speech to the new doc- the road so far. in Second 1st

  • March 25, 2019, 12:42 p.m.
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I just spent an hour typing out a message to the new doc and re reading in trying to find anything I may have forgotten.... I completely intend on reading it to the doctor when he gets in. I’m going to go through papers to establish dates and then type it in here for my own purpose:

It started at the end of March 2017 when I had a sudden loss of hearing. I thought it was earwax and went to doc who put me on allergy meds which didn’t help. Went to the ENT who put me on Steroids and did an MRI on June 5th 2017. All looked well and was told it must have been a virus of some kind. Then on April 2018 on a Friday morning I got up for work and fell into my bedroom wall. I mandaged to go to work taking things a bit slower than normal. Over the span of the weekend the dizzy spells got more and more frequent until Sunday they were 6 times on one hour. On top of these dizzy spells my job had been giving me motion sickness. Everything felt off. They sent me home and made my husband come get me. I was able to get in to see my PCP and the ENT that next week. ENT suggested low sodium diet and a couple of tests were scheduled. After 3 days of low sodium and no caffeine I felt a lot better but still off and motion sick from things like backing out of my driveway. Testing and diagnosis came. We arranged for FMLA at 3 days a month. Then a restricted schedule of 3 days a week. I still ended up out of work almost every Sunday because of motion sickness and dizziness. Taking Diazapam and a nap got that under control but I could not do that and work. Then I began getting motion sick just walking to the restroom in the morning. Mecklizine helped with that but I could not take it before i got up. Then we did the Dexa shots (3 steroid shots to ear) and after the final one (october 3rd) I had a few weeks of relief but it returned to it’s previous state. I asked the ENT if anything may be contributing to the fatigue I was having and we did a blood test to find the thyroid issue and a vitamin D deficancy. i also asked her to put me on short term medical leave because my job had become unbearably difficult. There is no option at work for me to be just be still and it is a fast paced environment. ENT sent me to another doc like you, Mitchell Schwaber who decided I was bad off enough to to put me on short term and to do a gent shot at 3-4 full blown vertigo spells that lasted at least an hour in the prior month. Once off work they became less frequent. AFTER the Gent shot I lost most of the hearing in my right ear, and the dizziness the shot itself was much worse than the vertigo I had suffered. I have had headaches in the past that were followed by nose bleeds previous to this whole situation but have had 3 since the shot. My hearing has not returned and the dizziness brought on by stress happens much quicker. Sunday I was in a mildly stressful situation which caused dizziness and ultimately vomiting. That was the first time since the shot it had been that bad. Usually being still roughly 30-45 mins clears it up a fair bit but I can’t do more than 10-15 minutes of house work before I need to be still. The more I do the worse the dizziness and motion sickness are. If I have a really “bad day” the next day I’m exhausted and can’t do much of anything. Sunday night I slept 10 hours (normal 6-8). I come to you today to establish care for this disease, to make sure everything is where it should be with my ear after the Gent shot and to ask to be kept out of work. I do not believe I would be able to do my job in my current state. I do hope we made it to the end of this reading because I was told you were a good doctor and listened to the patient Unlike Schwaber who dealt only with the illness.

Can’t see anything I have forgotten other than to ask about vestibular therapy.... just add that here real quick. Really do hope I make it all the way through it before he interrupts as I think it says everything I would need to say for the whole visit. He should also be writing vigorously while I’m reading as it has all the information on the road so far....


Telstar March 25, 2019

A suggestion:

It's a great idea to be prepared for all doctor's visits. Time is important & anything you do to maximize the doctor's time is good for you.

However...…….

Neatly type it all out by date. Use "bullets" to separate each date - no long winding paragraphs.

Don't read it aloud. Give it to him/her in conjunction with your verbal presentation. Let him/her be reading through it as you talk. Your writeup can always be scanned into your medical record for later use.

The new electronic medical record (EMR) has caused many doctors to feel like they've been demoted to being clerks - and most don't like it. I'd much rather for my doctor to be thinking about my problem(s) rather than attempting to enter stuff in his laptop.

Good luck!

JHkerriokey Telstar ⋅ March 25, 2019

Thank you for the suggestion. I completely intend on reading it because it is also a test of weather or not the doctor is treating me as a person or as a disease. If he's not writing he's not listening. I tried to do something similar with the last doctor who rolled his eyes at one point and continued with the exam while I was reading. I know the doctor will have a bunch of questions "when did you first start having symptoms"and "what have you done so far" and I feel this covers it as well as current symptoms. Thank you for your input.

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