Searching for Medical Care

One of the most difficult and stress filled things for a person with chronic illness to do is the search for a new doctor. Maybe you have to find someone because you moved or your old doctor retired or you simply have come to the conclusion that your current doctor isn't doing their best to help you. Whatever the reason this is a frightening undertaking for us.

It shouldn't be this way but it is. Why? Because the first question the office tends to ask is "why do you need to see the doctor" and when you say pain or fibromyalgia or lupus or CFS, the next words are often "we don't do pain meds here" or some variation thereof. Often doctors will refuse to take on chronic pain patients at all.

Each and every time this happens to myself or a friend a little voice in my head sings out "do no harm", which is a part of the doctor's sacred creed or oath. Of course recently I've done some research on the "Hippocratic oath" and discovered that these words do not seem to appear within it. So maybe I cannot expect these learned people to abide by any real moral code. Maybe I cannot hope that doctors actually wish to ease my suffering.

I have moved many times. I have traveled a good deal. Often I've had to seek out medical assistance because of my conditions, which all seem to cause me pain in one form or another. I find that about 1 in 25 doctors actually wants to help. That means that only about 4% of the doctors I've met, dealt with, or somehow had contact with are actually interested in easing pain, making life livable, and discovering core issues behind new problems as they arise. The rest are generally unhelpful, rude, and often extremely dismissive. This is a sad statement on our medical health care providers and possibly on the institutions which educate them.

Nobody in this day and age should have to live in constant pain. Nobody should have to suffer on a daily basis. There are plenty of medications, supplements, and other options available out there that can help us. Sadly we have to educate ourselves about these choices because nine times out of ten our doctors either don't know or don't bother.

It's sad that people with chronic health problems are looked at differently, treated differently, and are more or less outcasts when it comes to medical care. We have to search for the one doctor who will help us. We have to make dozens of calls and sometimes even go to several appointments before the right doctor appears. During the search we get subjected to accusations, dirty looks, name calling, or just being treated like a lower lifeform.

Doctors, if you are reading this maybe you are one of those 4% and you are willing to try. Stand up for the chronically ill. Be a voice for positive change. We deserve care and respect just as any other.