I've been gone for a while. I've been super busy at work and haven't known my ass from my elbow for a while, but the project I was working on is done so I'm back.
I had lunch with a newly diagnosed friend and his wife the other day. I have to say that i've read/heard some stories of people's journey toward being diagnosed and again, I AM LUCKY. I went to a neuro in January and I was diagnosed with certainty in May - after a slew of testing. I've heard stories of people not being diagnosed for YEARS and YEARS.
So they start telling me his story (luckily for him he was diagnosed within no time too) and it got us to thinking...in this day and age doctors really need to get with the program. Anytime someone enters their office and they have symptoms that don't seem to link to anything they need to immediately start thinking of MS and start trying to rule it out. It's not right that patients have to suffer through an undiagnosed/misdiagnosed sickness and listen to an asshole doctor who might be trying to prove that (s)he earned her medical degree when all of us out there (diagnosed folk) can say, "oh yeah, that's classic MS!"
There are so very many things wrong with medicine these days. Not the least of which is the close-mindedness of doctors. I believe in alternative health options as a first line of defense -including chiro and acupuncture and so many docs just wave it all off. The end result is as patients we have to spend hours and hours on the internet and earn a Google MD to figure out what is going on and how to steer our doctors. It is so frustrating and time consuming..and I don't see it getting better any time soon.
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