I was right about not hearing back from my GP after I sent that email. So after a week of not hearing from her office, I called there this morning and the front desk clerk told me that the email wasn’t even attached to my file (later the nurse insisted it was but that the clerk just hadn’t been looking in the right place. Riiiiight.) .
Anyway, I said that I didn’t understand the purpose of having an email option if no one was actually going to look at the email. I told them that I was under the misunderstanding that it was going to be looked at with in a day or so of it’s arrival and that the whole idea was that I’d be able to use it to be more specific that I could over the phone. I was upset because it had been a week and no one had even acknowledged that it had been received and that I had discussed a number of medical issues in it — one of which I felt had been mistreated by the nurse practitioner back in mid-July. On all of the issues, I was asking for advice and a change of medication. I told the nurse that I was extremely stressed out about my insomnia and pain problems.
To be honest I truly feel that I’m not being heard. I felt that the rheumatologist who diagnosed me with fibromyalgia only did so reluctantly and he never took me seriously; after it turned out I have an autoimmune kidney disease and not vasculitis, he kind of lost interest. He basically insists I have my GP prescribe any medications for me and all she does is tell me to take Tylenol for the fibro pain, which does nothing.
I’m very frustrated and I don’t know what to do about it. These are supposed to be among the best doctors in town. When I first arrived, I really liked my GP and thought she was very compassionate and really listened but I don’t know if she just has too many patients now or what. Clearly I need a set of doctors who not only can focus on my problems but actually understand how to treat them. I’m not sure my doctors know how to treat just fibromyalgia let alone fibromyalgia with IgAN thrown in.
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Luckily, I have a GP that calls back personally with any kind of test results or with answers to my questions that I leave with the nurse. I have no idea how I got so lucky. However, his office is located an hour from my house. I’m thinking it’s a small price to pay for an attentive doctor.
Maybe a trip to Atlanta is in order?
Actually, I’m not that familiar with either of your illnesses, but I’m sure that they are nothing to mess around with. I hope that you can find the kind of care that you need!