Welcome to another addition to my blog and posts. I’ve decided to add a new blog, “Wait! Say what?” which relate to things that make people, especially myself, scratch their heads. Today’s post is in regards to health issues. We have all (unless you have been very fortunate) encountered some illness at one time in our life or another. Some have occasional sickness while others have a chronic condition. This writing will be about both things, whether they have an easy answer or where no cures can be found…aptly named “health issues”.
We are all aware of the different types of illnesses that people experience. They range from a common cold, to the flu, to the extremes of cancer, heart disease, strokes, lupus, diabetes and so on. But with today’s ingenuity, scientists have been able to come up with some forms of relief for a few of these ailments. Do not get me wrong, I don’t believe serious sicknesses are an ailment; however, I do think they are trying very hard to figure out cures for a lot of the illnesses that plague many. Almost every day you see an advertisement on the television from drug companies recommending their product for chronic conditions like fibromyalgia, diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, chrons disease, and even heart attacks/disease. Yet, at what cost is the average person willing to take some of these prescriptions with all the side effects that the announcer rattles off in a quick manner? I imagine if you are in severe enough pain, one would risk the chances of those effects, just to receive some form of relief.
Now, lets figure out how many of these people have had to endure such pain and illness for quite some time because their doctors, and ones they were referred to, did not have any answers for their condition. Not everyone follows the typical medical rulebook (as I like to call it) to where the physician is able to merely say “Oh you have ___________ and we can treat it this way or here’s another option of treatment.” I personally know of individuals, myself included, who need a new book written for medical practitioners that says on the first line, “Every thing you think you know about medicine, throw it out and LISTEN to the patient.” Granted there are doctors who do listen to their patients, but simply do not have any idea as to what is medically wrong with said person. I much more prefer my doctor to ADMIT that he/she doesn’t know what is causing my illness than to say something like “Oh give it time, you’ll get better” especially if you’ve had this going on for months or even years!
Speaking of said statement above about give it time; I did in fact see a medical doctor who was supposed to be an expert in her field, and one who I had been referred to by my specialist while trying to figure out what in the world I had/ still have experiencing. This woman on the very last day said to me “All people have headaches, I do too”. Not the correct thing for her to say, as my husband (who was at the appointment with me) looked at me and said, “Can I?” I said, “Go right on ahead”. His questions to this doctor were: “hmm, you say everyone including you has headaches, I get that, however, my wife’s is not headaches they are head pains. BUT do you have times where you are unable to speak English or any language. How about the ability to write to where a person can read it and it doesn’t look like a bunch of squiggly lines and you are getting agitated because you are unable to communicate even by the writing?” Her response initially was a no and then she had nothing else to say. What could she say, really? The only other thing she said when she was walking out was “don’t be late next time for your appointment”, to which I stated “we were here on time, you, however were not ready to see us yet as you were with another patient.” I know this as I was standing at the desk when the receptionist called her and told her we were waiting to see her. Now it may sound like I’m coming off as a bitch to some people, and you can think that if you wish. I just simply believe she didn’t know what was going on, and didn’t really care at that point. So as you can probably guess, I did not go back to see this doctor, nor will I. Adding to this fact, I wasn’t there to see here for just my head pains, but some additional other factors which I like to call my personal own amusement rides.
Some of you may ask, “what is the difference in what you call head pain and headaches?” simple, headaches can be taken care of by over the counter meds like Tylenol or any migraine-type medicine (OTC or prescription). Nothing works for my pains. They are there 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, no time off. Not too mention I have had this for years which steadily grew worse. It was to the point at one time in my life that I wanted to remove whatever was sitting in that damn spot in my brain myself. I’ve gotten past that, as I learned a new way of coping with the pain.
Here’s a kicker for everyone out there….it wasn’t until I requested from the neurologists and neuro-opthomologist that I was referred to, which included correspondence to my current neuro that I actually found out what it is that I experience from. Now, I don’t know if my regular neurologist read the part where the neuro-optho reported in the Imaging field portion, but it was there in black and white. Even the emergency room doctors and radiologists didn’t catch it. My condition has a name! The neuro-optho states that she seen on my MRI of brain that was done in 2012, that there was dolichoectasia of the basilar artery, which is on the left side of my brain stem. Now like I said before, numerous radiologists and neurology specialists NEVER noticed this. When you go from having no idea to what causes head pains, seizure, vertigo, tremors, tia’s (mini stroke) to having an answer you feel elated. Especially, when you never had these things before in your life, to all of a sudden BAM it hits you. It is definitely a relief for two reasons: 1- you finally have that elusive answer and 2- you can now let emergency doctors and the like know what you have so they know to look everywhere and not just the big areas.
Let me state something here, I am not wanting to sound like I am putting any medical professional down out there for not catching my condition or sharing with me verbally what was noticed or viewed in the correspondence between the doctors. In fact, my health issue is rare and not many know a lot about it. I had never heard of that word before and when I looked it up, I was able to do a check mark next to every thing I have experienced as well as find out how truly rare it is. Then when you include the brain stem compression woo-hoo you got yourself a personal amusement ride. I take it all in stride and still visit my neurologist on a regular basis, especially since there is no cure. So, as with any health ailment a person may be experiencing and getting no answer, I would recommend asking for copies of reports from all the doctors you have seen including any scans you may have had performed. You are entitled to have these records and maybe, just maybe, the answer will be in there for you or any doctor you are referred.
As we all (or most) know, health issues can creep up at any time they feel. We leave it up to the doctors, specialists, radiologists, and sometimes nurses to help us figure out what the heck is going on in the welfare of our being. The scientists we put forth to them…find a cure for these illnesses so that people can get back to feeling better. That is a lot of pressure put on all of those individuals and companies, yet, that is what they went to school for- to help people. There are times, I imagine, that they too are scratching their own heads in trying to make patients feel better so they can get back to their lives of living again. As patients we also wonder when, how, if, there will ever be answers for what we experience in our health. There is no real answer except be patient. It takes time to figure out how to improve medications and performing fact-finding missions with trials to see which best suits patients. One main thing to remember, is never give up in finding the answer to your health illness question and keep being as positive as you can possibly be, as there will come a day when you will hear the words “I know what it is you have”.
Until that day when you can stop scratching your head for answers on your health, keep living, loving, smiling and be happy!
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