How do you find a doctor who listens to you

That's a tough one Ne Ne. I have had a tough time with finding good doctors as well. My current GI doesn't seem to have time for me and yet feels that he knows best how to treat me. I disagree. He, like all specialists, have a wealth of information to offer us, but they often lack the time or inclination to really listen and address problems that are outside of their scope of knowledge. This is when it becomes "in your head" to the doctor.

While I would not discount the potential benefit you might gain by going to see a therapist, depression does not usually manifest itself in localized pain, and I think that your GI just doesn't know what to do about things that aren't directly related to the digestive system.

I have a great primary care physician who takes the time to listen, and is more effective about communicating my needs to my GI than I am sometimes. He and his staff are very supportive, and I feel lucky to have them every time I'm on hold for 15 minutes with my GI's office.

My advice to you is to find a good general care physician. If you have an advocate who really cares about their patients, they can be a great resource to work with those docs with less than stellar bed-side manner. In the event that the IM doc doesn't have a clue, a good doctor knows when to find a specialist in the area you need. Good luck with everything; keep us posted.

Mark

And I strongly concur as well!!! We NEED one doctor who will listen to us, who will see us as an entire human being, not just a GI tract or a uterus or a bladder or ... whatever. We need a doctor to coordinate our total health care. I INSIST that the results of EVERY test, procedure, blood draw, whatever, be sent to my family doctor, NOT just to the ordering physician. Even my optholmologist must send my family doctor a letter once a year regarding my eye exams (I have glaucoma in one eye). We need a doctor who BELIEVES us.

As a for instance: minor Crohn's symptoms when I was considered to be "in remission" by my gastro. She's not a particular believer in the CRP and sed rate and seldom orders them. My Mayo Clinic gastro on the other hand always orders a CRP "and" sed rate w/every regular blood draw for the Imuran. My family doctor will order a CRP and sed rate whenever I indicate something is going on that might be Crohn's related and "we've" usually been right! Now, the CRP and/or sed rate might be only slightly elevated but it usually told him when I was getting sloppy about taking my Pentasa (I've always been faithful w/my Imuran).

I've read of those fortunate to have such a wonderful gastro that their gastro is their primary care physician. The "specialty" doesn't matter, its the doctor. Does he/she see you as an entire human body and respect your questions and or opinions?

As for your pain: how aggressively and conscientiously are you treating your disease? I can't advise you on pain relief as if Tylenol doesn't work for me I'm in a world of hurt. No oral pain medication has ever worked as well as Tylenol w/o making me sicker than I was w/o it. (I have a VERY low tolerance for nausea). But I would be looking to treat my disease more effectively to reduce the cause of the pain. It might ease your mind if you got a copy of EVERY test and precedure result yourself, including blood draws. You can quickly learn to question any abnormal results and what they might indicate and then push your doctor in that direction.

Good luck and God bless!

Right on, RedJeep. Only a little more diplomacy in the manner in which you say it does help. But I totally agree about being right up front w/your doctor if you feel he/she isn't listening, paying attention, etc.

Crohnietoo you've got it. I can't remember who to give credit for what I'm about to say.[it's been awhile since I've been here]

It's about the level of smooth. You can learn to do this kind of thing without being offending or nasty. Takes time to learn. I used to have panic attacks about meeting new doctors.

rj

I know this is my problem rather than everyone elses but I have a problem finding a Primary care doctor worth talking too. Mine listens but doesn't usually know what to do with the information and asks me what treatment I need. If I knew that I would have gone to the minute clinic at CVS rather than waste a work day in the doctors office. (My specialists are the best its only my PM that doesn't get it).
Sj

Guys it's a tough thing. I have found when I take the crohn's factor out I get better results. When a doc asks me now what I think I need I usually know.
You can't banter back and forth. The he said she said thing can really mess you up. Becoming a problem patient is my biggest fear. I don't discuss my crohn's with my primary at all. I let him bring it up. And when he thinks somethings related he put two and two together.
He told me on our first meeting to let the GI deal with the crohn's and let him deal with all the other stuff that could kill me.

Simplify-
don't make it so complicated.

rj

I see a therapist. Wouldn't trade her for the world. We work on anxiety issues. Very helpful. This way I can talk about my crohn's issues without always having to bother family and friends. She will also help me talk to the doc.s too. She's my best doc.

rj

I really feel for you Ne Ne. I've had the run around from doctors since I was 15, 7 years ago. My biggest pet peeve is when you tell them that a drug is not working after 5 years and they won't research something new for you because its to much of a hassle for them.
Doctors are only human to so im not afraid to get a second, third, and fourth opinion. Many of my problems are caused by docs not looking into to my pleas of pain. I had told my doc for 2 yrs that I had pain in all of my bones, but he wouldn't listen, so i found a new doc who ordered a bone scan, which diagnosed me with Osteopenia, due to the lengthy use of prednisone(2 yrs) which the doctor never paid attention to. Anything over 6 weeks is to much. And yet again I'm on prednisone and now that I'm weaning off it I i'm getting tremendously sick again.
I'm just in search of a new G.I. becasue there isn't one near where I live. The closest doc is an hour away and he's just an internist doctor. At one point I was driving 8 hrs away to see a doctor who is awesome. I just couldn't afford to take a fewdays to drive down to see him for only a 10 minute visit really.
I've been researching a new drug that isn't yet FDA approved and I hope that he will prescribe it to me. A friend of mine on another website tikd me about it. Youmay or may not have heard of it. It's called LDN, low dose naltrexone. Barely any symptoms. And the results my friend has received from the drug are astounding. She says her pain is reduced so much. Her BM's went from 15+ down to like 3. I wish :)
The drug is being researched in line with MS mainly, but people are recognizing the benfits in crohn's and many other diseases.
Well I just thought I'd put that out there if anyone wanted to know of something new in the field of drugs. It's super cheap as well. the only thing is getting a doc to prescribe it to you. because it' not totally FDA approved. It's original use was to get heroine addicts off the drugs using a 50 mg dose, but for our use its like 2 or 3 mg a day. Just google it and you can probably find some good info on it if your interested.