Why is it hard to go to the doctor?

[lauraw4321]

I've been having some annoying, but not life-altering symptoms for several months now. My DH and best friend have hounded me about going to the doctor. I did. It was fine. He ran some labs and wants some other tests done. I feel like I annoyed him, like he disbelieves me or like he thinks I'm silly. Do I have any actual evidence of this? No. But yet I still feel that "vibe" as my kids would say.

Which is just a reminder of how much I freaking hate going to the doctor.

Is this just a thing with getting old? Does anyone else deal with this?

[PeterPan]

How old are you?? 😂 

I had a specialist who I think just found me boring. Some docs are just jerks. My current doctor, whom I like quite a bit btw, used to kind of do the don't worry so fast thing. He just needed to get to know me for a while. He eventually figured out I *underreport* on things, so he's a bit more assertive. 

Maybe you haven't gone enough to build relationship? Maybe look for another one? If you find someone else you find more comfortable to work with, that wouldn't be a bad change. It's just super hard to find a doctor sometimes, sigh. 

[Katy]

It’s not to do with getting old. It’s sexism. There have been studies on it. It happened to me when I was sick in my 20’s. Doctors love to help people with quick, acute issues. Need an antibiotic or a surgery? They’ve got you. Have a low key chronic symptom that could be dangerous but won’t be fast to diagnose or treat? That’s hard, involves skill, and is irritating to treat. They generally treat men with similar complaints more seriously because they tend to ignore their bodies. 
 

I had a relative repeatedly go to the doctor about weight gain around her midsection despite dieting and weight loss. The doctor dismissed her for two years. When she finally got diagnosed, it was end stage ovarian cancer. When her husband went in for something way less specific? Instantly taken seriously and given round after round of tests until they had a full diagnosis 2 weeks later. I wish I could say this was a singular occurrence, but it happens a lot. 

I also heard of a woman who went to multiple doctors about vague but potentially serious symptoms, including rapid weight gain. They blamed her weight. She went on a protein shake diet and lost something like 80 pounds. She went back to the doctor. The doctor smiled and said, “didn’t all your symptoms go away?” No. None of them had. It turned out she had a brain tumor. She was ignored because she was a female, and the location of the tumor is probably what caused the weight gain in the first place. 

[Katy]

I will say doctors DO listen more when they’ve known you for years and even more if they know your whole family. 

[scholastica]

It could be that you are female and over forty. If you are not very fit, that plays into it, too. There’s a nifty saying: female, fat and over forty. They are very dismissive of people with that profile. 

Edited June 17 by scholastica

[lauraw4321]

I'm 42...erm 43. 

I don't think he's actually thinking those things? Maybe he is? He's new - replaced my family practice doctor who had been treating me since I was born (and treated my mother and grandmother and grandfather- his father also treated them, starting in the 1950s).

I think I'm boring and that there's probably not anything actually wrong. It's all probably just perimenopause, aging, but my DH and best friend INSISTED I go. So I did. And I just wanted to apologize for taking up his time the entire time.  

[prairiewindmomma]

Think of how much he is going to bill you, and reassess. You are paying a serious hourly rate for a visit. He’s not doing this out of goodwill, for free. If he has poor people skills, that’s on him. Don’t feel like you need to apologize for wasting his time. No guy is going to feel the same way for “wasting your time” when he shows up in your office, iykwim.

[marbel]

I've had mixed experience. Some doctors are great, some are not. In general I prefer younger doctors who aren't tired and full of outdated information. 

But now, all the doctors I see are female. Well, that's just 3: primary care, gyn, and one specialist I see yearly. They are great listeners and don't just blow me off, ever. 

One of my best medical experiences was with a faculty practice at a local hospital. I'd see the teaching doc and a resident. Awesome experience and care. If such is available to you, you might check it out. 

[KSera]

I’ve had better experiences overall with Nurse Practitioners for my primary care rather than doctors. They spend a lot more time and the ones I’ve had seem to do a lot more connecting of different symptoms and wanting to get to the bottom of things.

If you’re still not feeling good, don’t dismiss everything as just being age or perimenopause, even if your tests come back normal. You may need to see someone else with more curiosity. Even if it were perimenopause related, if it’s making you feel crappy, you deserve to have someone help you with symptom relief. People I’ve seen for that don’t think that women should just live with feeling awful. I have no idea what symptoms you’re experiencing, but it’s also worth reading through a list of post Covid sequelae to see if anything there is a fit .

[SKL]

I've never liked going to the doctor.  I think it's family culture ... my dad was raised in the Christian Science faith which basically doesn't believe in doctors, and my mom was raised in a Jehova's Witness family which believed doctors do things they don't need to do (particularly relating to blood).  Besides, we were poor and my folks both worked.  There wasn't time or money for doctors unless someone had a fairly serious issue that couldn't be handled at home.

And in my experience, service has gotten much worse and costs much higher.  Basically you wait at least an hour to have a doctor or nurse maybe look at you for 1 minute and then you get a bill for over a thousand dollars each time.  And usually they tell you there's nothing wrong with you, but may recommend additional expensive tests and various shots you don't want to get.  Honestly I don't think I've ever had a doctor give me any kind of diagnosis (excluding strep throat in elementary school), and I'm 57 years old!  It makes me feel stupid for making the appointment.  (I'm not a sick person, but I have had stuff over the years ... probably went to a doctor once every 5+ years ... but it always turns out that my "stuff" is nothing.)  Even with my kids, they usually take my money in exchange for a vacant look, "I don't know what it is" and sometimes "you could try this cream / antibiotic in case it's something."

I mean, yay for good health, seriously.  But that's why I avoid doctor visits.

I am on a 5-year plan for colonoscopies due to family history, and I put myself on a 4-year plan for mammograms.  I've been able to schedule these without needing to talk to anyone other than the individuals actually providing these services, so far.  I'm not saying I'll never go to the doctor, but I think I'll just follow my FOO's decision method.  😛

But if anyone knows of a health provider that actually spends more than 3 minutes on you & doesn't have 100% turnover between doctor visits, let me know.

[Bambam]

Years ago -in my twenties - both my DH and I were sick. Same symptoms - very probable the exact same thing. We had the same PCP. His appointment was AM, he got prescriptions, take a couple days off work and rest, etc. I went that afternoon. I was told to suck it up and go back to work. I NEVER went to that doctor again. Idiot. 

We've had our current doctor (female) for about 8 years. She listens. Our whole family goes to see her, and she lives in our neighborhood.  I'm thankful for her especially after I ended up in the ER with what felt like something compressing my entire rib cage and they kept trying to send me home because I wasn't having a heart attack and it wasn't acid reflux. My PCP came in, said that she was pretty sure it was gall bladder. It was, and they took it out. Surgeon said it was very angry and I was lucky to get it out. This, coupled with another experience at an ER, makes me think they are only for things like gunshots, missing limbs, heart attacks, and strokes. They do not seem to be very good at diagnosing anything else. But maybe that is just my fairly small town hospital. 

[Ausmumof3]

1 hour ago, lauraw4321 said:

I've been having some annoying, but not life-altering symptoms for several months now. My DH and best friend have hounded me about going to the doctor. I did. It was fine. He ran some labs and wants some other tests done. I feel like I annoyed him, like he disbelieves me or like he thinks I'm silly. Do I have any actual evidence of this? No. But yet I still feel that "vibe" as my kids would say.

Which is just a reminder of how much I freaking hate going to the doctor.

Is this just a thing with getting old? Does anyone else deal with this?

I basically don’t go unless it’s life threatening. I obviously give off hypochondriac vibes because I get treated like this every time. It would take them two seconds to look at my file and see how rarely I go to know that I’m not a hypochondriac but they don’t. I take my kids if they’re truly sick though and put up with it. 

[PeterPan]

1 hour ago, lauraw4321 said:

And I just wanted to apologize for taking up his time the entire time.  

He sounds like a jerk. I'd start looking for a new doc and move on once you find him/her. 

You shouldn't be stuck with someone who is not a good fit. He should have been TRYING to build relationship and wasn't.

[PeterPan]

1 hour ago, lauraw4321 said:

my DH and best friend INSISTED I go. So I did

Btw, what in the world are your family seeing?? I sure hope you go find a better doctor, one who actually listens. I'd be scared to death that the doc missed something important because he was giving you the blow off.

He ran labs, right? Can we ask what your family is seeing that worried them? Do the labs actually ADDRESS what they were concerned about? If the labs uncover something, will the treatment alleviate what your family/friends are seeing? 

I do think it's fair to say maybe you don't feel well so you're kind of interpreting the doc through an edgy lens. That would be fine. I'd still start shopping around, because some docs just have BETTER BEDSIDE MANNERS than others. You can definitely do better and deserve better.

[Clarita]

Half the time I'm already annoyed before I go see the doctor. It's hard to get appointments (especially urgent ones). I do what I'm suppose to and talk to the nurse hotline about my issues to have them access whether I need to get the appointment. The process is already dismissive at this point. 

The incident that demonstrates this was when I got mastitis breastfeeding. I'm telling the nurse hotline it's itchy, red, milk tastes funny, baby not drinking from that side any more, and it's painful. For 3 weeks I got do some compresses, get on all fours, etc. When I got an appointment with an OB, the OB asks why I didn't come in sooner... Well I've been calling for 3 weeks but no one thinks what I reported was important enough to get me an appointment time.  

[lauraw4321]

5 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Btw, what in the world are your family seeing?? I sure hope you go find a better doctor, one who actually listens. I'd be scared to death that the doc missed something important because he was giving you the blow off.

He ran labs, right? Can we ask what your family is seeing that worried them? Do the labs actually ADDRESS what they were concerned about? If the labs uncover something, will the treatment alleviate what your family/friends are seeing? 

I do think it's fair to say maybe you don't feel well so you're kind of interpreting the doc through an edgy lens. That would be fine. I'd still start shopping around, because some docs just have BETTER BEDSIDE MANNERS than others. You can definitely do better and deserve better.

My symptoms have been weird stomach stuff (nausea/ vomiting / diarrhea) and ridiculous fatigue. Like I could sleep any time of any day. Have trouble getting up in the morning. Nap on the weekends. 
 

The stomach stuff I thought was Mounjaro but I’ve been off for 6 weeks. 
 

The stomach stuff has been happening for at least 6 months. 
 

He’s running basic labs and ordered an x ray to make sure I’m not full of poop. 🤣

[lauraw4321]

1 minute ago, Clarita said:

Half the time I'm already annoyed before I go see the doctor. It's hard to get appointments (especially urgent ones). I do what I'm suppose to and talk to the nurse hotline about my issues to have them access whether I need to get the appointment. The process is already dismissive at this point. 

The incident that demonstrates this was when I got mastitis breastfeeding. I'm telling the nurse hotline it's itchy, red, milk tastes funny, baby not drinking from that side any more, and it's painful. For 3 weeks I got do some compresses, get on all fours, etc. When I got an appointment with an OB, the OB asks why I didn't come in sooner... Well I've been calling for 3 weeks but no one thinks what I reported was important enough to get me an appointment time.  

I had a nearly identical issue except it was a “retained sponge” (I.e. doc left gauze in me after delivery) after birth. I couldn’t get an appointment until I told them I had pulled something undefinable out from myself. 🤦‍♀️

OB asked why I hadn’t come in earlier. I said nurse said to do sits bath and said that the pain was expected .. I had stitches after all. 

[teachermom2834]

I finally went to a family doc for a checkup after not having been to a doc in like 8 years or so. Not since having babies and I don’t know that I’d ever seen a regular family doctor. I just felt like I was getting older and regular checkups just seemed to be something people did and insurance covered etc. How else do people find out they have high cholesterol or prediabetes or whatever other issues middle age people talk about?

Anyways I had a lot of anxiety about it but I finally made an appointment for a wellness visit (I was maybe 45 yo). It was fine but everyone did act like “why are you here?” I did ask a nurse and the doc at different points “aren’t checkups a thing people do? I thought it was a thing?” They were all like oh yeah it’s a thing.

It was just weird. I don’t know. They make it all hard. They expect the patient to know what tests they want and what medications they want etc. I haven’t really figured out how to access preventative care properly. 

[kbutton]

2 hours ago, scholastica said:

It could be that you are female and over forty. If you are not very fit, that plays into it, too. There’s a nifty saying: female, fat and over forty. They are very dismissive of people with that profile. 

They are frequently dismissive, but IIRC that nifty saying is about a high risk population for gall bladder issues.

It irks me that people of goodwill are expected to form a relationship with a practitioner to get good care. I don’t need to form a relationship with a mechanic to get good service for my car.

I have had dismissive doctors of both sexes. Some of the worst, including for my male teenager(!), have been women, though some of the best have been women too (his hematologist is extraordinary). I can’t blame that on sexism, though I am sure it exists.

I follow some evidence-based FB pages about blood clots. The stories are harrowing and chilling. Age and gender don’t seem to matter—so many stories are full of people being dismissed. It’s frustrating.

My husband who is a HCW thinks that practitioners in general don’t like patients who are in touch with their bodies.

[Kassia]

11 minutes ago, lauraw4321 said:

My symptoms have been weird stomach stuff (nausea/ vomiting / diarrhea) and ridiculous fatigue. Like I could sleep any time of any day. Have trouble getting up in the morning. Nap on the weekends. 
 

The stomach stuff I thought was Mounjaro but I’ve been off for 6 weeks. 
 

The stomach stuff has been happening for at least 6 months. 
 

He’s running basic labs and ordered an x ray to make sure I’m not full of poop. 🤣

I hope they figure out what is going on.  That sounds miserable.

I've had really terrible experiences with doctors and hate going.  Such a waste of time and money most of the time.  

[PeterPan]

31 minutes ago, lauraw4321 said:

He’s running basic labs and ordered an x ray to make sure I’m not full of poop. 🤣

Please make sure you follow up on this immediately. He's not just looking for poop.

[crazyforlatin]

1 hour ago, KSera said:

I’ve had better experiences overall with Nurse Practitioners for my primary care rather than doctors. They spend a lot more time and the ones I’ve had seem to do a lot more connecting of different symptoms and wanting to get to the bottom of things.

If you’re still not feeling good, don’t dismiss everything as just being age or perimenopause, even if your tests come back normal. You may need to see someone else with more curiosity. Even if it were perimenopause related, if it’s making you feel crappy, you deserve to have someone help you with symptom relief. People I’ve seen for that don’t think that women should just live with feeling awful. I have no idea what symptoms you’re experiencing, but it’s also worth reading through a list of post Covid sequelae to see if anything there is a fit .

I’ve had 2 good experiences with NP that now if given a choice I would rather see an NP first. I also prefer DO as well. And I find female medical professionals more approachable and open minded. 

[kbutton]

3 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Please make sure you follow up on this immediately. He's not just looking for poop.

I agree, but if he’s saying it is, this is one of my pet peeves with doctors—they downplay stuff and then wonder why people don’t follow up on testing and such.

DH sees this quite a bit along with an unwillingness to pass along bad news—instead of telling a person that they likely have xyz, they tell them to follow up with a specialist, risking the person not getting care at all!!! Burns him up. 

[almondbutterandjelly]

I love my doctor. Female, and a D.O. instead of MD. She is freaking amazing. She will talk with me for a good 20 minutes about my stuff. She cares. She answers email messages in the health chart app. I am an established patient and can get in within the week if it’s important. Love her. Good doctors are out there.

[Eos]

I agree with others - time to change your practitioner.  What he's offering isn't health care as folks here see it. Even if he's begun tests, you can go ahead and look for someone else and bring your results and history with you. 

[PeterPan]

30 minutes ago, Eos said:

I agree with others - time to change your practitioner.  What he's offering isn't health care as folks here see it. Even if he's begun tests, you can go ahead and look for someone else and bring your results and history with you. 

Ok, I'm gonna defend him for one sec, even though I agree it would be reasonable to start shopping. She's let some unfortunate symptoms go a while, and he may know what is going on and not like what he's seeing. I know someone who *died* from letting symptoms go this way and it was the same thing (busy mom). So if I were a doc and I saw that and that someone had delayed coming in, I might put up some walls too. 

So the MOST IMPORTANT thing is not to fail to take care of yourself at this point. Get the tests, follow up on every lab, make sure everything is happening, and make sure you find out completely what is going on. The doc can be a bit prickly and still get you what you need. At this point that is the most important thing. 

[SKL]

2 hours ago, PeterPan said:

I'd still start shopping around

What does this even mean?

[KSera]

3 hours ago, SKL said:

But if anyone knows of a health provider that actually spends more than 3 minutes on you & doesn't have 100% turnover between doctor visits, let me know.

This thread is making me feel luckier all the time about my health care providers. Even the ones I’ve been least fond of have spent more time than what people are saying. My nurse practitioner regularly spends an hour with me. Even my specialist MD spends 30-45 minutes when I’m just there for a routine yearly check in. But maybe try a nurse practitioner? 
 

2 hours ago, lauraw4321 said:

My symptoms have been weird stomach stuff (nausea/ vomiting / diarrhea) and ridiculous fatigue. Like I could sleep any time of any day. Have trouble getting up in the morning. Nap on the weekends. 
 

Your symptoms sound like any number  of things could be behind them and I hope they find something with a simple solution. If they don’t come up with anything, I’d personally (not medical advice) be tempted to treat the GI symptoms as a post viral complication and see if it improves at all, since there are actually some easy things that work for that. In particular, an H1 blocker (allegra, Claritin or Zyrtec) along with an H2 blocker (Pepcid/fomotadine) tend to really reduce post Covid chronic GI symptoms. If that helps, you might have a partial diagnosis. 

 

But of course, first you want to see if your doctor’s testing comes back with anything.

[PeterPan]

46 minutes ago, SKL said:

What does this even mean?

You can ask for names but sometimes the docs are not taking patients. It can take a while to find one.

[wintermom]

3 hours ago, lauraw4321 said:

My symptoms have been weird stomach stuff (nausea/ vomiting / diarrhea) and ridiculous fatigue. Like I could sleep any time of any day. Have trouble getting up in the morning. Nap on the weekends. 
 

The stomach stuff I thought was Mounjaro but I’ve been off for 6 weeks. 
 

The stomach stuff has been happening for at least 6 months. 
 

He’s running basic labs and ordered an x ray to make sure I’m not full of poop. 🤣

Sounds like the doctor is taking this seriously, by ordering the appropriate blookwork and x-ray to find out what might be happening. Without it, he is likely blind guessing. Once he gets the bloodwork and x-ray, he will know more about what it is or isn't. Then he can take the next logical steps. 

Sometimes, despite the doctor going through many diagnostic procedures, it is still really challenging to find the root cause of the symptoms. For my multitute of symptoms over a span of about 4 years, I finally discovered that it was all due to allergies. But it took that long to rule out all the other stuff, and I aged right out of peri-menopause, which probably reduced many of those symptoms.

ETA: If you prefer a lot more "hand-holding" and different kinds of testing and treatments, then you may want to try alternative medicine options, like homeopathy, naturopathy, etc. Some people really love these routes. They can be very costly, however. 

Edited June 18 by wintermom

[Jaybee]

As to your title question, I've been trying to figure this out for myself, and find it to be a bit multi-pronged, including:  Part of it is shame-based and feelings of failure--type 2 diabetes, weight, high blood pressure, and anything that is a result of those. Part of it is financial--we have great insurance, but do have a high deductible. Part of it is fear/anxiety--are they going to find another something/put me on another medication? And related to that last one, is this going to cascade into more and more appointments?

As I age, things I can't control are becoming more prevalent (although I have lost a good bit of weight and am eating really healthily, so my last visit I wasn't as anxious). For example, I recently went to a podiatrist to see about removing what I thought was a planters wart within a callous, only to find out that isn't what it was. He said that sometimes hypothyroidism eventually causes some problems with bones in the feet, and that the bone in the wrong position was causing a deep callous all the way to the bone (simplified explanation). So now I have to go periodically to the podiatrist to have the callous worked on, and also have to take all my shoes to have him put in a pad that lifts part of my foot to relieve the pressure. And I have to buy more expensive shoes. My dentist is eventually going to have to replace some old fillings. My eye doctor saw the very beginnings of cataracts at my last visit. It's depressing, and I'm in pretty good health for my age.

 

[lauraw4321]

I went on a crazy health odyssey just after covid due to a really weird symptom - one of my pupils will randomly change shape and dilation. This is obviously concerning and can mean something bad. But I had to go to (literally) 4 different doctors / specialists and have multiple tests done (MRI, CT). All of which basically ruled out anything concerning (MS, stroke, brain lesion) and I was left with a diagnosis of :::shrug:::. 

The whole thing was really uncomfortable for me. Like going to the optho-neurologist (at my friend's insistence).  She told me that I really needed an MRI. Well, I go to see the optho-neurologist. Wait for several hours, talk with him for 2 seconds and he says he's going to release me. I say, relieved "oh, so I don't need an MRI, then?!"

He looked appalled and said "You haven't had an MRI?!? Of course you need one! I'm ordering it now. You'll have to come back after." (That was another 2 week odyssey).

And I am grateful that there was nothing seriously wrong and that I have access to that level of healthcare. But it was like banging my head on the wall. Repeating the same story over and over. Neurology saying one thing. Ophthalmology another. Each doctor discovering some other weird rabbit trail that they wanted to explore (your ocular pressure is extremely high - we need to check for glaucoma - oh wait, you just have ridiculously thick corneas; your liver enzymes are a bit off, you need to see a gastroenterologist).  And all of these leading to... everything's fine.

That's where I feel like this is heading. 

I got my bloodwork. I'm showering and heading to get the xray.

[KSera]

1 hour ago, lauraw4321 said:

I went on a crazy health odyssey just after covid due to a really weird symptom - one of my pupils will randomly change shape and dilation. This is obviously concerning and can mean something bad. But I had to go to (literally) 4 different doctors / specialists and have multiple tests done (MRI, CT). All of which basically ruled out anything concerning (MS, stroke, brain lesion) and I was left with a diagnosis of :::shrug:::. 

The whole thing was really uncomfortable for me. Like going to the optho-neurologist (at my friend's insistence).  She told me that I really needed an MRI. Well, I go to see the optho-neurologist. Wait for several hours, talk with him for 2 seconds and he says he's going to release me. I say, relieved "oh, so I don't need an MRI, then?!"

He looked appalled and said "You haven't had an MRI?!? Of course you need one! I'm ordering it now. You'll have to come back after." (That was another 2 week odyssey).

And I am grateful that there was nothing seriously wrong and that I have access to that level of healthcare. But it was like banging my head on the wall. Repeating the same story over and over. Neurology saying one thing. Ophthalmology another. Each doctor discovering some other weird rabbit trail that they wanted to explore (your ocular pressure is extremely high - we need to check for glaucoma - oh wait, you just have ridiculously thick corneas; your liver enzymes are a bit off, you need to see a gastroenterologist).  And all of these leading to... everything's fine.

That's where I feel like this is heading. 

I got my bloodwork. I'm showering and heading to get the xray.

Did your eye issues resolve or are you saying you still have this? Any headaches? That does sound super frustrating what you went through with that. 
 

Are your liver enzymes still off? It sounds like no one is looking at the big picture of all the different things together. Best wishes with the X-ray today. I’m still hoping for you to get a clear answer with an easy cure. 

[TechWife]

I hate going to the doctor. They either act like I’m complaining about nothing of consequence or that I’ve waited way too long and should have come in much earlier. And I should never have symptoms or a constellation of symptoms that they’ve never heard of because I’m obviously making stuff up. 

[lauraw4321]

49 minutes ago, KSera said:

Did your eye issues resolve or are you saying you still have this? Any headaches? That does sound super frustrating what you went through with that. 
 

Are your liver enzymes still off? It sounds like no one is looking at the big picture of all the different things together. Best wishes with the X-ray today. I’m still hoping for you to get a clear answer with an easy cure. 

Eye issue still happens every now and then, but less frequently. No headaches. 

Liver enzymes are fine now. I happened to be gaining a lot of weight at the time and had given myself NAFLD. I have since lost weight and my enzymes are all perfect.

Got bloodwork results - thyroid is fine but B12 is continuing to fall, so going back to injections.

Got the Xray and should have results Thursday, they said.

[Harriet Vane]

19 hours ago, scholastica said:

It could be that you are female and over forty. If you are not very fit, that plays into it, too. There’s a nifty saying: female, fat and over forty. They are very dismissive of people with that profile. 

Yup.

[PeterPan]

3 hours ago, lauraw4321 said:

I went on a crazy health odyssey just after covid due to a really weird sympto

Do you think your current symptoms with your gut are connected to your covid?

I agree it's possible to get on a long rabbit trail chasing down every horrific cause of something that turns out to be Another Funky Side Effect of Covid, sigh. 

[prairiewindmomma]

18 hours ago, lauraw4321 said:

My symptoms have been weird stomach stuff (nausea/ vomiting / diarrhea) and ridiculous fatigue. Like I could sleep any time of any day. Have trouble getting up in the morning. Nap on the weekends. 
 

The stomach stuff I thought was Mounjaro but I’ve been off for 6 weeks. 
 

The stomach stuff has been happening for at least 6 months. 
 

He’s running basic labs and ordered an x ray to make sure I’m not full of poop. 🤣

Get a colonoscopy too.  Everyone can get them now at 45, but 40+ with a family history of breast cancer + unexplained personal diarrhea = insurance should cover it. 

[PeterPan]

1 hour ago, lauraw4321 said:

B12 is continuing to fall, so going back to injections.

Could they put you on a more targeted sublingual form? If the injects are a methylb12, you could get that as a sublingual to try. 

B12 is necessary for iron absorption. Did they check that and your mch? Iron definitely affects energy. And why does the b12 keep dropping? My ds' runs low, so he has to take it.

[elegantlion]

I hate going to the doctor. Where I used to live, I found a doctor who understood the long-term side effects of my radiation tx and treated accordingly - like allowing me to come in for a once a year visit to prescribe thyroid meds because radiation damages the thyroid. Then he retired! The next doctor wanted me to come in every 3 months, then actually wrote in his notes that I was "ambivalent about my chronic conditions" because I just wanted to deal with my thyroid meds on one visit and not schedule other things. Being used to weird health quirks because of radiation damage is not ambivalence, it's just life skills. He actually sent me to nearby cancer clinic because my blood work was out of whack - one of my counts is always high because I had my spleen removed. The physician there literally rolled his eyes and said that guy had sent numerous people over there that didn't need to be seen and that my numbers were not concerning unless they were exponentially (like 10x) higher. He also claimed I had a heart murmur and no other doctor has said anything about it or diagnosed me with one. I quit going to him. A few years later I read that he stopped practicing and went back into the educational side of medicine. 

Years later, I've had good experience with an OBGYN who took my 100 day period seriously and didn't give me grief when I wanted a full hysterectomy. The ER doctor who diagnosed my diverticulitis was great, and the urgent care staff and doctor who diagnosed my flu & pneumonia were great too. I'm a grown woman who has bought cars on my own, taken multi-state vacations on my own, advocated for myself in other arenas,  and I still ask SO to go with me because I don't like dealing with primary care doctors. 

I need dental work, my dentist moved out of town. I've procrastinated finding a new one. I should probably do that. 

[lauraw4321]

28 minutes ago, PeterPan said:

Do you think your current symptoms with your gut are connected to your covid?

I agree it's possible to get on a long rabbit trail chasing down every horrific cause of something that turns out to be Another Funky Side Effect of Covid, sigh. 

So, actually, I've never (to my knowledge) had covid.  It was just that the weird eye thing started in 2020, so in my mind it's linked to covid. But that was confusing of me. I should have just said, starting in 2020 I went on a weird health journey.

The gut stuff I think is Mounjaro and still happening because I think it takes longer for it to leave your system than most people think.

The B12 explains the exhaustion, I think.

[PeterPan]

3 minutes ago, lauraw4321 said:

Mounjaro

Were you on this and now you're off?

When you google it, pancreatitis is popping up as a nasty side effect and that it can be significant, needing follow up. 😞

[PeterPan]

7 minutes ago, lauraw4321 said:

The B12 explains the exhaustion, I think.

I wouldn't accept it as the sole explanation, not with the complexity of your symptoms. 

Any leads on new doctors? I know it's not fun to think about, but it's easy to make the new appointment and CANCEL than to go another month or two and wish you had someone new.

[KSera]

2 hours ago, lauraw4321 said:

Liver enzymes are fine now. I happened to be gaining a lot of weight at the time and had given myself NAFLD. I have since lost weight and my enzymes are all perfect.

 

I was going to say that elevated liver enzymes and new onset fatty liver disease are common findings post Covid, but then you just said that it started in 2020 and you don’t know that you actually had it then. Although it’s not unlikely that you may have, whether symptomatic or not. Just throwing out there that both the liver issues and even the thing with your pupils are things that can be Covid-related. (There  are a bunch of threads like this on the long haulers subreddit 

 

2 hours ago, lauraw4321 said:

 

[wintermom]

4 hours ago, lauraw4321 said:

I went on a crazy health odyssey just after covid due to a really weird symptom - one of my pupils will randomly change shape and dilation. This is obviously concerning and can mean something bad. But I had to go to (literally) 4 different doctors / specialists and have multiple tests done (MRI, CT). All of which basically ruled out anything concerning (MS, stroke, brain lesion) and I was left with a diagnosis of :::shrug:::. 

The whole thing was really uncomfortable for me. Like going to the optho-neurologist (at my friend's insistence).  She told me that I really needed an MRI. Well, I go to see the optho-neurologist. Wait for several hours, talk with him for 2 seconds and he says he's going to release me. I say, relieved "oh, so I don't need an MRI, then?!"

He looked appalled and said "You haven't had an MRI?!? Of course you need one! I'm ordering it now. You'll have to come back after." (That was another 2 week odyssey).

And I am grateful that there was nothing seriously wrong and that I have access to that level of healthcare. But it was like banging my head on the wall. Repeating the same story over and over. Neurology saying one thing. Ophthalmology another. Each doctor discovering some other weird rabbit trail that they wanted to explore (your ocular pressure is extremely high - we need to check for glaucoma - oh wait, you just have ridiculously thick corneas; your liver enzymes are a bit off, you need to see a gastroenterologist).  And all of these leading to... everything's fine.

That's where I feel like this is heading. 

I got my bloodwork. I'm showering and heading to get the xray.

I read this without any of the emotions and frustrations you likely experienced. It looks like each health care provider did ultimately complete the diagnostic tools at their disposal, and tried their best to come up with a reason - or at least rule out a lot of things. I does seem (but it could be just missing info) that there was not collaboration among specialists to work together as a team. When specialists work within their own silo, they may miss things from other areas and dismiss them as "not fitting into the box" of what they expect to see or "not bad enough to be a red flag." 

It's frustrating as patients without the deep knowledge to even know how to advocate for ourselves as strongly as we'd like to. Is there some kind of medical centre near you that provides inter-disciplinary consulting services? That would be what I'd do if I had a bunch of concerning symptoms that haven't been explained fully by one specialist. 

[lauraw4321]

1 hour ago, PeterPan said:

Were you on this and now you're off?

When you google it, pancreatitis is popping up as a nasty side effect and that it can be significant, needing follow up. 😞

Correct. And I have no signs of pancreatitis. I don’t have pain. My liver enzymes are normal. 

[prairiewindmomma]

FWIW, on the random nausea/diarrhea/fatigue front while you wait for other stuff to sort out, try taking antihistamines and see if it helps. Zyrtec (cetirizine) + Pepcid AC (famotidine) can solve that for some people. High histamine and mast cell levels make me crazy sleepy and mess up my gut like crazy.   You'll know in a few days if it works or not.  You want to take both at the same time to block your H1 and H2 receptors.

 

[wintermom]

3 hours ago, lauraw4321 said:

So, actually, I've never (to my knowledge) had covid.  It was just that the weird eye thing started in 2020, so in my mind it's linked to covid. But that was confusing of me. I should have just said, starting in 2020 I went on a weird health journey.

The gut stuff I think is Mounjaro and still happening because I think it takes longer for it to leave your system than most people think.

The B12 explains the exhaustion, I think.

I'm not sure I missed something, but what were you taking Mounjaro for? How long were you on it for and what caused you to stop? Is there a T2 diabetes issue involved here? 

[lauraw4321]

8 minutes ago, wintermom said:

I'm not sure I missed something, but what were you taking Mounjaro for? How long were you on it for and what caused you to stop? Is there a T2 diabetes issue involved here? 

Weight loss. No T2D. I started… ~9 months ago to lose enough weight to go to Philmont. It worked. I stopped because I suspected it was causing the gastro issues I was having which I hoped would go away before Philmont. 

[wintermom]

47 minutes ago, lauraw4321 said:

Weight loss. No T2D. I started… ~9 months ago to lose enough weight to go to Philmont. It worked. I stopped because I suspected it was causing the gastro issues I was having which I hoped would go away before Philmont. 

Yes, it does look like common side effects are nausea, stomach pain, and constipation. Do you have any known allergies - not necessarily to meds, but to environmental factors, food, etc.? I would support with the PP stated about trying Pepcid AC and potentially cetirizine. Both are OTC. Allergies can cause so many symptoms that look like other things - at least they do with me. Once I started taking daily cetirizine most of my weird symptoms disappeared. 

Good luck figuring out your health puzzle!