Re: Doctors & Pain, Drugs & Type A Personality

[Guest guest]

Mike,

Thanks for the response regarding my misinformation about Ambien. I love

your humorous writing style. It is so refreshing!

Docs get blamed for a lot of things that are not their fault. As I've said

before, my wife is a doctor and tells me stuff that you wouldn't believe.

She was informed this past week that a patient was leaving her care and

going elsewhere because the patient charged that my wife is incompetent.

And now the rest of the story: Seems this patient called my wife because

she was having some female problems on the order of a urinary tract

infection. She gave her symptoms as frequency, urgency, bladder pain. My

wife prescribed an antibiotic over the phone, since it was the weekend, and

told the patient to call her back if she had further complications over the

weekend, and to contact the office on Monday if she had not begun to

experience any relief from the symptoms.

Apparently the patient later went to the hospital presenting with vomiting

and dehydration and was put on IV for a few hours to replenish her fluids.

Now she claims my wife was incompetent because she did not ask the patient

to come into the hospital to check for dehydration...even though she never

mentioned any difficulty with vomiting on the phone. I've listened to my

wife talk to patients on the phone and I know that if the gal had said

anything about vomiting, etc., she would have been told to go to the

hospital if she couldn't keep fluids down within a reasonable amount of

time.

The point of my story is this: The doctor cannot treat symptoms that we do

not tell him/her about. Nor are doctors mindreaders, even if we would like

them to be. I've heard people say things like, " Well, he should have known

I was having that problem. I shouldn't have to tell him. It is a typical

symptom of my disorder. " Typical does not mean that everyone will

experience the same symptoms. We have to be specific in telling our doctors

what our specific symptoms are.

I'm afraid that I too am a Type A personality who used to believe that I

could do anything. I would accept so many " volunteer " projects on top of my

professional teaching or ministry responsibilities that I would end up

overwhelmed and depressed. For the most part, everything got done and got

done well. But it all took a terrific toll on me and hastened the

progression of my Reiters Syndrome. I now understand that stress is the

biggest contributor to triggering a flare-up of my condition or preventing

me from recovering from a flare-up. I have drastically changed my life in

the last two years to eliminate as much stress as possible. Not everyone is

happy about that...including my wife.

The truth of the matter is that for the first time in our 27 years of

marriage my condition is affecting her and our relationship. I can no

longer go for long walks with her. She cannot hold my hands and give me

love squeezes because that simple act causes intense pain in my fingers and

wrists. I cannot stand to be touched sometimes due to the pain I am

experiencing. She likes to cuddle at night and put her hand on me. But for

her to place her hand on my shoulder or hip just calls attention to the fact

that my shoulder and hip are hurting. Intimacy is difficult because of hip

inflammation, etc. Pain is a pretty good deterrent to intimacy. We've lost

a lot and its difficult to adjust to those losses.

I wish that there was a miracle drug that would take away all the

inflammation and pain, but there isn't. I'm dealing with the question of

taking methotrexate to control my condition. My biggest question with

taking a new medication is always, " What are the possible side-effects and

are they such that I would be better off avoiding the medication entirely? "

As some on this list and the support group for my particular disorder can

attest, sometimes the side-effects of the medication are worse than just

coping with the disease itself. thank you for the information on the Searle

site. I'll check it out. I'm sure there is a wealth of information on

medications on the internet. We've got some folks in the group that just

love to search for helpful sites.

Ray in Virginia

ICQ #14278868

Re: Sleep Medications

>

>

>I know what you mean about doctors being reluctant at times. It took me a

>while in the computer business to finally understand doctors in a way. Here

>I was in a field where there are almost no right answers. Everything in a

pc

>depends on many parts made by many different people, different software run

>differently by everyone. All of a sudden you realize that " the " answer to a

>problem can have hundreds of definitions. In the same way, we respond to

>drugs. I don't think I'd like to be the one to prescribe anything to be

>honest. The consequences can be quite serious.

>

>Unlike you, I have an addictive personality, a double type A personality (I

>made that up, simply Type A didn't seem like enough!)and I can't remember

>the last time I admitted I couldn't do something. I went around for the

>longest time claiming that the only thing I couldn't do was give birth but

>that I accepted that because it was a matter of gender, not of choice. I

>made a lot of friends...of the same type. We all burned out about the same

>time and now we can't stand each other! Hell on earth would probably be to

>find them all in the same old folks home my kids threaten to put me in in

10

>years!

>

>My personality has made me the perfect guinea pig for all kinds of

>experimentation. When I was younger, for a few years it was alcohol, later

>prescribed medication. Never did the exotic stuff nor had a yearning for

it.

>I struck it lucky with that twice. Once when I was slipped a cigarette with

>hash in it which left me in a stupor for what seemed like hours but turned

>out to be only minutes but scared me to death; the other when I was coaxed

>into having a beer by a " good buddy " shortly after having taken a dose of

>Percocet which I'd forgotten I'd taken (your memory goes fast with these

>drugs when you're on a high dosage). I knew that night that I was going to

>die. I follow no particular religious faith but you'd be amazed how many

>different names I found for God that night! Scared me away from mixing

>pills and alcohol. That's what allows me to say that I've been " dry " for

>over 20 years. I don't consider it a great achievement. Fear is a powerful

>incentive ! Like you, half a glass of wine is usually the most I take if

>it's the good stuff (more than $2.00 a gallon is good stuff I think)

>

>I have a short list of internet sites that I use to check out medication if

>any on the list are interested. If you take a cruise to the Searle

>http://www.searlehealthnet.com/searle/ net site, they have a lot of stuff

on

>Ambien (keeping in mind of course that they manufacture the stuff),

>including a note on overdose which states that they have known of a few

>taking as much as 40 times the prescribed amount and lived to tell about it

>after a short coma. They don't mention however what vegetable or mineral

>lifeform these people are now classed as !

>

>I hope to make a lot of friends here and hopefully lend a helping hand at

>times. I do have a background in computer hardware and software so if I can

>help anyone just ask. We'll take it off the list and see what we can do.

>

>Mike

>