Friday, June 12, 2009

Curious Lymie goes to the Doc

How am I doing? I've been asked this a lot lately so I thought I'd take the time to update.

I am actually doing extremely well. I have been staying up later and sleeping less. I still have moments of pure exhaustion, but usually after one great night of sleep I wake up refreshed. This is something I haven't felt in over a decade.

Even though I am doing wonderfully, there are a few things that are bothering me. First one is hard to explain. I have never been able to explain it, but it's this feeling in my knee. I touch it and it feels like something is under there. It moves all around and feels extremely weird. I have never found the right words to describe it, but others that have felt it just say "wow that's weird." The second is that yesterday, a new mole popped up on my ear. As I am sure you guys are just as OCD as I am about your skin, I check out my skin every day. I am constantly looking for ticks. Ironically just yesterday morning, I was checking out my ears b/c there was a tickle. One of my ticks that I have had was attached to my ears so I am always checking them out.

Well I was teaching a class yesterday when I felt a slight "pain" right on the top of my ear. So of course I touched it. I realized there was a "rough spot" that sort of felt like a tick. So I immediately went to find someone else to take a peek b/c it sort of looked like a tick from my view in the mirror. After work, I drove to my Primary Care Physician (I haven't been to that office since Feb. 07, but I knew that my nurses weren't in at my LLMD's yesterday and that my LLMD had a full client load).

It was in that moment I realized how much I love my LLMD. I spent 30 minutes in the waiting room. I spent another 10 minutes in the patient room (which is actually a really great time for this particular office .. once I fell asleep and two hours later ... I woke up ... I still hadn't been seen yet ... obviously) only to see the physician for a whopping THREE MINUTES! I even timed him as soon as the door opened. He took about a 5 second look at my ear .. and spent the rest of the time typing on his computer.

Oh and get this: So I have this other bump on my leg. I showed him that too (which he looked at for a whopping 5 seconds, but at least he FELT that). He told me (and I hadn't told him about my Lyme Diagnosis yet) ... it looks like a spot where a bug or tick may have bit my skin and maybe I didn't get it out all the way and the skin grew over it leaving a bump. It was at this point that I told him about my OCD about skin checking for moles, bumps and ticks because of my Lyme diagnosis.

As I explain that I am a little OCD about my skin and how I check myself every day and look at my moles every day .. and I know this one wasn't there before .. he blew me off and said, "these things pop up from time to time. Don't worry. Do you need something for anxiety?"

OMG .. I wanted to slap the man. Then he said if I wanted, he would slice it off to call and make an appointment for another time for him to do so. Yeah .. like I want a man who looked at my ear for 5 seconds "slicing" at my ear! I figured out that if I paid 20 bucks for the 3 minutes he was with me .. for a full hour (which is what I get at my LLMD's office) ... I would have paid ... 400 dollars.

So yeah, the mole is a little frustrating. It is very annoying and even somewhat painful and the doctor didn't take me seriously. Just thought I'd share a day in the life of a Lymie going to regular doctor.

7 comments:

Renee said...

I never feel like doctors REALLY listen or TRUST the information we tell them about ourselves.....maybe that is why I have such a hard time trusting them!
YES, go ahead and use the article.
I am glad there is something already written that can be used as I am in major relapse and having to now kill off H-Pylori AND Lyme/Bartonella with drugs that have me hoping to stay afloat.
God bless

Renee

Jennifer said...

Sorry to hear that Renee. Yeah I hate doctors. they make their "decision" before they even walk into the room and it's "that" no matter WHAT they see once they get into the room. He probably saw my "file" and thought "insane lady" ... and didn't even listen to me.

That's okay .. he'll just go into my file of "won't see him again" ... :D

monkey girl said...

Jen,

Since I started treatment I've been getting "bumps" too. I'm guessing it's the lyme starting to cyst up to protect itself. Of course, I can't be sure, but they only started a month into treatment. One is near my wrist and every time I look at it I swear I want to dig it out with a butter knife!

Jennifer said...

Thanks. Yeah bumps drive me nuts. Some come & go and others stay and stay. This is one is just like a mole. I hope that's all it is.

Kara said...

Oh my gosh! I really dislike Primary Care Physicians. None have ever really helped me -- ever. I did have a nice one about 15 years ago in Austin. He was terrific. Other than that, forget it. And after the Lyme popped up they were all jerks saying all I needed was an antidepressant or anti anxiety med. I'm sure I also have "crazy lady" and "non-compliant patient" written in a lot of my charts. Oh, well. Never will see them again anyway. Hope your mole and other bumps heeal up soon. Kinda funny ... my husband had a "funny-looking" mole and clipped it off with the fingernail clippers. It never grew back! What a guy!! Take care. Hugs!

Fliterary said...

Argh. I'm so sorry he didn't take a closer look. I really dread trying to find a doctor here.

I'll be praying for you.

Jennifer said...

Lisa have faith and you will find one.