comunication problems with dr's
Posted: Sat Oct 06, 2012 3:31 am
Hello everyone.
This is my first post on any MS related forum and I'm hopefull of getting some sort of idea how to cope with what seems to be a serious issue getting in the way of my diagnosis.
My dr. and the very few other dr's i have seen about my issues seem to not understand a very important part of what i keep telling them and would like to know if others have had similar issues and what they did to overcome this.
Perhaps a short speil on what happened will aid in this.
13 months ago while at a meeting i tried to sign a piece of paper after having sat still for a good 20 to 30 minutes. when i did this i could not use my left arm at all. Thankfully i am right handed so i signed and went to stand up assuming that my arm was simply asleep. When i stood i stumbled catching myself with right hand on the chair and supporting my weight on the right leg. I managed to make it to the hospital which was about a city block in distance away. They were very quick to assume massive stroke as to how sudden and disabling this was.
Upon CAT scans they discovered nothing in the slightest.
Being that i live in a small town they sent me to the nearest hospital with MRI. At this point they were able to observe a few cold spots in the mri. a neurologist came to see and did a series of tests then told me its likely to a rather severe first exasberation of MS.
over the period of about 2 months i regained movement and strength in that side but not entirely.
proceeding on, months later my dr's seem to have this insistence that im reporting the symptoms entirely gone and then returning with stress. While this simply is not what im trying to tell them and it has resulted in both there impresions and recordings of what they have felt im telling them.
The problem is that i keep trying to tell them these symptoms have never gone away. they have simply lessened and that when im unable to eat properly for several days or even eat at all (financially) or, extremely tired due to insomnia (which has troubled me since early childhood) &, stressed out due to loosing my job and my wife having our costs on her shoulders these symptoms become impossible to cope with and become very difficult to deal with.
End result here being i realised that the dr is telling me insistently that stress does not cause the symptoms in ms to come on. While im not at all claiming that that is what is happening but that i get unable to focus enough to cope with them and my symptoms become visibly noticable where as i am typically able to mask and get on without people starring.
So im at a loss as to how to approach my dr and dont even feel theres a point in trying to communicate this with him. I am pretty convinced this is interfering with my getting a proper diagnosis and then help for whatever this has been caused by.
This is my first post on any MS related forum and I'm hopefull of getting some sort of idea how to cope with what seems to be a serious issue getting in the way of my diagnosis.
My dr. and the very few other dr's i have seen about my issues seem to not understand a very important part of what i keep telling them and would like to know if others have had similar issues and what they did to overcome this.
Perhaps a short speil on what happened will aid in this.
13 months ago while at a meeting i tried to sign a piece of paper after having sat still for a good 20 to 30 minutes. when i did this i could not use my left arm at all. Thankfully i am right handed so i signed and went to stand up assuming that my arm was simply asleep. When i stood i stumbled catching myself with right hand on the chair and supporting my weight on the right leg. I managed to make it to the hospital which was about a city block in distance away. They were very quick to assume massive stroke as to how sudden and disabling this was.
Upon CAT scans they discovered nothing in the slightest.
Being that i live in a small town they sent me to the nearest hospital with MRI. At this point they were able to observe a few cold spots in the mri. a neurologist came to see and did a series of tests then told me its likely to a rather severe first exasberation of MS.
over the period of about 2 months i regained movement and strength in that side but not entirely.
proceeding on, months later my dr's seem to have this insistence that im reporting the symptoms entirely gone and then returning with stress. While this simply is not what im trying to tell them and it has resulted in both there impresions and recordings of what they have felt im telling them.
The problem is that i keep trying to tell them these symptoms have never gone away. they have simply lessened and that when im unable to eat properly for several days or even eat at all (financially) or, extremely tired due to insomnia (which has troubled me since early childhood) &, stressed out due to loosing my job and my wife having our costs on her shoulders these symptoms become impossible to cope with and become very difficult to deal with.
End result here being i realised that the dr is telling me insistently that stress does not cause the symptoms in ms to come on. While im not at all claiming that that is what is happening but that i get unable to focus enough to cope with them and my symptoms become visibly noticable where as i am typically able to mask and get on without people starring.
So im at a loss as to how to approach my dr and dont even feel theres a point in trying to communicate this with him. I am pretty convinced this is interfering with my getting a proper diagnosis and then help for whatever this has been caused by.