‘How to Fight With Your Doctor’ may seem to be an odd title for an article. However, recently I discovered the necessity for knowing this skill as my health slid downhill literally overnight.
One day I awakened able to come and go, drive all over town, help friends and neighbors, buy groceries and outwork most people ten years my juniors. The next, I sat up in bed and could barely stand without falling flat on my face. I heard of a virus making the rounds in town and figured my turn to bow to it had arrived. A couple of days later when my daughter and I both ended up in the hospital spilling our guts, that confirmed my worst fears.
Hospital Living and Escaping
We spent three wretched days in the tender care of nurses on beds definitely not made by Serta, fed with intravenous tubes, which were eventually replaced with tasteless clear liquids. The final moments of our stay we graduated to fabulous chef’s delights. Mine consisted of (and I have no idea whose grand idea this could possibly have been) spaghetti, meat sauce, garlic bread with a side of garden salad loaded with Italian dressing, also loaded with garlic. I ate about two bites of each and struggled to hold my mouth closed until my brother got me to the car. At that point, I could hold it no longer. We were free of the hospital and that was all I asked.
How to Fight With Your Doctor Begins
Jaimie, my daughter, recovered immediately. I did not. The exhaustion that preceded the virus lingered. A return visit to the doctor, an LP (Licensed Practitioner) brought me the anything but reassuring diagnosis of ‘at my age exhaustion was to be expected’. My regular doctor retired a short time prior and the LP took over. Unfamiliar with me, I thought she might have been more cautious. Instead, she proved the opposite. Chapter One of how to fight with your doctor almost wrote itself at that point.
When the Champion Turns on You
I spoke to my gastrologist, too, since one sign I often have with a bleeding ulcer is excessive exhaustion. Normally, he is my champion, who listens and will test to see if there is something extraordinary causing the problem. This time, due to the virus, he stopped with the virus and my age and went no further. A week and a half after leaving the hospital, with exhaustion getting worse instead of better, and no one listening, I was at my wits’ end.
The Situation Gets Serious
Weeks before, I signed up to help at a local charity event on Saturday and refused to be a no-show. My daughter and I went, even though I felt as though my feet dragged cement shoes. We worked until forty-five minutes before the end and I had the choice of leaving or being carried out.
The next morning we headed to Sunday School. By the time I dropped Jaimie at her class and got to mine, I knew things were serious. I begged a friend to get me home, promising a return ride with my brother. My Sunday School teacher wrote down the name of her doctor and stuck it in my hand. The next two days I did not leave the bed.
Dr. Law Saves the Day
Dr. Law, the doctor recommended by my teacher, turned out to be a patient person, who took time to truly listen. He put me through a number of tests, tests no one else even considered. I received a call the day after seeing him, asking me to return to have the blood tests redone. Potassium levels seemed far too high. I returned. Once again, I received a call. The second test confirmed the first and he called in medication to lower the potassium. In addition, he made a new appointment within four days to ensure the medication reacted as needed.
Had I continued with high potassium and being ignored by doctors as it ‘being just my age’, I could have damaged my kidneys and very easily have died.
Your Life Is Worth Fighting For
Do not give in to your doctor. They do NOT always know your body better than you do. You live with your body every day. They see you for five or ten minutes. Do not let them bully you into thinking they know more about your body than you do. A pill is not always the answer. Sometimes, they need more tests and they need to listen.