Hello Friends,
On Wednesday I went to pick up my prescriptions from my rheumy and decided to write him a letter since he was not responding to my phone calls. I advised that the meds (Plaquenil and MTX) seemed to be working and there was improvement in symptoms (back pain, neck pain, and fatigue). I finally heard from his office today and he wants me to have blood work performed in May. I am happy that I finally heard from him and hopefully I will hear back about referrals I mentioned in the letter.
On another note, I had my first flare last weekend since the meds started working. I still have no idea what brings on my flares, perhaps it was the stress of my rheumy not returning my call, who knows. I could feel the flare coming on because my skin becomes extremely sensitive, (like a sunburn feeling) and when I touch my major joints they feel as if I have a glove on. Anyway, I prepared for the worse, (and it was pretty bad) but very short-lived. Thank God I did not suffer an entire month or more with a flare. I hope these meds never stop working.
PP
Congrats on your improvement. May it continue for a long long time.
Letters are a great way to get a response when all else fails. It becomes part of your records and the docs don't want to appear to have not dealt with it. I've done the letter thing a couple of times. Once to a neuro. It infuriated him but he made sure to get me in to see him quickly to deal with an issue.
I write letters to my doc and fax them...seem to get better response than leaving messages, etc.
Gursie
I've also written. My health system has an email system - it's a great way to get things into your chart. You did the right thing.
I always keep things very concise (hard for me because I like to write a lot) and mindful that it does become part of your chart so you want to make sure it's very professional -not emotional, no abusive language etc.