John Fields said:
Here you are, a stupid **** who has to ask for help on how to wire up
LEDs
Are you claiming that all intelligent people automatically know how
to wire LEDs?
and yet, startlingly intelligent enough to be able to impugn the
education and motives of the medical community.
I have been disabled with ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis): IDC 10
(International Disease Classification 10) code of G93.3 for more
than 32 years. Articles about ME have been published in the peer
reviewed medical literature since 1959. ME has been in the IDC
since 1969. The IDC classifies ME as a neurological illness.
I have probably been to more than 100 MDs. None of them knew much
about my illness. Most of them knew NOTHING about my illness. None
of them were willing to learn much about my illness. Most of them
were unwilling to learn ANYTHING about my illness.
I have been to numerous doctors who "diagnosed" me with depression
without even asking me about my mood, appetite, or enjoyment of
activities. One infectious doctor "diagnosed" me with depression
without even seeing me.
I have tried eight different antidepressants. Most of them made me
WORSE. One of them, Zoloft helped my neurally mediated hypotension
for a few months but it stopped working.
In the spring of 1993 I agreed to take the antidepressant Imipramine
because I was told that I wouldn't be allowed to see the infectious
disease specialist unless I did and I wanted to prove to the doctors
that it wouldn't help me. The drug didn't make me feel any better.
It made me feel MUCH worse. I had insomnia (especially the first
few days) and I wasn't able to do much of anything. I wasn't able
to exercise AT ALL. My libido went down substantially and I had
difficulty reaching orgasm. It also caused such severe night sweats
that I was SURE my waterbed had sprung a leak and made me feel
awful. I was on Imipramine for a total of seven weeks (two weeks at
200 mg) and I gained seven unwanted pounds which I haven't been able
to lose since.
The psychiatrist originally told me that it usually took three to
four weeks to take effect but that he would try it for a maximum of
five weeks and if it had not helped me by that time he would take me
off it. After I had been on it for more than six weeks, I called
the psychiatrist and asked him how much longer I would have to be on
this drug. He said I would have to be on it for five weeks at the
maximum dose of 300 mg. When I told him that the PDR says that the
maximum recommended outpatient dose is 200 mg and that optimum
results take one to three weeks, he said that his recommendations
were based on newer research. I thought about this for a while and
called his service and left a message asking where I could find this
research. He never returned my call even though I left him another
message several days later.
I have been in long term psychotherapy with three different
psychiatrists. I went to one for nine months and two for six months
each. This psychotherapy did not help me with my neurological
illness Myalgic Encephalomyelitis.
I once collapsed with VERY low blood pressure (78/undetectable) and
was taken to the county hospital. They kept me in the hospital for
two weeks trying to reach a diagnosis. The Internal medicine
resident called in the psychiatrists three times. He was convinced
that it MUST be mental but the psychiatrists didn't find any
evidence of mental illness. They finally decided that there was
nothing wrong with me and that my symptoms were caused by
dehydration. They didn't explain why a supposedly healthy 25 year
old would become THAT dehydrated without becoming thirsty and have
750 ml of urine in his bladder (I was unable to urinate and was
catheterized).
One doctor I went to said that he had read several journal articles
on ME and they were all "bad science" (When I asked him if it was
because they disagreed with his preconceived notions he had no
answer.)
Two different doctors have told me that I couldn't possibly have a
chronic viral infection because there was no such thing. There are
several chronic viral infections including HIV and hepatitis C.
I had one MD tell me at least three times in one office visit:
"You're much healthier than you think you are." When I asked him
how many medical journal articles he had read about my illness he
replied: "none". (There are more than 2,000.)
Doctors at one clinic told me that I had a lipid myopathy and that a
special diet would cure me. The diet did not cure me. I have since
learned that children with lipid myopathy all die in their teens. I
was in my late twenties at the time. The diet that was supposed to
cure me caused me to go from about 194 pounds to 116 pounds (I am
just under 68 inches tall). I developed a hernia because of the
diet and had to have surgery.
One MD told me that I couldn't possibly have a chronic infection
because my sedimentation rate was normal. All the medical text
books I have looked at say that the sedimentation rate is only
sometimes elevated in infections.
The first time I took my elderly, very obese mother who was cold all
the time to her MD because she was too disabled to go by herself, I
had to ask four times before the MD agreed to run a TSH test. The
MD said that she was doing it just to humor me and that there was NO
possibility of it being abnormal. About a week later we got a call
from the lab. Mother's TSH was 12.58. (At the time, normal was
less than 5.5. Since then normal has been changed to less than
3.0.)
Once I had an ENT insist that I could not have a sinus infection
because my sinus X-rays (taken 11 months earlier) were negative. I
have since learned that sinus X-rays are not a very good way to
detect sinus infections. Obviously X-rays taken eleven months
earlier could not rule out an infection on that day.
Recently a MD was ready to have my thyroid removed even though the
thyroid ultrasound and thyroid CAT scan results were not yet
available. She was sure I had thyroid cancer because I had
antithyroid antibodies and a CEA of 16.3. (CEA is a test that is
usually elevated in cancer and normal is <5.0.) I refused the
operation and insisted on a thyroid biopsy. When I got to the
hospital for the biopsy, they refused to do one because the other
thyroid tests were normal and there were no masses in my thyroid to
biopsy.
Based on these FACTS, what conclusions do you draw about the medical
profession? If these were your experiences, what would you think
about MDs?
I will change my signature to one that is less offensive to you.