The sickie saga takes a sharp turn…
First, I should update you about the rheumatologist appointment. The bloodwork just confirmed what he found out from the physical exam: I don't have any auto-immune disorders, nor do I have any joint disease. I did, however, have a slight vitamin D deficiency. He's having me take 1000 units of vitamin D a day for two weeks to get it back to where it should be. At last! The bone pain is diagnosed! Now we only have two-thousand four-hundred ninety-nine other symptoms to go. He also prescribed me something for chronic pain, but I'm not sure I want to take it because I've been having such bizarre side-effects to other medications and its contraindicated for people with liver problems. But I'm almost out of narcotics, so I might give it a try anyway.
Today, I had an appointment with dr. pruett. Egads! She had me wait for nearly 2 hours to tell me that I don't have porphyria and she doesn't think there's anything further she can help me with. She had the nerve to try to refer me to psychiatry. I asked her if I could get a referral to endocrinology since there's one right across the hall from her offices and the next nearest one is in Houston and she said "I don't think that would help you because we've already tested your thyroid. What do you think an endocrinologist could do for you?" I told her I was a little concerned I might have polycystic ovary syndrome because I seem to have similar symptoms to what my friends with PCOS have and she told me that I should see ob/gyn because PCOS is caused by polycystic ovaries and not by a thyroid. At this point it became apparent that she believed the entire endocrine system consisted of one thyroid and that her info on PCOS is over a decade out of date.
PCOS is called polycystic ovary syndrome because when it was first being discovered all the women found to have the characterizing symptoms also had polycystic ovaries which the researchers believed to be causing the symptoms. Later, however, they discovered many many many women who have all the symptoms for PCOS but no cysts and also women with cysts who have no symptoms. This led them to search for other causes. Research is still being conducted, but now PCOS is believed to be caused by high insulin levels or damage to the pituitary gland which signals the body to produce excess "male" hormones called androgens. It is diagnosed primarily based on a patient's symptoms and by blood tests for testosterone and other hormones. (if you don't believe me check out the merck article: http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec18/ch244/ch244e.html or google "Polycystic Ovary Syndrome")
of course, since I am but a lowly, uneducated Medicaid patient and she is an omnipotent doctor, she refused to believe that I could possibly know more about any medical condition than her and eventually I let it drop after I realized she was not joking, she really didn't even know what an endocrine system was. Again, Egads!! Then I got the hell out of there and swore never to return to scott & white, land of the freakishly ignorant doctors and medical slapstick routines. But dr. pruett did earn herself a demeaning nickname: I christen her Dr. Idiocy. I think that's entirely appropriate.
So, now I am adrift once again: without a diagnosis, without a prognosis, just with the urging from my ob/gyn to seek the help of the fabled endocrinologist. Its hard starting over, but I certainly can't go back to a hospital who's every doctor seems to have missed their calling as a rodeo clown. let's take a moment to remember for the amusement and as a public service announcement: Dr. Shenanigans (Dr. Xuan): told me my bloodwork was normal when I had a whacked out liver enzyme (found later to be due to hepatic granulomata) and an elevated ANA- also sent me to an opthamologist for neurological symptoms, Dr. Cunty McBitch (Dr. McBrayer): tried to tell me I had chlamydia even after I tested negative for chlamydia and the guy I was with tested negative as well, then tried to say I had "high risk sexual behavior" when she hadn't even interviewed me about my sexual behavior, wrote on my records that I weighed 191 pounds, had me in the hospital for an entire week and refused to even attempt to diagnose me, refused to give me any referrals when I was discharged, and shouted at me to walk when my legs were for all intents and purposes paralyzed, claiming that i would develop bedsores. (She was really obsessed with bedsores and I almost named her Dr. Bedsores, but her horrid bedside manner ultimately earned her the pseudonym Cunty McBtich), Dr. Interrupter (Dr. Severson): did everything short of sticking her fingers in her ears and chanting "na na na na na" everytime I tried to tell her my symptoms, this included shouting out random diagnoses like an impatient child playing charades, handing out referrals before the appointment was even halfway through or doing her signature move- interrupting and making it clear that she didn't even believe I had those symptoms. She was actually the best of the group, and finally we come back to Dr. Idiocy (Dr. Pruett) who didn't even know what an endocrine system was and probably couldn't pass 6th grade science, but still believes herself to be the most intelligent being on the planet.
Doctors need to get over themselves. Each doctor believes him- or herself to be the end-all and be-all of medical knowledge: "if I can't find your diagnosis in a matter of days then no one else can either and therefore, there is nothing wrong with you". I am sick of this attitude!!! You are not superhuman and no one expects you to be, if you don't know then have the guts to admit you don't know and allow for the possibility that someone else, possessing resources or knowledge other than your own might be able to help. And stop acting morally superior because you save people's lives. As far as I can tell, you destroy just as many (if not more) lives as you save… and for pity's sake please keep yourselves updated on new medical discoveries and practices. You owe it to your patients and to yourselves to make sure that you always have the most current knowledge and treatment options regardless of whether your department head thinks its worth sending you to a weekend seminar for. One of the beautiful and exciting things about science is that its always changing and growing, but we as scientists must also change and grow with it to avoid becoming obsolete or completely embarrassing ourselves (*ehem* Dr. Idiocy). Egads!!!!!!
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