Crazy...like fox!

In the last ten years, my daughter, Michelle, has had to endure more doctor appointments, medical work ups, diagnostic procedures, endless blood draws, colonoscopies, MRIs, bone scans, ER and OR visits ( I think you get the point) than I care to count. No person, at a such a young and impressionable age, should have suffered (and continues to suffer) so exceedingly.

Regretfully, Michelle saw how pain can manifest it's ugly little face in a much more devastating manner.  In cruel irony, she quickly learned that health CARE providers are not always so caring, in the true sense of the word. If they are not thoughtful during the treatment process, there is a risk of dispensing a cruel and emotionally crippling medicine with "calloused indifference" as it's main ingredient. No one likes to be dismissed. (I would rather be hated. At least there is some twisted logic that "the hater" took enough time and effort to form his lowly opinion of me).

For example, just ask me about a couple of top local (but later chagrined) orthopedic surgeons that refused to admit a sixteen year old woman who just happen to "own" a fractured femur a few years ago. It broke not because of any trauma, the bone had simply been eaten away by a bacterial infection, and over time, the thigh bone shattered  like an old piece of PVC pipe.  These experts were blinded by a cloud of hubris. Even when critical mass hit in the ER, they blew off the attending doctor's concern surrounding the patient, refused to help with the hospital trauma admit. Adding insult to injury, they also tagged this young lady as a drug seeker.  Did I mention that this same young woman was my daughter, Michelle, and I am a pharmacist?

Think about how you may have been treated when a doctor didn't take your complaint serious and instead, talked when listening should have been in order.  I am certain it was not money well spent as you were rushed out of the exam room with a pat on the head seemingly meant to convey "all is well!" Let me draw a picture for you. You are the unlucky winner of a, "It's all in your head" diagnosis. (Maybe it was better that during the exam you didn't catch the doctor's sigh and the infamous eye roll combo).  Now, it is too big of a stretch to believe that this obnoxious attitude could be interpreted by someone in a sensitive moment as, "That doctor thinks I am crazy!" And that my friends, is the ultimate insult! Upside...you are not suffering alone

Your challenge in negotiating optimal medical care is to do some foot work and find not only a brilliant,capable, experienced doctor, but someone willing to be invested when "what ails you" is more than seasonal allergies. Furthermore, diagnosis should never be made with a "big chip" of an attribution error on the doctor's shoulder.

In fairness, one has to remember that first, the human body is incredibly complex. Second, the diagnostics skills of any given physicians are limited. Somebody had to graduate at the bottom of the medical school class.  And lastly, there are diseases and syndromes that are probably ahead of the curve when it comes to our limits of technology.  Obviously, take complete advantage of the blessings of modern medicine like advanced blood tests, the incredible advances of diagnostic imaging, life saving drugs and the like.

However, never...I mean never (Are you listening Mom's?) second guess your personal intuition. If you feel there is something more to the journey, then there is something more to the journey. Follow it relentlessly. If that physician you just saw were in your shoes, he would do the same. Doctors do "fire" their own doctors. You won't be crazy with that new found attitude. Okay you will be...crazy like a fox!
And remember...take as directed
Blake