Is there a right way to ask a doctor to consider your self-diagnosis?

[Lasciel]

@scamartistry

snip

2. ***why don’t you try with some prednisolone for a couple of days and see if it works?

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Last time I checked, you can’t get predisone OR prednisolone (why even bother about the second name when the first one turns into that anyway?) without a scrip, so if his doctor already won’t listen to him, I’m not thinking he’s going to walk out of there with a potentially harmful medical “solution” for something the doc doesn’t even think he has.

That said, the doctor SHOULD be at least listening to the OP’s symptoms in full, and explaining why he doesn’t think that info is correct, rather than ignoring the OP totally.

My vote is that regardless of the outcome of the ENT visit, OP should find a doctor with a better ‘bedside manner’ and if the old doctor’s office asks why the OP wants their records transferred over, tell them exactly why. Some people are clueless as to how they come across to other people. On the other hand, if the current doctor is as busy as he sounds, he may be glad to see the OP go.

[Mama_Zappa]

@Larry_Mudd

…and I’ve mentioned that I also have chronic pain in my carotid artery on the right side, also in the veins on my chest on the right side, for which I take an extra strength Advil every four hours. He shrugged off the vascular stuff (“Continue to take Advil if it works for you”) …

See, now this is a bit alarming.

If I understand it, you’re taking Advil routinely for pain management, vs. for a few days here and there. Depending on the dosage, Advil can affect clotting which is why they tell you to stop NSAIDs before planned surgery. So there’s a direct risk there… and you don’t really know what the problem is.

My attitude is that if it’s more than an occasional thing / short term use, you need to know WHY you’re in pain. The Advil could conceivably make things worse, or it might mask an otherwise worsening condition.

So I’m really disturbed by the doctor brushing off routine painkiller use without evaluating what’s causing it.

[kushiel]

@heavyarms553

The second reason I would have humored you, and probably the biggest, is that you wanted prednisone. Prednisone is a bitch. A big, big, big bitch. No one likes being on prednisone because it makes you feel horrible. No doctor likes prescribing prednisone because it makes patients feel horrible. However, sometimes we have to because it is the big gun of big guns to stop inflammation. The fact that you wanted to take prednisone would have told me that you probably have a tenuous grasp of what you are talking about. Prednisone isn’t something to be excited about, its something to dread.

This part is interesting to me because I’ve had several older family members who have been on prednisone and have never said anything about it being horrible. I’m guessing their symptom relief outweighs the bad parts. Today I learned something new!

[Mama_Zappa]

@kushiel

This part is interesting to me because I’ve had several older family members who have been on prednisone and have never said anything about it being horrible. I’m guessing their symptom relief outweighs the bad parts. Today I learned something new!

I’m on it right now, and the benefits for me outweigh the horribleness. However, I know people who’ve been on high doses, or who are more sensitive, and get awful mood swings, brain fog, etc.

Prednisone is cheap (my copay for a 2 week supply was less than a dollar) and works beautifully.

It also has unpleasant side effects in the short term (upset stomach, mood swings, increased blood sugar, immunosuppression), and Very Nasty ones in the long term (ulcers, hyper tension, diabetes, cataracts, osteoporosis, suppression of your body’s ability to respond to any kind of illness / injury, weight gain, and many more).

Last time I was at a 60 mg a day taper (on at 60 mg for a day or two, then gradually decreasing 5-10 mg every day or two) I was also on a higher dose of an asthma med that irritates the stomach. Add to that: leftover pizza for breakfast, and 3 hours in waiting room hell with nary a bottle of antacids in sight… and I was unhappy.

A 40 mg taper (which is what I’m on now… for the second asthma flareup this year) has a really surreal side effect, one that I think NASA needs to try to harvest: localized increase in gravity. Pretty nifty, really, except it makes my body appear to weigh about 15% more than normal when I have to stand up and walk around.

Beyond that (since I’m on an acid suppressor anyway), I don’t have too much trouble with it except that sad feeling of the asthma trying to worsen as I taper off after having several days of really great breathing.

Anyway… I’m fortunate that I’ve never had to be on the stuff for more than 3ish weeks at a time. People who have to take it longer term really have to watch it - sometimes they have to bump their dose in case of illness, injury or surgery because it suppresses the body’s natural cortisol production. There are theories that John F. Kennedy would have died of his injuries even if they hadn’t been so grave, because he had damaged adrenal glands and no native cortisol production. A long-term prednisone user can take several years to taper off the filthy stuff.