Doctors

Hi everyone! I know it's been a long time, so I thought I'd throw out a post. I've been busy working on some volunteer projects and dealing with being newly diagnosed with asthma. Yup! You heard right...asthma. Seems contrary to my doctor's assumptions, there is something wrong with me afterall; it's not all in my head. It took three visits to the doctor before I was finally taken seriously enough to get sent for testing. The asthma thing was a bit of a shocker, since I didn't know of anyone in my family that had asthma; however, I eventually found out that my paternal aunt in the Philippines suffers from it. Anyways, things have been stressful to say the least. Not only have I had to deal with persistent shortness of breath and chest tightness, but I've had to also deal with doctors. I'm not particularly used to dealing with doctors or clinics or hospitals. I've been pretty lucky up until now, which explains my exorbitant copay...chosen because I never had to go to the doctor before.

My GP (general practitioner) prescribed some inhalers for me. After three weeks I did not see any real improvement, so I went back in. Unfortunately, my GP wasn't working that day so I elected to see another doctor at the practice. I had had a terrible time the night before and had barely slept because of it. I needed something done asap. This new doctor proceeded to tell me that there was nothing he could do for me. That I should just wait to see a specialist (my appointment was not for another 2 weeks). I expressed concern about waiting so long when I was already feeling so bad and he proceeded to suggest that I was basically a victim of anxiety and that was my real problem, and he reassured me that I could in fact breath. THEN, he told me that the medicine I was prescribed by my GP, who is his colleague, would not work for me because asthma inhalers (broncho dilators & steroid) were only for people with wheezing and since I only had shortness of breath and chest tightness and NOT wheezing, the medicine was useless. Needless to say, this is the part where I wanted to rip off his head. It is also the part where I realized that I was not just dealing with a difficult doctor with a terrible bedside manner, but an incompetent one as well.

Since being diagnosed with asthma, I have researched my disease a million times over. Asthma can cause the following symptoms:

wheezing
shortness of breath
chest tightness
coughing

(Note:I have experienced all symptoms except wheezing.)
There are two types of medicine to treat asthma: quick-relief, which relax the muscles that tighten the lung's airways and are used for immediate relief of asthma symptoms during an attack, and long term controllers, which are taken regularly and are anti-inflammatory medicines that prevent attacks from happening in the first place. The key idea is that these medicines treat asthma, specifically preventing or easing the constriction of the airways, not one or two specific symptoms of asthma, as was suggested by Dr. Incompetent. If asthma medicines work properly and prevent the airways from tighting, then you will not have the symptoms of asthma. Thus, it seems ludicrous that this doctor would suggest that these medicines are only to prevent or treat wheezing. I tried to reason this line of logic out with him, but all he would say is, "These medicines are to treat wheezing, not shortness of breath." Then he told me that he could prescribe me a higher strength steroid inhaler or Singulair, but that it's up to me. If I could show you the blank stare I had on my face at that time, I would. Obviously, if I knew the answer to this, then I'd be the one with M.D. after my name. This guy was clearly insane.

On top of all this, I was still required to pay my copay.

Sooooo......today I saw my GP. She gave me some Singulair to add to my cocktail until I see the specialist. So, that's where I am now. I'm completely frazzled and wary of trusting anyone with the credentials, "M.D." Unfortunately for me, it looks like I'll be dealing with doctors for awhile now.