Q: Portland Area pulmonologist referral?

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone,I have a patient with moderately severe, chronic asthma that I'd like to be able to refer to a pulmonologist at her request. Over time, we've made some great headway with respect to treating her asthma, but one of our main obstacles has been the fact that it's difficult for her to continue care regularly due mostly to finance limitations. Thus, we end up taking a step forward... and then she'll get a cold or something like that, not be able to come in for a while, and come to see me when her asthma has gotten quite urgent again. Ugh.Over time, we've used herbs to good effect, and we've definitely been working on her overall temperament and predilection to allergies and phlegm-type syndromes. We've also gotten pretty good results with combined use of Unda remedies and homeopathic pulsatilla. I have prescribed her a ventolin inhaler as well, because she was having too many exacerbations when she wasn't able to continue care regularly. This has helped somewhat, but it's of course not curative and may be suppressive. However, my thinking has been that I'd rather be a bit suppressive if necessary than have her die from an acute attack.She recently had an exacerbation and requested a referral to an area pulmonologist. I encouraged her to continue our work together and described the general hierarchy of medications that are generally employed in asthma treatment. While I'd love to be able to keep working with her regularly (I just revised her treatment plan and recommended a food sensitivity avoidance/challenge for the New Year), I hear where she's at and am fully supportive of her getting relief; I'm also aware of the fact that she just needed to call an ambulance at Midnight because she was in the midst of an acute attack. So, I personally wouldn't mind at all if she could get evaluated by a good Portland area pulmonologist to see if (s)he might be able to offer some needed assistance right now.Thanks in advance for any great referrals that you may be able to share!Kindly,-- MarkMARK C. BRICCA, ND, LAC | BODHICITTA HEALING ARTS | 1820 SW VERMONT ST, STE. E | PORTLAND, OR 97219 | | WWW.BODHICITTAHEALINGARTS.COM