Useful information
[VIDEO TRANSCRIPT:
"All your tests/labs came back clear! Isn't that great?"
American healtcare is a business, and you are the customer. Here's something you can say:
"It's great that we ruled out X, Y, and Z with these tests. However, I'm still having these symptoms, and they're effecting my daily life in these specific ways. So what's next on your list of differential diagnoses?"
And if that doesn't get you anywhere, you can say something like:
"Okay, we've ruled out all of the common causes for my symptoms. So when do we start exploring more rare explanations?"
And if that still gets you nowhere, you're going to document their refusal to do further testing in your chart, because they don't want to have to put that in writing. Keep going, you're worth it. I love you, mean.
END VIDEO TRANSCRIPTION.]
if you ask a doctor to write something down, sometimes instead of that they’ll write down that they think you’re difficult and don’t take medical advice. it’s happened to me and kept me from initially getting me/cfs testing. other doctors claimed i was only asking for more lab work to rule out other conditions bc i ‘didn’t like their answer.’ it wasn’t until i finally got a specialist referral that my actual diagnosis was noted instead of some bullshit.
be careful about asking for this if you have a really uncooperative doctor- instead, it might be helpful to ask them to write down why they ordered a test, as in, what they’re trying to rule out. then, if you see someone who’s better at their job, you can say that ‘other doctors successfully ruled these things out, so what do YOU think it could be?’ if they don’t know bc they only knew the common things, you might get a specialist referral and have a better chance at getting an accurate diagnosis.