New doctor… again

I finally made an appointment to see a physician who is a fibromyalgia specialist.  A few years ago I had a great general practitioner who was very knowledgeable about FMS, and who kept up-to-date on current trends and treatments, but she left her practice and moved out of state.  I was later given a referral to Dr. Dean Mondell by my endocrinologist, but Dr. Mondell’s office told me he wasn’t seeing any new patients.  That was a frustrating time for me—my internist had moved out of state, and my endo was about to move out of the country—and having my referral “rebuffed” was about all I could handle.  I simply decided to treat myself, and that’s what I’ve been doing for the past three years or so.  I’ve felt that I’ve been stagnating lately, though, and I’m not happy with my general sense of “going downhill”, so I picked up the phone and called Dr. Mondell’s office again.  I realized he wouldn’t see me, but I was able to make an appointment with one of his colleagues.

On September 29th I’ll be seeing Dr. Joseph Gnoyski at Rehabilitation Associates of Nevada.  I’m still a bit disappointed (yes, still, three years later!) that I can’t see Dr. Mondell himself, because he’s really the local expert in FMS, but I’ll hope that Dr. Gnoyski has picked up some helpful tips during his time in the same office ;-)  Just getting this appointment at all took a bit of wrangling, because the person doing the “screening” wasn’t very happy that I might not be able to get all my medical records.  I told her I’d try, but I couldn’t promise anything, but she was pretty nice about it after I explained how I’d lost my previous doctors.  I also hope she understood that as a cash-pay patient, I can’t just be running off to different doctors all the time looking for referrals.  Frankly, there’s nothing in my previous medical records that I can’t tell the doctor, anyway (unless someone noted that I was a lunatic or something).  I have a suspicion that one of the first doctors I saw when I moved to Nevada recorded his assertion that there was nothing wrong with me but depression, and I don’t need biased information like that getting passed around.  I’d really like to start with a fairly clean slate, and I hope I’ll have a good rapport with this new doctor for a very long time.

The rehab clinic sent me all their intake forms via snail mail as per my request—I didn’t want to fill them out the day of my appointment, as I’d invariably forget something.  They arrived yesterday, a thick envelope of papers, including a diagram of the body where I have to mark the places which hurt.  In my head I’ve already just coloured in the entire diagram with red, blue, and purple (as my body often feels like it’s red, blue, and purple from top to bottom), but eventually I’ll have to be more specific.  I’ll try to make a note on the diagram everytime a new spot occurs to me, and I’ll be starting with the soles of my feet, because they ache like someone has been beating them with sticks.  I don’t think “bottom of feet” is a standard fibromyalgia point, but I’ve got to start with what I know.

My first visit will cost $200, and all subsequent visits will be $75.  I hope the very expensive lab work I had at my last doctor’s visit in August will suffice for this appointment as well, but I won’t be surprised if I end up needing more bloodtests.

Posted by .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) on 09/03 at 06:12 AM

  1. Hi Leigh Ann,

    I know what you mean about seeing a new Doc.  I do hope you get treatment and no more extra lab work.  $$$ are hard to come by so I hope they don’t rob the bank.

    Deb

    ps.  I also have a mirror blog on Blogger.

    http://fibrohaze.blogspot.com

    Posted by Deb  on  09/04  at  08:26 PM

  2. How did it go??

    Posted by Georg  on  09/05  at  10:49 PM

  3. Deb, I started working on my Blogroll last night, so I added your AOL blog (because I could find its feed).  It’s good to know you have a mirror url, though.

    —

    My appointment isn’t until September 29th, Georg… you’re more impatient about this visit than I am ;-)

    I thought of you today as I was going through my files, looking for old medical records to take to this appointment with me.  I found the forms I would have needed if I’d seen a doctor named Carol Barlow at the Allergy Institute of Nevada.  I found a great write-up about her at http://www.thyroid-info.com/topdrs/nevada.htm, which isn’t going to be helpful to *you*, but perhaps you could check the listings for your state and see if there are any doctors listed who sound open-minded and helpful.  I’ve found that the doctors who are recommended as good for thyroid issues are also good for lots of other “mysterious and hard to diagnose” things.  Of course, maybe you don’t need to find a doctor… I guess I’m not sure.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  09/06  at  09:07 AM

  4. The current doc is a year out of medical school. Not a lot of confidence, but still so open-minded her brains may fall out. I can talk to her fairly readily and she doesn’t give me the impression she doesn’t believe me. My allergist is a strange duck, and while we haven’t completely meshed he listens well.

    The link only shows a FNP who is half an hour away and no one closer. I’m not terribly surprised.

    Because my mother has hypothyroidism, I insist on getting my thyroid checked every year. It’s probably just a matter of time.

    Posted by Georg  on  09/06  at  10:54 AM

  5. My thyroid problem was diagnosed accidentally, via an uncommon test called a thyroid antibody test.  I was trying to participate in a clinical trial for something, and the thyroid antibody test was done, and when it came up positive that meant I had Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.  My TSH was only about 4, which is still in “normal” range, but my endocrinologist feels that people with thyroid antibodies can still have symptoms of hypothyroidism, even with a normal TSH.  He also feels that treating Hashimoto’s with supplemental T3 and T4 can slow down progression of the disease (as theoretically, the antibodies will continue to attack the thyroid).  You might want to ask for an antibody test if you suspect a thyroid problem which hasn’t shown up on other tests.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  09/10  at  08:31 AM
    6. Page 1 of 1 pages

I've been forced to put comments on moderation because of recent spamming, and I've also removed the spot where you can leave the url of your blog. I'm sorry... if you have a blog that you'd like me to add to my blogroll, please email it to me! And spammers, urls left in comments are not converted to links. If by some rare chance you leave a comment which is actually on topic, I'll just remove your url before I approve your comment anyway. Long story short, it's a waste of time to spam here. No one but me will ever see it, and I'll block your IP at the server level.

Name:

Email:

Location:

URL:

Smileys

Remember my details for future comments?

Let me know about new replies to this topic?

Comments are unfortunately on moderation because of spammers. When I'm Queen of the world, spammers will be given the death penalty (but pot will be legal).

Next entry: Unexpected guest

Previous entry: Fibromyalgia: Show Me Where it Hurts

<< Back to main