Skip to main content

Lasting Effects

Ever since Vanessa had developed her health issues, with abdominal pain, shifting diagnoses that have all so far turned out to not quite be right, and thoughts of the upcoming endoscopies... I still see the effects of these events changing the way I practice medicine. Many patients are dismissed as malingerers or psycho-somaticizers, however I see them as patients potentially suffering from a uncommon condition. I find myself holding patients a day longer, running an extra $4000 of tests. So far, nearly everyone whom I suspected to be psychosomatic have all been psychosomatic. Am I wasting money? perhaps. But psychosomatic pain, etc. is truly a diagnosis of exclusion... and I wonder if I wasn't Vanessa's husband... would doctors have just dismissed her as "crazy"?? I admit, I did fear that this was all in her head. In hind sight I know without doubt it is clearly not. There are still items on the differential which haven't been ruled out. There are still disorders so poorly defined they barely have names. I am thankful that I have found a physician for her that practices medicine on the fringe of clinical knowledge who takes her serious and has experience with people just like her. So bring on the endoscopies, the lab, and anything else. Thank you for the prayers... and I will continue to be a little extra thorough in my work up, hopefully sparing someone from a life of pain and disability simply because they didn't get the full work up.

David

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Marriage: Cultural Misconception Exposed.

Recently I had a single person ask me if marriage was difficult. I'm not sure I can make a statement that rings true in all and for all marriages.   My experience of marriage has been intertwined with my wife's difficult health problems. Thus my perspective has been colored. Facing life in the midst of these health problems has been the most difficult experience of my life. What I can say about marriage is that I was lied to almost my entire life. God did not invent marriage to "make us happy"... The lie propagated by nearly every facet of American society as a whole. A lie left largely un-refuted by church, or so it seemed to me. "Oh, he makes me so happy!" and then when he doesn't make you happy any longer... "I just don't love him anymore". Divorce then follows. The now single person starts looking for another source of happiness. The cycle repeats, as the broken and imperfect person seeks the wrong remedy. I do not mean to say that you
1 comment
Read more

Forgetting the Obvious

Well, its been a while since I've written... busy busy busy... but tonight's call has given me moments of free time to relax, including a trip to starbuck's across the street, and with such beautiful weather, I'm so lucky. Now I sit, under flickering flourescents, listening to the shoegaze drone of "Bethany Curve" every bit as relaxing as a nice dose of zolpidem. what shall I muse on tonight? I've been thinking alot on mid-life crises. Who has them?  I think I'm the sort that would have one. Even at 27, I still find myself wondering, "Is this what I want my life to be like?" I don't envision a life full of work, with only moments of fellowship. This will be temporary. I am applying for ophthalmology again, though with less enthusiasm. In part, because no matter how much I struggle for something, the only way it will happen is if God's will includes it. Isn't that right? I struggled hard for ophtho once, and I didn't get i
7 comments
Read more