Tough Love

Okay okay! You guys have a point. Thanks everyone, especially Jameil the firestarter, for that tsunami of tough love. You're right. I should be demanding more of my doctor, and I will. I promise you all that on Monday I will make another appointment and prepare a list of questions. What's the plan to treat my anemia? What's the plan to find out what's causing it? Whatever happened to that referral to a hematologist that my doctor mentioned last year and never followed up on?

I never took it that seriously because it didn't affect me all that much before. Also, previously I only saw my blood iron levels creeping slowly but steadily up as I took my iron supplement. They've never dropped back down again like this. It's definitely something to be looked into. I appreciate the push from all y'all because it's too easy, especially when one is feeling like crap, to not deal with it and to avoid the prospect of uncomfortable medical tests. But that's a foolish and shortsighted approach.

For the record, my doctor is actually pretty good for a Canadian general practitioner. If I go in with a list of questions prepared, he will take the time to answer them. He does listen to what I say, which is more than can be said for the average g.p. here. Keep in mind that the Canadian health care system only pays doctors $30.00 per patient for a consultation. Out of that fee, the doctor has to pay his or her own office expenses (rent, receptionist salary, office supplies, medical supplies like syringes and gauze, etc.), and income tax (which in Ontario is around 35% to 50% of one's gross income for the upper middle class tax brackets), before he or she can even begin to consider take-home pay. No wonder doctors cram in as many patients per hour as possible, especially the younger ones who often have tens of thousands of dollars of debt for medical school tuition to pay off. It's not right, but that's the system. So you really have to speak out and stand up for yourself to get a g.p. to give you more time. My doctor is good because he'll give me more time if I ask for it. That's more than can be said for many doctors, who mostly just want to push a prescription at you within the first three minutes and that's all you'll get.

Specialists get paid more, so a referral to a specialist is always the best thing if you want some real quality time and attention.

The fault is partly mine because I haven't pushed hard for more tests. I seem to get the kind of medical problems that don't respond to traditional Western medicine. For example, until I was in my early 20's I suffered from Irritable Bowel Syndrome. It had a huge impact on my life. But the doctors just shrugged and said "you'll have to live with it". In the end I got help from a naturopath and health food store books and supplements. I learned what I can eat and what I can't, and cured my own IBS. It hasn't been a problem in years.

Then there are these vague episodes of fever and weakness, sometimes combined with joint pain. I've been suffering from them on and off for ten years; have already had every relevant test on the blood test form; even saw a rheumatologist; and no one can find a thing wrong with me. Basically it's a reaction to over-stress, and the cure is rest. That's as much as any doctor can tell me. This time no diagnosis, but the advice is the same: live with it. So I carry on seeing my naturopath and trying to practice the best possible self-care given the variety of life's many demands on my energy.

Who knows? Maybe this time I'll follow the anemia thread and it will provide some answers. It's worth a shot. But as for the other stuff? I live with it. It costs me a few weeks out of every year, but it could be worse.