Posted on 01/30/2007 10:05:04 AM PST by Caleb1411
This is a problem I am consistently having with my 8 year old daughter. Because we are military, we move from clinic to clinic. My 8yo has complained of severe pain in her stomach almost from the time she could talk. She has very little appetite, and she is way at the end of the growth scale. She isn't having any learning issues, however.
Appointment after appointment has been made, and no one will investigate further than "give her laxatives and make her eat more fiber."
Not one test, not one full exam even. They say she is just constipated, but these pains cause her to double over and she has days when she flat out can't walk from them. But it's all about the laxatives for them.
I haven't found one doctor that will listen to me. And because they refuse to get past the constipation issue, they won't refer her out in town to see a different, non-military doctor. And this has been going on for years.
Whenever a doctor has kept me waiting for more than 15 minutes from the exact time of my appointment, I bill him for my time and deduct it from his fee. When I explain that my time is just as valuable as his, I never get an arguement. All the doctors I use now are trained and have their staff usher me in as soon as I arrive even if others are in the waiting room. If you act like a sheep, expect to be herded!
No matter how educated, or experienced you are - you are still susceptible to errors, oversight, or misinterpretation of problems. It's when ego allows you trust yourself too much and you stop critical questioning that you reduce yourself to doing more harm than good.
Humility is what keeps the ego in check and allows for clear thought no matter what you're engaged in.
I'd be happy just to find a doctor who is fluent in English.
Yes, the "blank stare" is common and irritating. In defense of doctors, though, they have to deal with alot of people who research symptoms on the internet without any sense of background or perspective. The blank stare may be the doctor's way of saying: "I hear you but what you describe is not a concern, despite the fact that a google search might tell you otherwise. I have seen lots of patients and have lots of experience; you have simply done a google search."
Years ago, a doctor did not feel it was necessary to inform me that the polyps he removed from me were stage 4. Took me 3 years to find out. Now, I take charge of my health. I will vigorously question and grill my doctors, dentist, etc. and will not leave or shut up until my questions are answered to my satisfaction. I will tell them to explain to me in laymans terms what they are doing, what the medication is supposed to do, side effects, alternate treatments, etc. If you do not take charge of your own health, no one else will.
Have you kept a note book? When going to the Dr. If at all possible bring a witness to take notes. A spouse, brother, sister who ever.
Have symptoms written out and questions prepared in advance.
And, above all take notes. You will get more attention
if you are writing things down and have a witness.
Sad but true.
Your car does not have a lawyer and does not belong to an HMO.
Differential diagnosis bump!
My son became ill at 8 mos with diarrhea and a swollen belly. By age 11 mos, he had bloody diarrhea and started loosing weight. ("Nothing to alarmed about.") By age 15 mos he'd lost 1/3rd of his body weight and was dying. I put him on a diet of chicken, rice and veggies and he recovered fast. The drs said he had an "immature digestive system" and I was told to keep him on the diet for another year, then wean him onto "normal" foods. I did. By age 7 he started having migraines. By age 9 he began to have symptoms of Autism. We finally got him to a neurologist who discovered that he was a Celiac. After 2 weeks on a gluten-free diet, the headaches returned.
My daughter was much like yours. "My tummy hurts." I swear she was saying this almost every day from the time she could talk. From time-to-time, she'd get a bit bloated, but no diarrhea. A few times she's get constipated, but it wasn't a major problem. About a year and a half ago she started getting headaches. (She's 15 now.) We just discovered that she, too, is a Celiac. After three weeks on the gluten-free diet, she is starting to look and feel better than ever in her life. (and she was screened for the test. It took a more sensitive test to detect the problem.)
In the last month, my aunt, mother and myself have all *finally* been diagnosed. We're all starting to feel better than we have in decades.
If you'd like information on the test, I'll FReep it to you. You can get it yourself without a doctor's order.
Hmmm...I dunno, but you've got to find a way around the buraucracy somehow. If I were you, I'd summarize in writing everything that you've just said, and perhaps have your husband take it to his C.O. I know it can cause problems, but you may have to start mentioning attorneys or news media or something to get their attention. You've GOT to fix the idea in your head that the "status quo" is not going to be tolerated anymore and act on it. Your daughter is a civilian, and if the military can't get the job done for her, somebody else will have to.
I can tell you from recent experience from having my mother in the hospital for about 2 months (car crash), the squeaky wheel gets the grease. She would probably have died (a couple of times) if it wasn't for my brother and I "rattling cages" and "stepping on toes". Do whatever it takes.
Thanks for the ping. Assumptions about docs, a rather varied lot, are always amusing to me.
And when you find a good one, never let go until they are in the grave or you are in the grave, one or the other.
Have you investigated food allergies on your own? I would check out wheat (gluten) and dairy if one of my children had those sorts of symptoms.
If neither of those seemed to be the problem, I would keep looking at intestinal difficulties, including Crohn's Disease. Growth issues and intestinal distress are both connected with that.
If you walk in with your notebook as suggested above, and can say, "We stopped this or that food for a week and it seemed to help," you can help the Doctor start down a more useful path.
Google, Ask.com, and Webmd can be your friends. I'm of the opinion that as a mom, I am the primary caregiver for our family. Our doctor(s) are consultants that I use. :-) YMMV
And what the searches produce! Other than Medline, etc., a Google search of some medical topic produces valid, peer-reviewed literature, the ravings of fringe medicine advocates, and endless ads for herbal supplements, fake "Viagra", quack remedies, Canadian prescription outlets, and the usual Searchbot, "Buy your _Pneumonia Symptoms_ on EBay!" garbage.
Yes, in some cases, the Blank Stare may mean, "I am an idiot and am dumbstruck".
But usually it means "I am tired of listening to idiots", or "Not this again".
A doctor's need to be right is almost as important as his need to be rich.
Sometimes I think we're pretty close today with the prevalent PCP (primary care physician) acting as gatekeeper to anyone else with many insurance company and HMO plans. If he doesn't listen, you've either got to get another PCP, or go "out of network" at significant expense and delay.
Good article. There is a lot of this incompetence in general medicine. Plus apathy toward patients.
Unless I'm mistaken, most of my post was not "assumptions about docs," but more about the environment in which they operate.
You couldn't be more correct! It's all about information overload and the rest of the stuff you described so well!!!
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