Another reply
No. There is another doctor here, but he has a reputation for getting angry whenever anyone tries to go to him for a second opinion. He remains silent, makes notes in their charts, and just tells them to go back to their own doctor. This has been my experience too, six years ago, when I had heart problems, and didn’t want to take Vioxx, which the other doctor wanted me to go on. I didn’t take it because of the bold-print warnings that it shouldn’t be taken by anyone with my health problems. My heart improved with a change of diet, but is weaker now after all of these GBS symptoms the past year.
In my opinion, we have a very high mortality rate in this town, but everyone is used to that. It’s mostly seniors, but also midddle-aged and younger ones too. One year, when the water was really bad, there were 5 death cards in one week at the post office. We usually have one or two per week in a town of about 1600-1800 people. I’ve lived here for 10 1/2 years, long enough to know this town and make these observations.
But hey, no one dares complain because if these doctors leave the town, we have nobody at all, and who’s going to refill prescriptions, etc. We have to be polite and bear it; and it’s true that they are over-worked, and maybe suffering burn-out. Sometimes, the people who can handle the run-around process actually do get the help they need, but they have to have a certain status, financial position, resources and energy to chase the health care system. I’m only a music teacher, though I have taught this doctor’s son for 2years. They are nice people, but he hasn’t helped me with my health problems and what more can I say or do?
I guess at this point that I have GBS, with some extra complications from regular mini-strokes, plus my other medical conditions. My understanding is that it takes about 3 years to determine the amount of recovery from GBS. The percentage rate of the syndrome’s effects are:
3 % mortality (usually in the immediate, acute stage, caused by tightened chest muscles and suffocation, 10 % quadriplegia, 20 % paraplegia, 67 % partial paralysis (nervous system and muscle system damage).
The last time I went to the hospital for a blood-test, the technician asked me what the doctor had said about my condition. I told her he said nothing. She said nothing more about that, but she did suggest that I needed a walker, not just my cane (which didn’t support me enough and threw me off balance). I had previously researched walkers, but they were too expensive. However, one of my music students saw one at a yard sale, and I ended up buying it (my rollator). It’s given me a new lease on life, because before that, I didn’t have the strength to leave the house very often, except to force myself to get water and buy groceries to be delivered every few weeks. But now, I can go out and about again, and it does me good, except when the town sprays pesticides and herbicides, which gives me a relapse. Oh well, this is the way it is.
–Donna