Oh my doctor is soooooo frustrating. Sometime I just wanna smack him. He obviously didn’t know a whole lot about situations like the one I’m having with my ear. In fact, after I repeated multiple times that being congested doesn’t make it worse and in fact often makes the symptoms a lot better, he still mentioned putting me on nasal decongestants. WHAT?!? I tell you that it gets better when I’m congested and you want me to go on a decongestant to what? Intentionally make it worse? Uh-huh. He then suggested that I try and make my ear pop more often to “strengthen the tube.” Let me repeat. Uh-huh. I don’t think so. I’m not about to make my entire 24 hour day a living hell.
I told him that my other symptoms of fatigue, dizziness, brain fog, etc. seem to have gotten worse as these ear issues got worse, but he still stated that he thought it “was most likely not related.” Again, uh-huh. Maybe they’re not, but the fact that he wouldn’t even consider the possibility drives me nuts. It irks the hell out of me that doctors aren’t willing to think outside of the box or explore other avenues of thought to figure out what’s going on. It’s like a production line…you go in, they pick the easy diagnosis/set their mind as to what’s wrong with you and nothing you can do or say is going to change their mind, then you go out more frustrated than when you went in. Until, of course, your symptoms get so bad that they know beyond a shadow of a doubt was is going on. By then, unfortunately, it’s usually too late. And I’m not just talking about my situation. I’ve heard lots of similar stories from other people who have tried to get help from their doctors for various ailments. They just do a half-assed job (sorry PastaQueen) to get you out of their office. I understand why people don’t go to the doctor and why I avoided it for so long.
While he wouldn’t say that he thought that my issues were related, he did say that he thought my self-diagnosis of my ear seemed pretty accurate. He mentioned possibly having to have a CT scan to know for sure.
The best thing he did was to refer me to an ENT. Surprisingly, I was able to get an appointment with him tomorrow morning! Somehow I’m going to have to drag my sorry ass out of bed at an ungodly hour (ungodly for me, anyway). Not in the hope that I get a quick cure, because I know that there isn’t one, but in the hope that I can finally know for sure what’s going on. That’s all I want.
Thank you all for your support and for *listening* to me rant once again! On the good news front, I made it through my weekend entirely on plan, and if my sneak peak at the scale today is any indication, my weigh-in tomorrow should be pretty good!
I hope you all had a great weekend!
Hope the ENT can offer you some help! It has to be aweful to not be able to get this taken care of.
Ron’s last blog post..A little uphill
I hope the ENT will give you some answers.
moonduster’s last blog post..Four Pounds!!!
My appendix almost burst because the doctors couldn’t make a diagnosis… They rely so much on technology these days and when the technology can’t give them a clear-cut answer, they’re unwilling to commit to any diagnosis.
Hope your ENT can help you!
hanlie’s last blog post..Weekly overview
I’ve noticed that with a number of doctors I’ve seen, their primary goal seems to be a quick, half-hearted diagnosis, a scribbled prescription and then you get booted out of the office. I’ve had this happen too many times to me in life.