With this visit I would focus on the fatigue and pain I was experiencing since I decided a few blog posts ago I might have another forty years of life in me and I really don't want to spend it tired and miserable. Somewhere, someone must have answers. My continual optimism never ceases to amaze me.
The office was very efficient and the doctor very kind and articulate. After looking over my forms and asking a few questions, she immediately told me to see a naturopath. I thought that was odd. Really odd. I didn't have the heart to tell her I'd seen eight in the last eight years. So strange. How many AMA doctors give that advice? I wondered what I did to make her think I was crazy or beyond help. (I did not tell her I was chemically sensitive and I was being really careful with the crazy....)
Her suggestion would be to try hormone replacement just to see if it makes a difference. The suggestion to see a naturopath threw me for a moment, but there it was: the easy slide into drugs. With this advice I knew for sure she was an AMA doctor! She suggested drugs for only for a short time and if I had some bad side effects, she'll try to wean me off the hormone addiction. Hmmm...no...not going to happen. I'll pass. I don't need my menopause symptoms getting worse. That sounds way too risky an experiment. I thought it was strange she made absolutely no comment about Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, a condition I clearly marked on my medical history form and known for fatigue as a main symptom. I always get the impression conventional doctors don't quite understand Hashimoto's as it defies their drug culture.
But they came back the next day, which was shocking as well. Usually labs take a week to two weeks. And this office was so efficient, I could email the doctor, make appointments, and get lab results sent to me via the Internet. The convenience was almost worth the price.
The lab results! OMG! They were ALL normal. Thyroid, vitamin levels, mineral levels, blood work, everything. Totally normal. All within normal range. According to conventional medicine standards, I am incredibly healthy aside from the pain and fatigue, of course.
"There is absolutely nothing wrong with you!" said my new doctor.
Really? Should I just ignore the pain and fatigue that affects my lifestyle on a daily basis?
As I pondered I remembered my naturopathic medical assistant training. Blood lab results in conventional medicine are based on lab result comparisons OR sick people statistics so their normal isn't really normal at all. The premise is most blood tests are done because someone is sick. Throw those all in one big statistical pot and one has to question the validity of the ranges for healthy results. A naturopathic-oriented lab tweaks blood lab results to offer a more realistic view of what is going on. I know the doctors I worked for had lab result manuals they used as references to adjust and interpret the false positives. Hmmm...do they do that to sell more supplements? It made me wonder if we ever get correct information and how much physician agendas affect those results.
In conclusion, the new doctor offered no solution to my fatigue and pain other than a drug experiment. That only cost $600.
YIKES! 600????
ReplyDeleteYep, good ole American health care. It sucks and if you don't have insurance you pay through the nose for basically nothing. And I'm relatively healthy. It would have been much more if I had more to complain about.
DeleteSo frustrating. Such a let down.
ReplyDeleteSo frustrating! Argh
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