On Advocacy

Today, during my multi-hour wait to see my endocrinologist (she is totally worth the wait, by the way), I heard a segment on the local news where people call in to a doctor and ask the doctor their questions in the doctor's realm of expertise. Today's subject was acid reflux. The first patient called in about how his prescription was really expensive and he had to take a lot of it. The doctor suggested he talk with his physician about switching to a different prescription and possibly having surgery. The other caller had a peds question, and the doctor said she didn't practice peds.

This irritated me for two reasons. First, the doctor on the show never once asked, "What are you putting in your body?" or "What kind of lifestyle do you live?" Now, I know some people just have reflux, but having been through my own medical problems, something I know about reflux is diet and lifestyle can significantly impact it. The doctor stuck to drugs and surgery as a solution. The other thing that bothered me was the people calling in were not calling their own doctor with their problems.

If your doctor will not listen to your concerns, fire him or her. Go to another doctor who will. If this is not an option, do not hesitate to push for a solution or complain to someone higher up (cheif of medicine, perhaps). If anything, ask a lot of questions, such as what are some alternatives to medicine/surgery, why the problem is occuring, what is the exact diagnosis, and what does it mean.

When I (finally) got back to see the doctor, I met with an intern first. He did a great job of doing a thorough history with me, but he did not like my resistance to take medicine for my thyroid. I have Grave's disease, which is an autoimmune type of hyperthyroidism. From what I have been told, many Grave's patients do not go into remission like I tend to. But, since I will go into remission without detrimental side effects (i.e. no symptoms of it affecting my heart or other major organs), I opt to wait and see if I will go into remission in a few weeks (with regular monitoring). The side effects of the drugs, combined with my history of going into remission fairly quickly, makes me not want to take the drugs. I also do not want a more permanent solution to my Grave's disease, like radioactive iodine, where I will have to take another drug with ill side effects for the long term.

Because I felt like he wasn't understanding where I was coming from, I reasoned with him. I lost around five years of my life to feeling like absolute crap. I have some more living to do before I start radiation treatments. I also am 29 and childless, but breastfeeding is very important to me and the drugs for hyperthyroidism are not compatible with that. He did argue (somewhat politely) that Synthroid was safe for breastfeeding, since it had the same chemical make up as thyroid hormones. Let's be real here, though. Synthroid is synthetic, man-made hormone, and it does have side effects. If it was totally safe, there would be no ill side effects. It can be passed through breast milk, and while deemed safe for the infant, I just don't know how I feel about the baby getting Synthroid through breast milk.

The intern also did not act as if he supported my decision to opt out of a flu shot. My reasoning? I've never had one before and I am healthy, and I will take my chances. I know if I get the flu and I have a very high temp, trouble breathing, etc. to go to the emergency room. Simply put, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

I'm not anti-drug. I just refuse to take something that has possibly ill side effects that is not necessary or will do more harm than good.

My endocrinologist finally saved me from her intern and I had a delightful appointment with her, and we have a proactive plan set up for my PCOS, now that everything else seems to be settling down.

It's a shame that it took me nine years to find a doctor who will proactively treat my PCOS.

Whether or not my endocrinologist agrees with me or actually respects me, I don't know, and I honestly don't care. What matters is she explains what is up with my body, the medicine, and how everything factors in together. She listens to what I say, repeats it back to me, and we reach decisions together on how to manage my illnesses. At the very least, I feel like she respects me as a person and a patient, and I am very satisfied with the care I have received from her. Hello?!? I spent nearly four hours at the doctor today - that's how important she is to me as a provider.

I haven't always been very good at advocating for myself. I've been the person who goes to the doctor with a problem, and does exactly what the doctor says. Sometimes it has worked out very well, other times it has sometimes been a disaster. I'm not anti-drug, anti-surgery, or anti-doctor, I'm pro-informed consent and pro-respect. If you aren't getting those two things, and you're having problems, you need to have a heart-to-heart with your provider or seek out another.

When it comes to what is going on with your body, I encourage everyone to be informed and work with their providers to make the best decisions for themselves. Also, don't let your insurance (or lack thereof) dictate what type of care or treatment you receive. (One time, I had this terrible insurance that would cover only one diagnostic test, and to get insurance to cover it, my doctor was going to put me under general anesthesia and use my surgery benefit. Since I only had one surgery benefit, and I knew I was more than likely going to have surgery, I asked if I could just pay out of pocket for the endoscopy, which is what we ended up doing, and was much cheaper and easier on my body than general anesthesia.)

I have a long road ahead of me to counteract a lifetime of bad habits, but I am so thankful for this crazy journey to put me in the mindset to conquer it, and I am also thankful for providers who will "team up" with me on what path to choose to conquer the battle.

You mean we're almost halfway through with September?

Back in June, while I was on my way to Birmingham for a few days, I got this phone call. A couple of friends who work at L'Occitane at The Summit offered me this thing called a job. Initially, I declined, but as I was entering the most boring stretch of road on the way to the 'Ham, I had some time to think. It's a job offer that I wasn't even seeking. It would be very part time, so I would be able to see how it went with my bi-city lifestyle. It was INCOME. So, I took the job offer as a sign and accepted.

L'Occitane is a wonderful company to work for. They offer competitive wages, they are wonderfully philanthropic, they do their best to respect the environment, they are amazing to their employees, and they strive for excellent customer service. And they sell the only skincare that does not make my skin break out worse. I love L'Occitane. It's like working in a spa.

So, the original plan for the summer was to start the job, kick ass at it, become certified in childbirth education, plan an ah-mazing year of Junior League arrangements, and get a boyfriend.

Well, fast forward three months and two gold stars, and it's two weeks into football season. Um, wasn't it the beginning of June just a couple of weeks ago? I totes forgot to hang the orange and blue bow on my outdoor light last week, when I was in town. Well, at least I kicked ass at my job.

So, in the past three months, I have started a job, succeeded at job, failed miserably at keeping a home and training Gemma, begun wearing makeup and doing my hair and putting effort into an outfit nearly all the time, pined for a boy, had it out with another, discovered a new found love for hair bands, decided to learn bass, endured my first seriously real crush on someone unattainable, had a hippie identity crisis because of said hair band love, and realized that I have yet to start my childbirth education. As my new favorite saying goes, Nikki Sixx would not approve.

Why would Nikki Sixx not approve, you ask? Well, I was pretty much obsessed for a few weeks in August, and I read The Heroin Diaries, The Dirt, and This Is Gonna Hurt. In This Is Gonna Hurt, the wonderful Mr. Sixx encourages his readers to follow their passions and actually do them, instead of coming up with excuses not to. It was at this time I realized the job had to go (at least for now).

In a few weeks, I will be starting my childbirth education certfication, and in a few months, I will be going back to school to do my pre-requisites for osteopathy school. I am going to be a doctor, good grades and excellent MCAT scores permitting. I'm going to commit to Auburn until May, then possibly move back to Birmingham for the rest of the pre-reqs, so I can be closer to family. IF I do that, and IF L'Occitane has some availability to work me back in, I will be going back to work there. Big IFs, people. It's not that I want to move back to Birmingham, it's just a lot easier to keep up the grades and balance personal life there. Plus, I will be committing to at least four years of intense study in Auburn again.