Question about specialist

Clinical immunology as a field is just getting started. The Clinical Immunology Society has 14 members in California, most of whom practice at university hospitals. So yes, they are out there; there just are not many of them yet.

~MarkEns

I took Emily for a visit with an immunologist at the local Children’s Hospital in 2006. He wanted to put her on methotrexate. We never went back.

I agree that we should be seeing immunologist but like MarkEns pointed out there just aren’t many out there yet.

Kelly

my biased opinion…the one we went to was well….anyway, we went with the complaint of multiple daily headaches, enlarged sinus’s on the cheek bones, chronic sinus infections and most importantly 3-4 fevers a WEEK, while on LOADING doses of ivig. He said that you just have to deal with it kids get sick. I think although the hold the title of imunologist, most focus on the allergist part of it or asthma…just jacking you with allergy shots. a couple of months later, we ditched the peds immunol, and pediatrician, went to my pc, she swabbed kev’s nose and he had a staph infection in his nasal cavities. have been on antibiotics as a therapy for 3 months now, no fevers in this time or sinus infections. i just have to wonder about the long term affects of the antibiotics????

Like i said, that is my biased experience, not to say that there aren’t good immunologists out there. just like with any doc you just have to keep looking.
excuse my negativity, i am kind of tired of everything today

One area of physicians to explore are rheumatologists, as they are familiar with many immune and auto-immune issues such as Sjorgens’
Here is an article about what They should be familiar with and about:
urlhttp://www.aafp.org/online/etc/medialib/aafp_org/documents/about/rap/curriculum/rheumaticconditions.Par.0001.File.tmp/Reprint276.pdfurl
It mite help you w/your problem. Finding any specialist is tricky, and finding one you feel you can communicate with is harder still.
The AAFP web site is useful to get basic backgrounds on many neuro and immune issues. I’ve found it easy to use and it’s often brief? It’s summaries are usually short and clear, giving references for looking into things in more depth.
More importantly is the finding of any doctor who you feel comfortable with & with whom you sense will ‘go to bat’ for you! I have docs who I don’t ‘like’? But I know they are competent to do their JOBS for ME in their area of expertise, I’ve also HAD docs where I felt I was some sort of ‘experiment’ for them? To those latter? Never went back. Don’t know about you yet? But after 8+ years of testing, pokings and probings and more? I do NOT want to be a ‘playground’ for some medical professional.
GAT? You have got to get as much info as you can to try and make informed decisions about which docs you should consult. At times especially at first, second opinions from others can help or not? But in the getting the opinions, you get more testing! Just get copies of those to go forward when you find the docs you want to work with!
It’s hard at first? Like a fish out of water, flomping around, not knowing what to do? But given time, you will learn! Good luck and hopes your way!