cost her more money to run another MRI, or actually look a little further into it, she had decided doping me is preferable to actually GETTING TO THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM.

Can I tell I feel angry? Haha

Everyone I have talked to, that started out with some mild neuropathy said it only got worse with age. Wouldn't it be better if she figured out WHY and if there is something I can do now so it is not as bad later??


I had mentioned to her (sorry TMI) that because I have a very sluggish bowel I have to sit for prolonged periods of time in the bathroom. I wondered if this could be pinching a nerve somehow. She never even entertained this.

For now I have tossed the prescription and am awaiting my appointment in FEB to see the next neuro. :(


Ok. And I am done. :D

Hi :)
 

totally understand your frustration as I am in similar boat somedays I feel like I am up the creek without paddles.

Wow, that is so frustrating! I certainly hope that your next neuro is more attentive, the last thing we need when we are looking for answers is people who don't give us our our problems the attention they deserve! :hug:

Don't know how to respond to this, but feel I should respond in order to show support.
Constipation is a common situation for people with MS and Porphyria (I have both, but no longer have constipation because I take enough magnesium to end that. I take the mag for other problems (spasticity, jerking, neuropathy).)
My search for a dx was very very very long, and after I got a DX, I had to continue searching for remedies that worked for some of my problems. I never got complete "working" of all problems, but I did get significant help from a wide wide wide list of sources. My point is that I had to keep looking.
I can't take the drugs for neuropathy. They give me frightening side effects. I take some supplements which help but don't solve the whole thing: magnesium, calcium D3,
B1, E Complex are the most helpful. A neurologist a quarter century ago told me to look for magnesium that didn't cause too much constipation, and I have tried six or seven types and continue to experiment, but I must take over 800 mg a day...possibly the type of magnesium matters in how much I take.

I am not saying you are impatient. February is a LONG time to wait, and you don't even know if you will get help in February. So it's a nasty business we are in with MS, and with other neuro diseases.
If you feel like trying supplements to help your neuropathy, I say that this might make the wait for February less horrible.
I am very sympathetic.

Some doctors have a cancellation list. You make an appointment but would like to get in earlier so you ask them to call you if a cancellation happens and an earlier time opens up.

That's true. I should do that. Thanks!!

Thank you so much for your help and kind words. I will definitely look into magnesium.

Sorry your appointment was really a disappointment, Midori. Here I was hoping you'd get the MRIs but she changed her mind, huh? Or did I misunderstand your earlier post? February?! That's just wrong!

That's horrible. Feb?!?!?! Can you travel and see somebody sooner? I don't know where you're at, but when I was calling around the other week, trying to find somebody sooner than my Sept appt, they all seemed to have about the same timing, a couple months from now.

I was really hoping I'd get some more tests done before I see the bigger neuro, hoping my PCP would order then, but no. He said they need to be done at the hospital I'm going to anyway.

Yes, I started with Neuropathy. Probably had some other symptoms before that, but neuropathy was the first thing that took me to the doc. I'm not dx'ed yet, but I've just gone downhill since the neuropathy started a year ago.

I was able to get a copy of them from the center that did them at. She literally didn't even look at them though when I was there. She was the worst doctors. As soon as the appointment ended she was in her cell phone checking her text messages.