Taking my Medicine

I've put off posting for a couple of days because I haven't felt well.  The times in the past when my ulcer has flared up, it has taken a long time for my stomach to heal.  This time is no different.  I had forgotten about that, but now that I'm in the middle of it, I remember.  I'm taking a tablet twice a day, and some other liquid stuff to "coat" my stomach four times a day.  Still, my stomach is queasy almost every day for most of the day.  I'm losing weight, which isn't a bad thing.  But I'm getting to a place where I don't have a lot of weight left to give.

I'm looking forward to seeing a new doctor next Tuesday.  (I fired the old one.)  I've always said that when you're looking forward to something medical, you must really need it.  Like the time I needed a shoulder surgery, and I was practically giddy with anticipation.  I'm hoping this new doctor will have some new ideas about what ails me.  I was, however, a little put off when I filled out an online history yesterday.  There were several questions that went something like this:

When you were vomiting [sorry, gross I know, but I'm trying to make a point], were you

mildly upset
moderately upset
very upset
severely upset
unbearably upset
?

I skipped over several of those because I couldn't imagine what they were getting at.  Like, did I feel shaky when I was vomiting.  (Who doesn't?)  At the end, it displayed a sort of "history" in medical lingo.  Since I'm a medical social worker, I can actually read that garbage.  But I was absolutely amazed when these questions ended up under the "Psychiatric" part of the history.  Like this:

          Psychiatric:  Pt. reports she was severely upset when she vomited [again, sorry].

Geez.  I'd wonder more if I'd been excited about it, wouldn't you? 

"Yes, doctor, after being sick for two weeks straight, I was pretty upset about it.  I was even more upset when my former specialist wouldn't answer my many telephone calls to his office.  I'm hoping you'll do better, and not write me off as being crazy for being upset about vomiting for more than a week."

I plan to take up this psychiatric matter right off the bat.  And I plan to tell him that after three episodes of this in less than two years, I really don't ever want to go through it again.  And if my stomach has other ideas, I'm hoping that if I call him, he'll understand that the situation is unbearable and help me out.  Because if his plan is to ignore my calls like the other guy, we might as well stop right now and not waste one another's time.  Fortunately, I have it on good recommendation that this doctor will do a better job. 

I understand that specialists are busy and that seems to be the state of the medical profession these days.  Especially in America, although I'm not sure why.  I just think that if a doctor is too busy to care about his established patients, then s/he should stop accepting new patients.  When I was working, I had a mental health private practice.  If I had ignored people in distress, I'd have been committing malpractice.  It wouldn't even have been ethical to do so.  I would have risked losing my license.  I'm just wondering when some doctors forgot that they are providing a service to people--not a favor.

In all fairness, I have some excellent doctors.  And I've worked with some excellent doctors.  When I've needed help in the past, I've had some excellent doctors.  This time just doesn't happen to be one of them.  I made the mistake of trusting this latest one.  He made a good impression on me when I met him.  And those are the key words:  "when I met him."  I'm realizing now that maybe he doesn't deserve the trust I placed in him when I met him, and that maybe I wouldn't have needed to go through this again if I'd been with a different doctor.  I guess time will tell.

And with that, I'll get off my rant.  It's just that I'm

mildly upset
moderately upset
very upset
severely upset
unbearably upset

that I'm not feeling better by now. 

I'd love to read your comments on this.  What has been your experience with the medical profession lately?  And if you are a doctor (although I doubt you'd be blogging if you are), I'd be curious to know what you think about a doctor who would ignore a severely ill patient.