Arrrggghhh!

[Guest guest]

I'm not a frequent poster but I need to vent. My dear, sweet, gentle

and amazingly smart rheumatologist was wooed by a biotech firm in

San Francisco. From what other doctors in the clinic said, he wanted

to do pure research and if he stayed here at the University of

Arizona they insisted that he see patients in addition to his

research duties. So he left. I just met one of the few remaining

doctors at this clinic and I'm not impressed. I know I would have

lost Dr Y anyway whether he stayed or not, but it just plain is not

fair.

My RA has been quiet for a long time, but I've been missing massive

amounts of work because of fibromyalgia. Now the RA is back - my

hands and feet are all sore and puffy, the knuckles are pink, I have

the low-grade fever and fatigue, I can't make a fist and I can no

longer fully straighten two of my fingers (at the outermost joint).

So this new (to me) doctor looks me over and says that it isn't RA,

it's the fibro! RIGHT. I was also told that RA doesn't cause damage

to the outermost joints on your hands. RIGHT. I suppose the immune

system stops at the middle joint.

The only thing he said that I agreed with was that it is perfectly

OK to get my visual field test (VFT) from an optometrist instead of

an opthalmologist. My optometrist gives me the VFT the same day I

come in for a regular checkup. The stupid opthalmologist would check

my regular vision and only then would he schedule the VFT for a

follow-up time & date. Besides that, these two doctors use the same

machine, but one charges an arm and a leg and the other one doesn't.

Well, I'm now going to search for another rheumatologist whose

practice is on my side of town. After I had been going to them for

many years, the old clinic moved to the far side of town. But Dr Y

was worth the drive. New doctor isn't.

phooey.

Nina in Tucson