Normal
I think the worst question a doctor can ask anyone who comes to them for treatment is, "Is everything else normal?"
"What is normal?" If you are in chronic pain, pain becomes normal. Chronic congestion means impaired breathing is the new normal. If you're always constipated, you think it's normal not to give a shit. So what a doctor is really asking is, "Tell me what symptoms I think are important."
I had a symptom that I didn't know was important until Flit pointed me at a checklist for symptoms associated with celiac disease. "Hey," I thought, "I've been complaining about most of these symptoms all my life. And most of these are things that have gotten a lot worse over the last few years. But... what do they mean by irregular stool?" Oh.
The symptom that doctors find most important is the symptom they can see.
So, when I went to the new doctor yesterday and laid out my symptoms, he was honest. "I could get screen you for celiac, but you have to give me some symptoms to go on or the insurance company won't pay." And I was thinking, great. Here we go again. All he sees is a fat lady, declining in years, with the untrackable girly symptoms of fatigue, headache and joint pain. Irritably, I described my poop, half expecting him to tell me I was making a lot of fuss over nothing.
I'm getting my blood tested for celiac on Friday. The doc has also ordered tests for all sorts of related issues that crop up with celiac: thyroid, vitamin deficiencies, all these things I kept suggesting my previous doctor to test me for. At this point, it doesn't matter whether any of these tests show anything wrong, or if it just proves once and for all that it's all in my head. A doctor believed me enough to order the tests.
Sometimes you just have to go to the doctor and tell them you don't give a shit.
"What is normal?" If you are in chronic pain, pain becomes normal. Chronic congestion means impaired breathing is the new normal. If you're always constipated, you think it's normal not to give a shit. So what a doctor is really asking is, "Tell me what symptoms I think are important."
I had a symptom that I didn't know was important until Flit pointed me at a checklist for symptoms associated with celiac disease. "Hey," I thought, "I've been complaining about most of these symptoms all my life. And most of these are things that have gotten a lot worse over the last few years. But... what do they mean by irregular stool?" Oh.
The symptom that doctors find most important is the symptom they can see.
So, when I went to the new doctor yesterday and laid out my symptoms, he was honest. "I could get screen you for celiac, but you have to give me some symptoms to go on or the insurance company won't pay." And I was thinking, great. Here we go again. All he sees is a fat lady, declining in years, with the untrackable girly symptoms of fatigue, headache and joint pain. Irritably, I described my poop, half expecting him to tell me I was making a lot of fuss over nothing.
I'm getting my blood tested for celiac on Friday. The doc has also ordered tests for all sorts of related issues that crop up with celiac: thyroid, vitamin deficiencies, all these things I kept suggesting my previous doctor to test me for. At this point, it doesn't matter whether any of these tests show anything wrong, or if it just proves once and for all that it's all in my head. A doctor believed me enough to order the tests.
Sometimes you just have to go to the doctor and tell them you don't give a shit.