And the verdict is...

[kickaha]

"Meh, we dunno."

Endocrinologist is 'disinclined' to think it is adrenal, but glucose instead. (His reason? I'm not hyperpigmented. I'm a *redhead* you dolt, we *don't* pigment... and besides, I *have* had a large increase in freckles in the last five months, without sun exposure.)

Despite me sitting there and telling him that every &*%$@$%# doc I've ever seen has said that at first, then come back with "Huh, I guess not. I dunno."

Despite me sitting there telling him that my BP drops below 110/70 unless I drink 1/2 gallon of salt water a day.

Despite me sitting there telling him that I *have* a glucosometer, and that it reads like clockwork, and *does not* correlate with my feeling craptacular.

I swear to god, I may as well not have been in the room. I could have saved two hours, and just had him look at my previous blood workup, since that's all he did.

I think I am 'disinclined' to want to go back to him.

I have a battery of tests on scrip, and I have a call in to find out if the ACTH test listed is an ACTH *response* test, or just yet another goddamned ACTH snapshot, like I've already had two of. If it's the latter, that's useless, and I'll argue until I get the correct one.

Oh, and the followup appt?

Six weeks. Six more weeks of this shit, until he goes "Meh, I dunno" again.

Edit: Okay, so mental fog and irrationality is something else I'm dealing with when stressed or frustrated. Thanks to ginkgo looking up some of the tests he ordered, it's much more oriented towards adrenal than our spoken conversation indicated. In fact, it's pretty damned comprehensive. Thanks hon, that makes me feel tons better.

Comments

I know how you feel.

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

My problem (well, the relevant one, anyway) is that, if there's anything in my stomach when I brush my teeth, I throw up. Back when I had adequate insurance, I decided to investigate this problem. I have a very specific repro scenario; I have eliminated by myself all the possible factors I could think of.

All the specialists I talked to (OK, mostly talked /at/) assumed that they knew what the problem was and weren't interested in hearing about the evidence I'd collected that might indicate they were incorrect.

Thus, I spent three months on Nexium to prove to the gastroenterologist that the problem wasn't reflux, despite the fact that I've never had heartburn in my life and when they scoped my esophagus, they found no evidence of acid damage. Then I spent another three months on some sinus medication whose name escapes me to prove to the ENT guy that it wasn't whatever _he_ decided it was. When that ENT guy retired and they shifted me to a new one who STARTED OVER AT THE BEGINNING, I said screw it and I just make sure I only brush my teeth when I'm really hungry.

The point being that doctors are a product of their environment, and there are two major factors smacking you upside the head right now. First, that people are sufficiently complex that they cannot be considered deterministic, and second, the vast majority of patients are unreliable witnesses at best.

I don't know this, but I suspect that the average patient is just flat wrong about their symptoms often enough that their testimony isn't used as anything other than a vague indicator, and the tests, being "objective", are used in place of actual investigative conversation. For the most part, this is probably the correct approach, no matter how annoying that is in the rare instances that it _isn't_ the right approach.

The problem, as you've discovered, is that when something out of the ordinary is going on, a doctor is not likely to take the inspirational leap to the correct test if the standard battery aren't conclusive. I'd say the right thing for you to do is what you are doing--research it yourself and make sure you get the right tests performed.

In the long run, if the doctor's any good (and doesn't retire on you just when you're starting to get somewhere), the continued failure of the standard approach will lead to an improvement in the listening thing, and presumably to a more appropriate approach to the problem. Not that that's going to be particularly comforting in the meantime.

(And the observant will note that, even knowing all this, I did not wait around for the process to work its way out in my own case.)

So good luck, and be patienter than me. :)

Re: I know how you feel.

[kickaha.livejournal.com]

Thanks - I always feel like I need to wear a big sign that says "Not A Dummy!" when I go to the doctor's office... sadly, they probably *do* need to adopt that attitude with most people. :/

Re: I know how you feel.

[georgmi.livejournal.com]

I just wish more people were qualified to wear that particular sign...

Re: I know how you feel.

[madpiratebippy.livejournal.com]

I suppose the grown up version would be "I think you are incompetent, please give me a refferal to another specialist in your feild who is competent. Now. Please send my records over today. Thank you."

I tend to get outta there after that, but it will usually snap them out of their Godlike headspace long enough to get something useful out of them.

It's not *nice* to tell people they're incompetent, but if he asks you *why* you can *tell* him, and perhaps get something out of him.

PS- have you tried tapping on it?