At Least It's Never Lupus

[bloodyrosemccoy]

Okay, so the Health Center doctors back in Oregon were assembly-line sorts, and the doctor I tried here doesn’t even listen to my concerns about my various and sundry endocrinal issues.*

So I went to a new doctor to inform her that, to put it succinctly, Every Last Inch Of Me’s Covered With Hair.

“Your chin, too?” she asked.

“Well, okay, no, fortunately. That’s where the horrible volcanic acne THEY TOLD ME WOULD GO AWAY IN COLLEGE lives.”

“I see. But you do have rather a lot of hair?”

“Does the phrase ‘boar-bristle thighs’ suggest anything?”

She nodded thoughtfully. “Well, that sure sounds PCOS-ish. How about your periods?”

“I’m not sure I’ll be able to tell you. I think my uterus fell out with the last one, so I may not have to worry about them anymore.”

“Heavy flow, then. I see. And I am noticing something else as I watch you talk here. Is that your thyroid, or are you hosting an errant chestburster?”**

So I may wind up going to see an endocrinologist, but at least we’re doing something. I have to go take about fifty lab tests to find out, though. She went through a litany for the receptionist to order.

“… and a fasting insulin test. Oh, and we should check her glands.”

“Which glands?”

“ALL her glands.”

“And remember,” she added sternly to me, “exercise and sensible diet.”

“Very well. My days of wanton cake consumption are coming to an end.”

“Oh,” she said, “and we can fix the hair thing for you, if you’d like.”

“I will consider it. But honestly, it gives me an excuse to wear long pants and men’s trunks, so I’m not gonna complain.”

I think this doctor may actually be paying attention, dudes. This could get interesting.


*Descriptions of PCOS read like a Cliff’s Notes version of my non-depression medical flaws. As far as I can make out, this dude took my description of the hair and the acne and the hypoglycemia and the cysts and the insane periods and arrived at the following conclusion: Another Hysterical Woman Type.

**Okay, doctors don’t actually say things like that, but wouldn’t it be great if they did?

Comments

[die-monster.livejournal.com]

Going to a doctor, ESPECIALLY any sort of specialist, is like having on a really good perception filter. Because they will see EXACTLY whatever they're most used to seeing (or thinking they're seeing). The ENT thinks you have allergies, the cardiologist thinks you're a lazy fatty, the orthopaedist thinks you just need to take a good calcium supplement, etc. Hrf. That's why it's SO AWESOME when doctors do something besides that, for a change.

[bean-bunny.livejournal.com]

I had a problem with acne until I quit the benzoyl peroxide that was supposed to work and switched the the salactic acid and a moisturizer which totally wasn't supposed to work. If it helps you, then by all means.

[igntethestars.livejournal.com]

Damn @ the chestburster part. If he'd actually said that, I think I might have to fly to see your doctor because that fucking rocked. Oh well xD

But I'm glad she's listening, or at least acting like she is. Doctors . . frustrate me sometimes. It's so clear there is something wrong, and they just arrive "Eh". My appendix almost burst at seventeen because a doctor told my mother I was faking it and sent me back to school. I ended up in the ER a few hours later.

[mfb.livejournal.com]

there's glands for that? I thought my hair was made out of diamond fiber just because the hairs think it's funny

[padparadscha.livejournal.com]

Yup. Maybe the glands think it's funny.

[dark-phoenix54.livejournal.com]

**Okay, doctors don’t actually say things like that, but wouldn’t it be great if they did?

Mine does at times.

I'd say I can't believe a doctor would ignore the symptoms you have, but sadly, I know how frequently that sort of thing happens. Hopefully this one will get you sorted and mended!

[neintales.livejournal.com]

...I'm still trying to find a doctor that listens.

Admittedly, I have yet to make an appointment with the one medicaid assigned me to as such, because after 20+ years of being told by doctors I am a lazy, hysterical, hypochondriac fatty, it's HARD to walk into any clinic or doctor's office.

My last psychiatrist (who I thought listened to me until farther into seeing him when suddenly his listening skills vanished*) had me get a hormone panel thing done, and all those results were supposedly normal, but man, the whole Polycystic/Hormone Imbalance things read like a description of me as well for everything from how my periods work (or don't, most months) to my weight issues. (I know I do not exercise due to mental blocks, and veggie-eating also is tough due to my supertasting or psychosomaticwhatsit, but I am not a junk food junkie, nor do I eat more food on average than any skinny as hell friend I've known)

In short. I envy you a bit, and hope it all works out and things get Tracked the Fuck Down. Yay!

*He seemed to listen until I started panicking that it was the Abilify making my creativity go dormant. Then I noticed I'd spend half a visit whimpering about how I couldn't DRAW or be INTERESTED in DRAWING and I thought it was that, and that I wasn't noticing a very marked improvement in anything else either, and he'd nod and then at session end basically say "Well it sounds like you're doing great on the Abilify, here's another prescription sheet! You've improved so much, I'm not sure what else we should or could try, this is working so well!"

[redheaded-itch.livejournal.com]

I feel like maybe I should welcome you into the PCOS club. Buuuut it's more like a mob, so maybe I should get you to cut off your own pinkie? I don't know. We shall discuss. ;)

[queenlyzard.livejournal.com]

Best of luck. First Doctor sounds like he needs a kicking in the man-parts.