My Medical Appointment

Today's medical appointment proved most interesting indeed.

I was ushered into the examination room a mere half hour past my appointment time and was greeted by someone other than my family physician. I was given no explanation and no introduction. Naturally, I was spooked. I've been seeing the same doctor for over 30 years and while his current office arrangement is relatively new, his staff knows that I am an "old" patient (in more ways than one). I am in fact one of his original patients, having started seeing him within weeks of his opening his practice.

This new person explained that he was training to be a family physician and my doctor would be in shortly; he just wanted to ask me a few questions before then. He asked many questions and reviewed what seemed like my entire file. I was just a tad concerned: Was I being pushed off to another doctor? Was my doctor about to retire and bringing in the new guard? This has been a concern of mine for some time since my doctor, is after all, not getting any younger. I was also more than a little annoyed at having to, yet again, explain my history to a doctor when I had made an appointment with my long-standing family doctor expressly to discuss an on-going treatment plan.

Anyway, my doctor finally joined us and I was able to explain to him that I had gone off that "good stuff" (he was not at all pleased with me!) and we discussed the pros and cons of the suggested replacement pain med. The decision was made to give it a try and he wrote a new prescription, which I will start tonight.

Apparently, this new stuff promotes sleep which in turn, if it works, will naturally help with pain relief.

Interestingly enough, the doctor mentioned that he has to attend a four-hour workshop on fibromyalgia with which he expects to be totally bored. I chastised him and told him that he must pay attention; he has patients suffering from the disorder. I then asked if they needed a lecturer (I think I am eminently qualified to lecture a roomful of doctors on the syndrome). He offered that I would actually make an excellent patient presentation in terms of what to do for pain management. He said that doctors usually roll their eyes at the hint of the topic but perhaps if presented with a patient like me, they might actually sit up and listen!