I'm a Doctor With Chronic Illness. Here Are 12 Th... - PMRGCAuk

PMRGCAuk

21,228 members40,251 posts

I'm a Doctor With Chronic Illness. Here Are 12 Things I Wish People Knew

48 Replies

Good article, written by Amy Stenehjem, M.D.

themighty.com/2017/02/docto...

48 Replies
DorsetLady profile image
DorsetLadyPMRGCAuk volunteer

Should be compulsory reading for all doctors!

markbenjamin57 profile image
markbenjamin57

Thanks Melissa - one of the best / most informed articles I've read and absolutely relevant to our types of illness. One especially relevant quote: "Chronic illness itself can change the biochemical makeup of the mood control center in the brain" says it all...

I thoroughly recommend this article :-)

Rugger profile image
Rugger

She has said it all! Thank you so much for posting this link.

CT-5012 profile image
CT-5012

Thanks for the link, can relate to this especially the frustration with....well all of it really. Can’t even rant these days just can’t be a...d but thankfully can still laugh. 🤬😂

Neverending63 profile image
Neverending63

Brilliant article ty for posting the link

Marilyn1959 profile image
Marilyn1959

Spot on!

Rimmy profile image
Rimmy

Thanks Melissa - I agree with everyone else's comments - very succinct and yet 'expansive' analysis of the experience of and (frequent) attitudes to having a chronic illness. Although these illnesses are diverse it is really quite extraordinary how many features they share - 'invisibility' being a key one I think. Yes people may 'see' us sitting or lying down a lot for example but they are unable to see the 'cause' of our problems ... while having a broken limb or a big cut will always elicit immediate sympathy. The issue we are often left with then is having to - YES - 'explain' ourselves over and over again. This need for 'explanation' sadly also extends to needing to do this with many medicos who just don't 'get it' !!

Thanks again for posting this great article.

Rimmy

XX

scats profile image
scats

Great find mimici thanks so much for sharing. This should be more widely read.

Hollyseden profile image
Hollyseden

Would be great to make this compulsory reading for anyone who asks how I'm feeling 😤

Chrob profile image
Chrob in reply toHollyseden

Or even those that don’t .

Zofitmogelijk profile image
Zofitmogelijk

Dr. Amy must also have been reading a lot in this forum to put it in the right words and so clearly, thank you Melissa for sharing.

Jean56 profile image
Jean56

Thank you for posting. I whole heartedly agree with Hollyseden, everyone who asks how we are should be given a copy to read, plus all doctors. It really says it all.

Was he in a TV series or a Horror Movie Melissa? He looks a serious medical guy! On my travels through various hospital stays there is always one student doc.! or doc! who plays or maybe not plays! the bad guy! Who knows! This is how the police work on the tele! Anyway nonsense over! Very good article. Thanks.

in reply to

Hehehehehehe... perhaps. Or that's just what having a chronic illness has done to him!!!!

in reply to

You have to admire the perfection in that hair style! For me kid it's Brillo!

in reply to

It is rather precise, isn't it! Like a tornado could blow by and he would not have a hair out of place!!!!

in reply to

There's the fantasy! Women docs any different for yourself?

in reply to

Are we talking about women doctors and their hair... or are we talking about women doctors, in real life, being different than male doctors, as far as the way they treat their female patients? If the later....

In my opinion YES! I saw the same GP for years and he insisted all my complaints and aches and pains, anything I ever went in with, was attributed to my being a "woman of a certain age." (Yes, he actually said that!) He said as a woman of my age, 59-60, I needed to expect to ache and move at slower pace... He did send me for some follow-ups, but when they showed nothing he'd say "...it was nothing." Had he connected the dots, or put all of my complaints and symptoms together, he may have come up with the PMR, years before it turned into GCA!

Another example; my 32 year old daughter saw her male GP 6 times, over 8 months, each time with different complaints and symptoms... He asked if she was trying to get pregnant, she said "No," He said they'd worry about the symptoms when and if she she had trouble getting pregnant. It was a female GP, in the same surgery, who sent her for blood work and a scan, which identified a cancerous ovarian cyst the size of a melon!!!!! So YES I think there is a difference between male and female doctors and the seriousness with which they give female patients!

Edited 10/08/18 - Sorry Pepperdoggie, if that was not your question... apparently I was in a weird defensive, argumentative mood yesterday.. I'm blaming it on the Pred! : )

Rimmy profile image
Rimmy in reply to

Yes Melissa -

It is really ludicrous that so much misogyny in medicine still goes unquestioned when in many other areas of life women (and insightful men) are calling it out as totally wrong and ultimately 'bad' for everyone. There is now of course also quite substantial documentation about the problems women experience with regard to western 'orthodox' medicine. (Although I am not suggesting that aspects of 'alternative medicine' or medicine associated with particular cultures or ethnicities aren't culpable in many ways as well - but this is a BIG subject). There are many glaring examples - such as standard ideas about heart attack symptoms and how they manifest in 'people' generally - although these have - up until recently - been based mainly on male experience - let alone the multifarious ingrained dated social prejudices about women and rather arbitrary notions about the 'impacts' of menopause being loosely equated with 'women of a certain age'.

As a past researcher in areas relating to the history and politics of gender and physical and mental health and well-being - I completely agree with you Melissa that this is a minefield !! The most serious aspects are not just embedded in philosophical or political debates but are manifested in our REAL lives - and the possibility that we may be disregarded as a less than reliable source - even of our own 'realities'. I have said this all before here in various ways and I am not suggesting all male doctors are 'bad' or even inadequate - but regrettably medicine as an 'institution' still has a long way to go in terms of taking more responsibility for dismantling bias and the remaining 'power' structures which hinge on outdated patriarchal ideas and practices.

This is one of the main reasons a forum like this one is SO valuable - because we are generally not getting our information filtered by bodies or groups with a spectrum of 'interests' which don't necessarily assist with our health and well-being and which are often inimical to it.

I do have faith this will all change over time and we as 'patients' can contribute to this by keeping our medicos on their toes and not settling for anything other than well researched high quality treatments. But the very first thing I think is to find a doctor who LISTENS and accords us - regardless of age and gender - basic respect !

- or else 'fire' them !!

Best wishes to everyone

Rimmy

HeronNS profile image
HeronNS in reply to

Isn't the picture Mamici's choice? The author of the article is called Amy and therefore one would assume a woman. Or am I missing a joke here?

in reply toHeronNS

Dunno! We all have a different see! It does seem like a girly golf club here sometimes!

ATB

HeronNS profile image
HeronNS in reply to

No, doting grannies club. Of which I am sadly not a member.

in reply toHeronNS

Really, are we dotting grannies? I thought the majority of us were strong, independent, outspoken, intelligent, Goddess Warriors who occasionally talked about and posted photos of our grandchildren.

My perspective is my reality.

HeronNS profile image
HeronNS in reply to

I was reacting to Pepperdoggie's perspective because from my perspective I don't see a girly golf club at all. And you may be a strong, outspoken intelligent Goddess Warrior but I see myself more as an introspective philosopher type with aspirations to be artistic. Not golfer nor grannie nor goddess....

Motto of the PMR club: We are all different! 😉

in reply toHeronNS

Oh, sorry I misunderstood the comment and the dialogue apparently.... : (

I must be in a serious, defensive mood today. (?)

And totally cool... I love your perception of YOU! Yes, we are all different... thank goodness!

Sorry

SheffieldJane profile image
SheffieldJane in reply to

Walking a thin line P.D. we multi task. Little ones can produce pain relieving moments, like nature and er gardens. 😛

Mark works hard to restore the gender imbalance. I have noticed him reaching out to male contributors.

markbenjamin57 profile image
markbenjamin57 in reply toSheffieldJane

Thanks Jane :-). Well, I do try to stay connected with the relatively few PMR / GCA Lads here and keep our end up (no smutty jokes please Aunties..) :-D

in reply toSheffieldJane

Maybe always walked a thin line Jane! Struggle a bit more with the balance now but don't we all!! ATB

SheffieldJane profile image
SheffieldJane in reply to

We sure do!

in reply toHeronNS

Yes I choose the photo... but since my photo theme is usually from the 50s/60s, I'm limited to what I find on Google Images . There were not a lot of woman doctors around in those days, so not a lot of photos to chose from.

HeronNS profile image
HeronNS in reply to

My mother was a doctor, born in 1919.

in reply toHeronNS

COOL! An anomaly.

HeronNS profile image
HeronNS in reply to

I believe approximately a third of the students at the Polish School of Medicine, University of Edinburgh, during and shortly after WW2, were female.

Probably more a lack of public photographs than a lack of doctors. Apart from my father I met five of his fellow students over the years. Three of them were male, including my father, and three female, two of them (not my parents) were married to each other. I wonder if the dearth of female doctors was a North American phenomenon, not so much a European one? Just speculating.

in reply toHeronNS

You may be right... a North American phenomena perhaps.

Excerpt taken from Wiki: "However, women openly practiced medicine in the allied health professions (nursing, midwifery, etc.), and throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, women made significant gains in access to medical education and medical work through MUCH OF THE WORLD. These gains were sometimes tempered by setbacks; for instance, Mary Roth Walsh documented a decline in women PHYSICIANS IN THE US in the first half of the twentieth century, such that there were fewer women physicians in 1950 than there were in 1900.[8] However, through the latter half of the twentieth century, women made gains generally across the board. In the United States, for instance, women were 9% of total US medical school enrolment in 1969; this had increased to 20% in 1976.[8] By 1985, women constituted 16% of practicing US physicians.[9]"

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women...

Rose54 profile image
Rose54

Doctors are only Human after all

PMRpro profile image
PMRproAmbassador in reply toRose54

I only ask them to admit it. It is their delusions of grandeur that are the problem!

Chrob profile image
Chrob

Might print this , then let certain peeps have it at Xmas . Cheers

Oooooo, I like it! Maybe we could all make it our Christmas/Holiday Letter!!!!!

HeronNS profile image
HeronNS in reply to

It was a locum with multiple sclerosis who helped me deal with my flare last summer. I believe it was her copious notes in the file which encouraged my GP to write me a more or less infinite prescription for 1 mg pred afterwards.

Cyclegirl54 profile image
Cyclegirl54

Absolutely spot on!

SheffieldJane profile image
SheffieldJane

Thanks for posting this. If only we were met with this kind of empathy and insight. Just had a whole day feeling ok on 6 mgs! Have the clouds finally parted? ☀️

in reply toSheffieldJane

Excellent Jane! I am happy to hear this!!!!! Feeling "ok," is OKAY! xxxxx

markbenjamin57 profile image
markbenjamin57 in reply toSheffieldJane

'Anything is possible' Jane.. keep Faith. :-)

Patience47 profile image
Patience47

Thank you Melissa. Great post.

morrison profile image
morrison

Spot on . Great read, going to print it out and take it to my next rhuemy appointment. No long technical medical jargon, just simple and clear wording. Where do you get these articles from? Xx

daw50 profile image
daw50

Thank you for posting this excellent article. It really does cover all aspects of having an 'invisible' illness beautifully.

Jackoh profile image
Jackoh

Thanks for posting this Melissa- so true!!

oldtrucker profile image
oldtrucker

Thanks for posting this, as a carer I find so much truth in all aspects of the article and agree it should be compulsory reading for all members of the medical profession.

Not what you're looking for?

You may also like...

I'm new here and I have a question

Hi, my name is Francien, I'm 67, and I live in The Netherlands. Just discovered this helpful and...
Francien profile image

I'm new here.. I am a GCA sufferer!

The story so far... After suffering two weeks of flu like symptoms, I developed sharp shooting...
Kael-gca profile image

Want to see an all round answer of how Aunty Bee copes with Chronic Illness Self Care , read Ansteynomads post on The AI Protocol ,Q+A here!

Good Sunday All, I just wanted to let people know whom might be interested that I had written a...
Blearyeyed profile image

Feeling a bit down and lonely today so logged on here to connect with 'my (PMR) tribe'even though I should be doing other things

UPDATE thank you so much everybody who's responded for all your kind words of encouragement and...

Do I really have PMR, should I be here? Rheumatologist suggested dx due to symptoms, but there are other possibilities. A newbie to site.

I have been on prednisone for 15 years as treatment for a number of autoimmune conditions...
Joaclp profile image