Firing my Neurologist

As patients I think we sometimes hang on to the doctors we have, because we are wary of change. At least, that was my case. My neurologist diagnosed me with multiple sclerosis and he has been the only neurologist I've known. I felt like I was supposed to keep him as my doctor. He diagnosed my disease.

I have been seeing him for over a year now, and the more I visited him, the more I realized he couldn't care less if I was in the office. He just talked about himself and his travels to India. Okay, I will probably never visit India and I really don't care about his worldly adventures. He doesn't care that I won a Raising Hope fan pack (I so loved that show!). I mean seriously, my life outside of my disease is mine. His life outside of brain and head issues is his. I want to keep it that way. I'm not paying to visit with a friend, I'm paying to visit a doctor who is supposed to advise me and steer me down the right path of treatment, not spend fifteen minutes talking about himself and what's wrong with Obamacare only to send me on my way with an "everything will be fine" line. You know, I should have walked into his office and started talking about how crampy and bloated I was feeling and how I could start my period at any time. Yeah, he wouldn't care. I'm not saying I don't want to have a somewhat personal relationship with my doctors. I just don't want a one-sided one where my appointment time is wasted on their travel stories or personal opinions. Does that make sense?

I finally got to the point where I got tired of hearing my neurologist dismiss my concerns and talk down to me. I went in for an appointment to get the results of my recent MRI a month ago (results I already had) and he just kept responding to my questions in a condescending tone. So, I cancelled my next appointment which was a six month follow-up appointment. I figured I had just seen him and he ran all the normal 'point to your nose' tests, I didn't need a double dose of his travel log for the month.

A week after that cancelled appointment I called in to see if I could switch my MS meds to one of the newer pills. I have been on Betaseron for a year and the more I take it, the more painful life becomes. I called the office only to have his snotty nurse (who by the way, goes on some of the trips with him - yep, I heard about that trip too) inform me that I had to reschedule my follow-up appointment. I explained I was just in there a few weeks before and that I didn't see the issue. I still had to schedule that follow-up. I was connected with scheduling and the woman told me the earliest I could be seen was at the end of August. By this point, I was impatient and not in the mood. I told the nurse that was not going to work for me and that I'd find a neurologist who has time for their patients and hung up. Now, I'm not the impatient phone type. I usually keep it professional, but I had reached my limit.

At this point in time, I have no neurologist and I am not taking MS meds right now. I have to admit, since I've been off the Betaseron for a month I feel a bit better. Any other MSer's ever feel better after being off their meds for a few weeks? Weird, huh?

I am now looking to hire a new neurologist. One who doesn't assume I'm just some unintelligent human being who can't function without visiting a doctor. I am not going to settle this time. I deserve to be taken care of as does everyone who visits a doctor. We pay them.  They chose to be doctors. Enough said.

I'm sure I can't be the only patient on the planet who has had a doctor issue. I'd love to get some feedback on this. Have you ever had to fire a doctor? How about finding a new one, do you ask them questions about how they like to run things in their office? Have you ever visited a doctor and knew from that initial visit you weren't going back?  How do you find a good doctor? Fill me in, because I'm on the hunt for a good one.

I'll get back to my Pinterest challenge tomorrow. I just thought I'd share this magnificent story with you all.
Thanks for reading.

Take care.

NB