Successful Body Repair May Require a Different Specialist
 | Rather listen than read?
Link here for the MP3 podcast version. | There’s a leak underneath your kitchen sink. Will you call the electrician?
Your car makes a whining noise when you accelerate. Will you take it to a body shop?
You probably answered “NO” to both those questions. So consider this: just like the wrong home or car specialist can’t repair the problem, the wrong medical specialist may not be able to fix what’s wrong with your body.
Several years ago, Robert Tracy (whose name has been changed) was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, a painful condition that results from the discs in his spine squeezing against his spinal cord. In addition, Robert suffers from neuropathy, a burning tingling in his feet, likely a result of the stenosis.
In 2008, Robert visited a neurologist who told him nothing could be done to relieve his pain. Robert would just need to live with it, even as it became increasingly painful. But earlier this year, through some Internet research, Robert learned there might be alternatives after all. He went to see an orthopedic surgeon who suggested Robert undergo a nerve block, an injection that could help relieve that excruciating pain.
Why didn’t the neurologist mention a nerve block? We don’t know.
Helen Kramer (whose name has also been changed) suffered for months from stomach pain, bloating and cramps. Her primary sent her to a gastroenterologist who ran tests, but concluded there was nothing wrong with Helen. She continued to suffer intermittently. Then, a few months later, she was admitted to the hospital with an intestinal blockage, only to learn that she had Stage IV ovarian cancer. Helen died a few months later. Had she been seen in time by a gynecologist, Helen’s cancer might have been successfully treated.
If your symptoms just won’t go away, or your prescribed treatment doesn’t seem to help, or your pain continues without relief, ask your primary care doctor what other specialists might look at your situation differently.
That may sound odd. Our primaries should know exactly which specialist to send us to! Most of the time, they do. But as you’ve seen from Robert and Helen’s stories, sometimes a primary makes the wrong choice. Unless we speak up, they won’t even know to make another recommendation.
If your primary has no suggestions, then do some research on your own like Robert did. After all, it’s your body. It’s up to you to keep pursuing the repair that fixes the problem.
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Learn more about choosing the right specialist, or making sure you are seeing the right specialist for treating your own medical problems.
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Trisha Torrey
is the author of
You Bet Your Life!
The 10 Mistakes
Every Patient Makes
(How to Fix Them
to Get the
Health Care You Deserve)
It expands on the articles found
on this site, providing an
exposé of the problems that
exist in the healthcare system,
and tools you can use to get the care you deserve.
....
Learn more about
You Bet Your Life!
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