Second opinion outcome

[Littlemisssunshine87]

Hi everyone,

As promised an update on my second opinion. In case you didn’t see it on the original thread, my GP was more than happy to do a second referral, she said she would have suggested it if I hadn’t of done anyway.

So I decided to go private as I wanted to make sure I saw the right person and not just someone under their team to start with and wanted to extra allocated time with no rushing.

Been to my appt today and it was worth every penny!

I saw Dr Ben Parker at the Spire Manchester Hospital, his NHS clinic is at the Kellgren at MRI.

Was a lovely guy, thorough, took the time to look through everything and talk to me, examined me, really listened.

Was in with him 45mins.

He said I’ve too many abnormal results to rule anything out and I need extra testing.

He’s going to refer me to his NHS clinic under him and then once I go there to see him again he’s going to also refer me to his ophthalmologist for a second opinion and further tests on my eyes. Also refer back to oral surgery to get a lip biopsy done which can help with a diagnosis.

He’s also going to do more bloods and send me for a scan of my glands. He said it can take a long time to diagnose someone but with my results and symptoms you can’t just rule it out.

He wants me to go to the CBT and Physio thing - I think it’s just to tick boxes that I’ve done it - he said it won’t make me better obvs but may help things along once I’m also on right treatment if needs be.

He said it could be a mix of an immune problem that’s also then set off some M.E./CFS symptoms. An that if something like that is underlying, once treated it can help all the other symptoms get better as well. But kept saying that there is still lots of testing that needs to be done that hasn’t been done yet, so the journey continues.

I was left with a lot more confidence with him anyway and didn’t feel fobbed off this time. He really took the time to think about what needed to be done and put a plan in action.

I will continue to update my journey.

[whisperit]

Thanks for the update, Littlemisssunshine87

So pleased you feel like your story has been taken seriously, and especially that Dr P has taken you onto his NHS list. It makes such a difference to feel that a clinician is teating you as a real person, doesn't it? Look forward to further developments x

[Littlemisssunshine87 in reply to whisperit]

Yes definitely! It makes you wonder how these others even got their jobs though, but never mind that’s over now at least! He even reassured me that the CBT isn’t because he thinks I’m depressed or that it’s all in my head, it’s simply something they think people with any chronic illness could benefit from extra as it’s hard dealing with it. He said it shouldn’t take too long to get everything going so fingers crossed it won’t be long x

[whisperit in reply to Littlemisssunshine87]

That's exactly right about the CBT. I've found it's a really useful set of techniques for lots of situations that are stressful and hard to sit with, not so much for depression per se. Onwards and upwards! x