Switching doctors - what would you do?

[debilorrah]

Quote:
That woman is just downright rude. Dump her butt AND tell her why, right to her face if you can. Heck I'll write a letter for you!

 

[Imp]

You have to be your own advocate for your health. Get a BETTER doctor.

Imp

 

[3goodeggs]

Quote:
That woman is just downright rude. Dump her butt AND tell her why, right to her face if you can. Heck I'll write a letter for you!

Option three. SHE isn't in pain. But she sounds like one.
Don't add to your burden. Riding long distances in a car is murder for me. She may be the best, but she isn't helping you if you are not comfortable talking to her.
Take Debi up on her offer. I bet she could fire one off that would leave the cyberspace smoking.

 

[Whispering Winds]

Get another doctor. Your health is too important, and when you feel that way, you are not inclined to ask questions or even want to spend any more time than necessary with them. I felt that way about DH's first cadiologist. He walked in the room, and more or less first thing he said to him was, "you will be on kidney dialysis within 5 years". DH is a worrier anyway, and this just sent him over the edge for awhile and absolutely infuriated me. So, after talking and talking, DH went to another one from Springfield, Il. that I think is just the bomb. Two Fridays ago, DH got up from the computer chair, where he always goes to sleep and passed out in the kitchen floor. Proceeded to tear a chunk out of his nose and had a squishy spot on the back of his head the size of a quarter. Another night in the hospital. He had an EKG, which showed some irregularties from the last on he had, and guess who they referred him too AGAIN. Mr. No Personality. I was fit to be tied, and DH knew it, but he said he would go ahead and finish up with him on this deal and then go back to the other one. We'll see.

 

[gritsar]

Well I see our internist next week. I'm going to ask him to refer me to a rheumatologist closer instead. Of all the things that this woman insisted that I MUST do to help my condition, only one of them has been any help to me; the medication.
That and the walking, which I was doing anyhow.

 

[Germaine_11.20]

You don't need to wait for that and specialist take forever to get into. Call your internist and ask for the referral now. You'll be a week ahead and they won't mind.

 

[redhen]

I'd go with the one that is closer...

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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I agree--call the doctor's office now. You can also call your insurance and find out which rheumatologists are on your plan. Sometimes different doctors in a practice can be significantly different in personality, but the down side is that when they take vacations or are otherwise unavailable they cover with each other's patients. Close can be a good thing, but not if you are uncomfortable with the doctor.

I have changes pulmonologists twice for similar reasons. The first one kept telling me it was all in my nose--this while she had a 2-3" thick file from my previous pulmonologist who retired showing that it was NOT in my nose, complete with lots of lung function tests, etc. The next one I fired wouldn't listen to me, and wouldn't prescribe medicines that I needed. We're not talking about controlled substances--we're talking about basic asthma control. Apparently his philosophy was that he never met a medicine he liked. He never bothered to test my breathing, but was quick to suggest a DNA test for some quite rare disorder that did not match my symptoms at all. I like my current doctor--first thing that happened at my first appointment was a lung function test--then he looked at my history, the test results and me.

 

[Sonoran Silkies]

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When you took him to the hospital did you tell them who his cardiologist is? Most specialists practice at a wide selection of the available hospitals (although they may have a preference when it comes to planned procedures).

 

[AngieChick]

I would go with option 3. It's so important to have someone that you are comfortable with and trust. If you don't, then if/when your condition changes you may put off getting treated for it because of the poor relationship with your (rude) current rheumatologist.