well, I guess becuase my blood work came back negative,, I am the picutre of health. I left there in tears, I basically was told i was fat and depressed. she never suggested any thing. now I am stuck with nothing to make me feel better, I am not sure what to do,, I am so discouraged. I just wanna give up, I ask her where do i go next and she said she didnt know because there is nothing wrong with me. what next.
Teresa:
I am really impatient with ignorant doctors, but maybe you can educate yours - you can have Sjogren's and negative bloodwork. Only 70% of patients have positive SSA and only 40% have positive SSB. See http://www.sjogrens.org/syndrome/diagnosis.html
If you have secondary Sjogren's, you may never have positive bloodwork ever.
QuoteI ask her where do i go next and she said she didnt know because there is nothing wrong with me. what next.
I think there is something wrong with her for ignoring your obvious symptoms and not understanding anything about bloodwork. Can you find another doctor?
I got the old "you are just depressed" crap from my GP too. If I'm depressed, it's because I'm sick and no one is listening or trying to help.
Did she measure your saliva or tears?
Sue
Don't feel so bad, it took years for me to find out what was wrong with me, every doctor said I was as health as a horse, your just getting older, have a sugar pill, how about some anti-depressants?
This whole auto immune thing is a full time job in its self.
She did a brief neurological exam moved my joints around. When I first went in there I was actually glad the purple and blue hands , and feet showed up. I pointed it to her . She was clueless. Oh my gosh,, how do u get thru medical school and be that ignorant. I was never so humiliated and treated like I was a middle aged fat depressed women. She really insulted my own intelligence. I am not sure where to go next, but definately not back to her.
Tsharrard,
Don't give up and keep looking for a new doctor! One of my doctors told me that I had to face the fact that I was a middle aged woman who had some pain in my joints and it was normal. I will keep you in my thoughts.
SueAnn
Do not give up looking for doc who is willing to treat you; it took me over 10 years before I found some one who was willing to look for other ways to find a diagnosis other than from positive blood work. All my blood work was neg yet I was being treated for GERD, severe dry mouth, asthma, difficulty swallowing etc. I asked the doc how is it i can be treated for all these things, yet not have SS. I was put on Methotrexate, and showed improvement within the first week.
See if your doc will at least try an immune suppressant med and see if there is an improvement.
Collie
I'm so sorry you were treated so badly.You owe it to yourself to keep searching for the right Dr. who will help you find the answers you need for your health.Don't give up you are worth it.
Ruby
tsharred,
OMG I/we have SO been there done that! When I first started presenting symptoms I went to my family dr and told him what was going on. He ordered a blood test, and told me while I waited to hear back from him for the results, to go home and google Lupus. So I did, and it sounded a lot like what I was experiencing. Well, when he called me back to the office to get the results, he asked me if *I* thought I still had Lupus (remember that was HIS idea for me to look it up ) and I said I didn't know, but a lot of it sounded like what I had going on. He then he literally threw my chart at the wall above my head and screamed in my face to stop faking Lupus because my blood test was fine! :o After he stopped screaming he then told me that I was just like his ex-wife who had nothing better to do than complain all the time.
I was feeling so defeated at that time in my life I didn't even stick up for myself and I regret that to this day. I should have told him what an a-hole he was to his face, but I did in a phone call a few months later :-*.
Unfortunately if I was writing a book of medical horror stories, that would only be chapter one. It got much worse from there before I got my diagnosis from a really great Dr who has helped immensely.. I allowed myself to feel humiliated by other Drs who also did not know what they were doing. More GP's do not know a thing about this stuff, all they know is Lupus and RA, that's all they know what to check for. There are about 298 other autoimmune diseases.
The thing that changed my life was a book by Dr Henry Brownstein about healing arthritis naturally my husband got me. Through the resources in the book I found a board certified MD Rheum who works wonders combining naturoopathy and allopathic medicine. I feel as normal if not BETTER as anybody I know, I work out 5 times a week, I do activities, I live how I want to about 95% of the time. When it does get to me, I no longer beat myself up over needing to rest.
Just never give up on yourself, never doubt yourself, but at the same time it's a fine line not to let this define who you are.