Dr. Grumpy: "Did the medication help?"
Mr. Rerun: "I didn't take it. I don't think I need anything."
6 weeks later
Dr. Grumpy: "What brings you in today?"
Mr. Rerun: "I woke up last with a migraine. It was awful."
Dr. Grumpy: "Well, next time it occurs, why don't you try taking..."
Mr. Rerun: "No, I don't want to take anything right now."
8 weeks later
Dr. Grumpy: "What's up? You asked Mary to work you in today?"
Mr. Rerun: "Yeah, thanks for seeing me. I was in ER yesterday for a terrible migraine."
Dr. Grumpy: "I'm sorry. Let's have you try..."
Mr. Rerun: "I don't want any medication, I just thought you should know about it."
3 weeks later
Dr. Grumpy: "This is Dr. Grumpy, returning a page."
Mr. Rerun: "Hi, sorry to wake you up, but I'm having a bad migraine. I thought I should tell you."
Dr. Grumpy: "Do you want me to call anything in?"
Mr. Rerun: "No, I just wanted to give you an update."
5 weeks later
Dr. Grumpy: "How are things going?"
Mr. Rerun: "I had a migraine over the weekend. I spent the whole time in bed."
Dr. Grumpy: "Why don't you let me prescribe something?"
Mr. Rerun: "No, I don't want any medication, but since you're my doctor I thought you should know what's going on."
Mr. Rerun: It is not weak to take medicine. Really. Admitting you need help and asking for it takes far more strength, since it exposes weakness.
ReplyDeletePlease God, gimme something....I'm willing to try the meds I had life threatening reactions to, or their close cousins.
ReplyDeleteWell, could be worst. At least she's not complaining about your 'inability' to treat her migraines.
ReplyDeleteYeah. strangely only demerol works and she has bad reactions to ten other meds lol
DeleteYes, you should be kept up to date on his symptomology, just in case one day you decide you want to treat whatever is causing those headaches.
ReplyDelete"There's no sense in masking the pain if you cannot stop it from happening." And then Aunt Mildred went into clinical detail, with pictures! - of what happened after her appendix burst because the doctors would not give her antibiotics to kill the infection so she had to go to the pet store and try all different fish antibiotics to treat it on her own.
stay safe.
You useless doctors! You don't do anything!
ReplyDelete.
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(7 weeks later, that is)
I'm sitting here with my mouth open. How do you stand it?
ReplyDelete^^^ Is your breath that bad?
ReplyDeleteYour diagnosis may need to updated:
ReplyDeleteInsanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
Albert Einstein
But how is the Senator, I mean other than the migraines
ReplyDeleteSheesh... I think he came to you not for treatment, but just so he could call you all the time as a means of feeling like he is doing something about it, without actually doing anything about it.
ReplyDeleteI know my dad is irritated by the patients that log every symptom, and present the logs, but it sounds like encouraging that would beat being called every 3-8 weeks about an ongoing condition he has no intention of treating.
I think next time you can say something like.
"I have it on record that you have migraines every 3-8 weeks, that these migraines can be incapacitating, and that you consistently refuse treatment for these migraines. At this point I have an excellent picture of what is going on. We can touch base once a year from now on to review, or at any time if the symptoms become more frequent, or if you decide to begin treatment."
Good answer, Anon @ 10:48.
ReplyDeleteOR...
Turf to Psych!
You know the old saying , you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink.
ReplyDeleteYou could explain the chemistry inside the medicine to the patient. Maybe after an explanation, and understanding of how it works on the muscles/brain they might try it out of curiosity.
Be happy you're not is GI doctor. He'd be calling to tell you about every time he has a BM.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you could set up an email account just for him and let him send updates via email that you can summarily send to spam folder? You can warn to only use this particular email account only about migraine updates.
ReplyDeleteI know some migraine meds have awful side effects. Perhaps this pt has had bad effects with a previous doc and wasn't treated well. Or she's heard about the side effects and is scared stiff (THANK you, Dr. Google.)
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to be treated like "it's all in your head." Yes, it is, but it still HURTS.
So, she thinks she has to endure. Poor lady.
Interesting how many assume the patient is female, even though the post says male.
ReplyDeleteAnon 12:49...as of right now there are 16 comments and only two of them seemed to think the person in question was a female. :)
ReplyDeleteI think I would assign him to keep a migraine log to be reviewed at his regular appointments. Perhaps also tell him to make some benign placebo dietary change.
ReplyDeleteActually the dietary change could affect the migraines. I found that if I eat wheat in any quantity I get one. I wonder if the patient would be willing to try non-medication options?
ReplyDeleteI don't like taking prescription migraine medication because of the side effects. However, I will(and do!)take it when over the counter medicine doesn't work.
ReplyDeleteHell, I track my migraines to see if I'm getting enough of them to have the insurance cover botox. I don't call my doctor, I write it on a piece of paper. He doesn't care if I'm having a migraine right now, he cares how I'm handling the pain and if there are more options for treatment.
ReplyDeleteI finally caved and got Maxeran and Benadryl when Tylenol/Advil stopped working. First night of Benadryl alone, and I woke up a fresh new person. Why didn't I try this sooner??? I feel really silly now. (Triptans didn't help)
ReplyDelete