My medical Mecca

We traveled to Toledo on the 30th of Nov. Flying is always hard for me now; it's very tiring and I often get a sense that I've had "one drink too many". This has to do with the lower cabin pressures and blood flow in the brain. I sat next to a wonderful woman who was coming back from a radiology trade show in Chicago. After talking about kids, jobs, Christmas, etc., she told me about her sister's recent accident and subsequent medical woes. Her sister had soft tissue injuries but many of the docs she encountered wrote her off, hinting at mental health isssues. This really threw my fellow traveler as her sister had been a hard worker before the accident and not one to complain. Boy, did this sound familiar. Why do people with problems not easily quantified by standard tests get labeled in such a derogatory way? In our quest to advance the science of medicine it seems like we physicians have, in some cases, forgotten the art of medicine. We've also forgotten the limits of our knowledge. Early in my career my mother told me it would be good if I was ill from time to time so I would not forget what it was like tto be the patient. Perhaps docs need to have at least one unexplainable malady in their working years so they'll be less dismissive of patients whose symptoms can't be verified with lab work or xrays.
My appointment was on Dec. 1. Dr. Grubb was running late so Ralph had to catch the plane back hhome before I was seen. He was on call the next day and simply could not stay. Too bad, as Blair Grubb was as wonderful as ever even though he had just come back from his own medical leave. My vitals suggested thhat my BP had not remained stabilized (explaining my increasing fatigue in the pm). I received a new med- mestinon. Norrmally this is used in myasthenia gravis but the thought is that blocking the ganglions would help raise my BP and make me less tachy, decreasing my fatigue. More important than the new med was his reconsideration of my situation. I told him that the Mayo neuros had written me off as somatizising and the label was preventing other neuros from truly considering the particulars of my case. Dr. Grubb again told me that he thhought it likely that an underlying illness, not yet diagnnosed, was the source of my problems. He told me of a lecture he had attended on mitochondrial disease and speculated that this may be my diagnosis. He gave me the name of a doc to see who is working with this group of illnesses. I've contacted that office and am waiting for a reply.
Having a diagnosis would be empowering as then I would have some sense of a prognosis and could make plans for the future based on something other than my gut feeling. To be truly listened to and having my problem considered with an open mind is so refreshing. It restores my faith in the profession I so dearly love. Thank you, Dr. Grubb.

I see my typing is still giving me extra letters. To me this demonstrates that I'm slow in releasing the keyy- an extensor problem.