BAD day at the doc

[Guest guest]

Hi all!

Happy Valentines Day to everyone! Thought I'd relate my lastest

adventure into psycho rheumatoligist land. As some of you know I've been

looking forward to this appt. with a new rheum for a while now and today

was the day. This well educated lady, who Henry Scammell told me headed

the MIRA trials, met with me today at 1:30. Boy, was I a waste of HER

time! First her nurse took all the background info and my list of

questions I had typed out for her. Then she came in to do the exam with

the words, " I'm not going to answer any questions until the exam is done "

and proceded with the exam all the while talking to a student she

brought in with her to observe. Then she left while I dressed and

returned to tell me her " plan " . First she confirmed that while I am

sero-negative, she believes I do have RA. then she told me she did not

do IV's, or use anything other than minocin, no other antibiotics. She

looked at my list of questions and told me all those other things would

be dealt with after the RA. I managed to speak up at this point and tell

her I was part of a group on the AP and she interupted me saying " and

thats very bad, thats where you're getting all this bad information.

These chat places are full of lay people who don't know anything "

Refering to my questions on diet and supplements she told me there was

no evidence at all that these things had any bearing on RA and about my

question on depression she told me I was depressed because I was hurting

and we would deal with that after she treated the arthritis. I told her

I had inproved after each IV treatment and she told me there was no

proof of that. During this time she is peering at my list over her

glasses and then pushes it away from her, states that she thinks she's

covered all my questions, and now she is going to get xrays and redo the

bloodwork I just had done 2 weeks ago. Oh, I almost forgot, during the

exam she noticed a bruise on the inside of my knee I got during a car

accident last August. She asked me about it and when I told her, she

said " No, it's not a bruise, I'll tell you what it is later. " As she was

leaving she told me that blue spot was caused from the minocin and I

might get them in other places and they wouldn't go away. I'd have to

decide at that time if I wanted to be " The blue girl, or stop the

minocin " . Now, I've had my gp look at this place 3 times, the last time

was at my physical 2 weeks ago. His comment was it may take a long time

to go away. It is some kind of blood residue. Made sense to me, still

does. I mean it has never gone away, it is in the same spot as the

original injury, nothing changed about it except its fading. Where she

came up with this blue spots stuff I don't know. She said it was very

rare and could she show it to another student dr. She wanted to see if

he would diagnose it correctly. I said sure, I just wanted out of there.

I was totally unprepared for this encounter mentally. At this point I

was crying, later I was mad, but right then I was so disappointed I

couldn't help it.(Yes, I'm a WIMP).Anyway, I picked up my notes and

left. Didn't go to xray or the lab, justed told the recetionist I was

leaving and no, I wasn't going to need another appt. So now I guess my

plan is get my gp to give me the IV's next week to maybe buy me some

time til I can find a real dr. that wants to treat me and not just use

me for her study. Sorry this is so long and thanks for listening to me

vent. If anyone has any suggestions on someone else here in Alabama or

maybe Tenn. I could try, I'd be grateful. T.