As per day 4, I am sharing the most disheartening thing a doctor has said to me.
The NHS is wonderful and I am forever grateful for it, but for long-term undiagnosed conditions it has its drawbacks. Following months of seeing a different doctor at every appointment, and spending 8 of the 10 minutes of each appointment recapping previous tests, symptoms etc, and going over all of the things that had happened to date, I got fed up and booked a private GP appointment and spent a full hour with a fantastic GP who (looking back) hit the nail on the head. However, at the time, I felt something she said really resonated with me and scared me.
After a full neurological exam, and after going through my MRI notes, bloodwork etc, she suggested that the aches, pains and dizziness I was struggling with were very real, but originated in my mind. I accepted this, I'd thought it myself for a while. BUT - then she said, if I kept going to doctors and pushing for a 'diagnosis' then sooner or later someone would tell me it was Fibromyalgia, and that having a name wouldn't be of any help to me at all. She suggested I read 'Thrive' by Rob Kelly.
I cried after the appointment, I'd heard of Fibromyalgia and knew it wasn't something I wanted. My brain chose not to focus on what she'd been trying to tell me - that I was suffering due to my thoughts and my mind - but to focus instead on the one word she'd told me not to focus on - Fibromyalgia.
It took months and a LOT of reading into mind-body conditions, and then stumbling across this wiki for me to fully appreciate what she'd been trying to explain to me. I get the impression she'd been very cautious with me, expecting me to resist the idea that this originated in my mind, not a physical condition. I plan to write to her soon to thank her for planting the idea of a mind-body condition, and to highlight the existence of this wiki for anyone in the future she sees with similar problems.
The NHS is wonderful and I am forever grateful for it, but for long-term undiagnosed conditions it has its drawbacks. Following months of seeing a different doctor at every appointment, and spending 8 of the 10 minutes of each appointment recapping previous tests, symptoms etc, and going over all of the things that had happened to date, I got fed up and booked a private GP appointment and spent a full hour with a fantastic GP who (looking back) hit the nail on the head. However, at the time, I felt something she said really resonated with me and scared me.
After a full neurological exam, and after going through my MRI notes, bloodwork etc, she suggested that the aches, pains and dizziness I was struggling with were very real, but originated in my mind. I accepted this, I'd thought it myself for a while. BUT - then she said, if I kept going to doctors and pushing for a 'diagnosis' then sooner or later someone would tell me it was Fibromyalgia, and that having a name wouldn't be of any help to me at all. She suggested I read 'Thrive' by Rob Kelly.
I cried after the appointment, I'd heard of Fibromyalgia and knew it wasn't something I wanted. My brain chose not to focus on what she'd been trying to tell me - that I was suffering due to my thoughts and my mind - but to focus instead on the one word she'd told me not to focus on - Fibromyalgia.
It took months and a LOT of reading into mind-body conditions, and then stumbling across this wiki for me to fully appreciate what she'd been trying to explain to me. I get the impression she'd been very cautious with me, expecting me to resist the idea that this originated in my mind, not a physical condition. I plan to write to her soon to thank her for planting the idea of a mind-body condition, and to highlight the existence of this wiki for anyone in the future she sees with similar problems.
