| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| carbar |
Posted - 05/07/2007 : 20:11:18
Oh, I know it's a strong word, but I can't resist. I really need to vent, folks...bear with me!
I wound up at the doctor today to get a routine vaccine, and also to check on a week of sinus pressure. As soon as I hit the waiting room a few minutes before my appointment, my heart was beating out of my chest and my head was spinning.
I go to a pretty big internal practice affiliated with a local teaching hospital and got my doc on the recommendation of a friend. She's nice enough and seems to genuinely listen and was open to Sarno when I first met her. (That was a big step for me too -- first time telling a doc about Sarno)
It's just the setting of the office and the windowless rooms and the tired linoleum floors and the really trying for sanitary conditions of the whole thing. For me, this is sort of a moment of post-traumatic stress because the setting reminds me of those AWFUL interactions I had with the first docs who were "treating" RSI in my arms. It reminds me of their condescending attitudes and their complete lack of concern for me as a human being. It recalls bodily all the feelings of disrespect and powerlessness inherent in those visits. Going to the doctor's office makes me feel ashamed for ever thinking that a doctor would even have any answers, let alone all of them, which is what I had thought previous to my RSI diagnosis.
I guess what is still painful is that I was in pain for 7 years of my life that I'll never get back and going to the doctor reminds me of all those wasted hours of physical therapy, waiting for appointments, steeling myself against the insensitive jerkface who was doctor in college. All of that time and energy for...essentially something made up by my stupid brain!
So, I'm in that stupid exam room after this incompetent "medical assistant" has to take my blood pressure twice and the tears are just welling up! There's such a swirl of emotions -- but the moral of the story is that the next time I am having trouble accessing the feelings of rage and despair, I should just hang out in the waiting room of my docs office....I think I've got enough stirred up for the rest of the week. :D
Thanks for listening! |
| 13 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| weatherman |
Posted - 05/12/2007 : 21:22:03
In spite of the money it must be demoralizing to be a doc these days. I don't know if it's like this in more urban areas - but doctor encounters these days are very much like an assembly line, with the object of herding through as many patients as quickly as possible. In this environment, how is any doctor going to have time to discuss TMS theory with you, even if the doc is actually open to the idea?
I suppose these are the fruits of turning our medical system over to the trial lawyers and insurance companies. My sister is an ER doc, and her malpractice insurance costs something like 40 grand a year - and who do you think pays it? (Right - we do).
Weatherman |
| tennis tom |
Posted - 05/09/2007 : 09:41:39
Some good points being made here by everyone!
Some of my favorite excerpts from "The Divided Mind" :
http://www.tmshelp.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2605
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| carbar |
Posted - 05/09/2007 : 09:07:13
Thanks for your responses, folks.
No offense is meant to the drive to be good and helpful in my doctors, Dr. Z. The thing is that ALL of the folks in the medical field must have some innate desire to help others, but they are trapped in this beheamoth system of money/power/control that rewards speed and drugs rather than treating people. And how 'bout the whole road to medical school that rewards the test acers and the power hungry? I have lots of caring and smart friends who didn't go this route coz it's a rough one to handle emotionally and academically...
Sarno is saying that there is an epidemic of TMS (which can indeed manifest itself as hypertension) so when you say that docs are useless when it comes to TMS, that's really scary. Thanks for your hard work, dr. z, in promoting this to your colleagues.
Cognitive dissonance -- isn't this when you've invested so heavily in a system that you are conditioned to accept its short comings? Once you are swimming in debt from med school, there's a lot less desire to change the system than to keep yourself afloat having to pay off $100,000 in loans. So the status quo it is...
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| shawnsmith |
Posted - 05/08/2007 : 20:05:41
It is the system Art, the damn system. If the establishment were to accept TMS, billions of dollars would be lost by those who have a stake in ensuring people remain in pain and use the snake oil "remedies."
Thank God for people like Dr. Drizzles, et al., who are sticking their necks out with a genuine concern to alleviate the sufferings of others.
*************
Sarno-ize it!
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| art |
Posted - 05/08/2007 : 13:09:16
Dr. Z,
I've all the respect in the world for you and would love to have a physician as enlightened and caring, but it's tough out there. I've been dismissed, ignored, patronized, and misdiagnosed. I've had surgeries recommended that I did not need and have also had surgeries botched. I'm 56 years old and can count the good doctors I've seen on two fingers.
And that doesn't even begin to cover it. Arrogant nurses, over-crowded and over-booked waiting room, insurance hassles. Of course, some of these can't be blamed on doctors, but much of it can. And even if it can't, it becomes part of the standard associations people have concerning the whole medical experience...
I need to have a few tests this year...colonoscopy for one, but beyond that, and assuming I continue to feel healthy, I feel that on balance I'm better off steering as entirely clear of doctors as I possibly can.
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| mizlorinj |
Posted - 05/08/2007 : 13:05:46
Dr. Sarno is a professor and attending physician at NYU/Rusk Institute. Specializing in back problems.
-Lori |
| drziggles |
Posted - 05/08/2007 : 12:38:02
Yes: us.
It is going to take people with TMS telling their friends and their personal physicians about the Sarno concepts. As everyone here knows, this is a "grassroots" movement of sorts, and it is spreading from person to person. I make sure to mention in my letters to referring physicans that I am recommending a book by "Dr. John Sarno, who is a physiatrist at NYU, which discusses the role of emotional issues in physical symptoms". I even had an orthopedist ask me about it after one of these letters (and I should really send him a copy of the book to follow up on this, for example).
I'm not optimistic at this point that TMS will become part of standard medicine for some time, but I hope it eventually will. If it does, I suspect it will be largely due to aveage people spreading knowledge about it, which will eventually trickle upwards... |
| tennis tom |
Posted - 05/08/2007 : 12:32:24
quote:
Originally posted by drziggles
Sure, regarding TMS symptoms, most doctors are near useless or worse, but that is largely because of a lack of knowledge, not lack of the desire to help.
So, is there a solution to this "lack of knowledge" problem?
some of my favorite excerpts from 'TDM' : http://www.tmshelp.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=2605
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| drziggles |
Posted - 05/08/2007 : 12:25:21
I get a little annoyed at the intense cynicism so many people on this forum seem to have at the medical profession and pharmaceutical industry. Sure, regarding TMS symptoms, most doctors are near useless or worse, but that is largely because of a lack of knowledge, not lack of the desire to help. Many doctors hate treating people with back pain and other such symptoms because of frustration at a perceived inability to help people, which is what they go to work every day to do.
When it comes to general health and longevity, there is a reason that the life expectancy is no longer 40, like it was at the turn of the century, and it is mainly because of medical advances, including antibiotics and hypertensive treatments, among others. If you have great genes and everyone in your family lives to be 95, then please, stay away from the doctor. The rest of us owe it to ourselves to get regular checkups, screening for colon and cervical cancer, and to treat problems like hypertension, diabetes, and high cholesterol.
It's easy for many here to be so cavalier because they are mostly young and healthy, albeit typically anxious and with various physical symptoms. Don't throw out the baby with the bathwater because of negative experiences you have had with some in the medical profession. If you actually get sick, you'll be looking for a good doctor just as fast as anyone else, and I hope you have one. |
| art |
Posted - 05/08/2007 : 12:00:15
Carbar, me too...So many bad associations with doctors and that whole bag of unpleasantness that goes with seeking out professional health care these days...
My solution? Failing a broken leg or heart attack or something, I just don't go...Haven't been to a doctors office in over 3 years...
Never felt better. |
| Shary |
Posted - 05/08/2007 : 08:49:07
What I've come to hate about the allopathic medical industry is the scare tactics. They want us to believe we'll all die a horrible death at a very young age if we don't constantly submit ourselves for examination and treatment. This usually means taking drugs that are poorly tested and sometimes so toxic they can kill. Too bad so many people have bought into this bunk, perpetuating what's become a nationally endorsed racket. |
| shawnsmith |
Posted - 05/08/2007 : 07:50:38
carbar
There are are important life lessons in your experience, and mizlorinj has outlined some of them. You are the source of your own healing, not doctors. We place too much faith in others to make us whole and not enough in ourselves.
*************
Sarno-ize it!
************* |
| mizlorinj |
Posted - 05/08/2007 : 07:02:39
I hear ya on the waste of time! I'm happy you were able to vent about it!
I also think of the money I wasted on orthopedists who gave me the standard "you are at the age for degenerative disc disease" AUGH. What a bunch of crap! And lying in that awful MRI machine for an hour to find a herniated disc.
True, doctors do not know all the answers. I see why you would be emotional after some of the things you went through.
I realize there are a few times I'll have to sit in a waiting room, then wait in the exam room for necessary precautionary procedures (mammogram) but I will make my doc appts few and far between. Now that I realize so much pain or discomfort can be caused by my emotions!
Best wishes,
Lori |
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