#containing diet tips for when you're suffering from gout

[scentedluminarysoul]

I've just come home from a visit to the orthopedist discussing my MRI.

And it turns out I'm fine! Completely healthy! No worries whatsoever! Except the constant, almost immobilizing pain, but that has no cause, so it's not there!

A bit of backstory: about seven years ago I was at a different orthopedist. He took x-rays and explained to me, in detail, with drawings, that I had bony growths on the vertibrae of my lower back, putting pressure on the discs and nerves, causing the pain. He showed me the x-rays even.

Not much one can do, avoid standing or walking for extended periods and no heavy lifting.

Life happened, humans can get used to everything and I just never really followed up or had more physical therapy than the initial sessions he prescribed.

Fast forward to late last year, when I visited the current quack doctor. He didn't listen to a word I said. He asked me about my medical history, I told him about the above and said I just wanted to take care of it and have it regularly checked and treated. He then asked how long I've had back pain and I told him since puberty, roughly.

He looked at me condescendingly and said in a patronizing and amused tone: "You've had it for 30 years and never saw a doctor about it?"

I was speechless. I told him, again, that I did indeed see a doctor about it. I didn't tell him that his math was off by at least ten years, re: puberty and my current age. Rude. He has my age right in front of him. He also seemed to not understand that I was at an orthopedist, he kept talking about my GP.

Then they took an x-ray. And apparently, nothing. In the last 7 or so years, without therapy, while the pain was getting worse and worse, the growths just. Disappeared. A miracle. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it sounds... unlikely?

I also asked about my shoulder, which I mentioned like hals a dozen times to multiple people, including him when I first entered the room. He, again patronizingly told me I should've mentioned it sooner, there's no time left now.

So then he agreed to me getting an MRI. Which I had done. Which brings us to today.

I'm soso glad I brought my helper (she supports me with my mental health, making and going to appointments, etc), because having a witness is always better. She wasn't allowed in the room with the doc, though (weird)

So I go in. He tells me there's nothing, they haven't found anything.

Silence. He's done talking.

I ask: "So where does the pain come from?"

"No idea."

Silence. He's done talking.

Me: "So what now?"

Him: "We could do acupuncture."

Oh fuck no. I'm not helping you line your pockets with woowoo pseudoscience. Is what I wanted to say. I instead politely declined, stating I tried it in the past and it didn't help (which is true. I was basically forced to at least try it once, since insurers pay for that crap and doctors can claim you deny treatment, which could make it harder to get actual treatment in the future. It's fucked up and there are groups trying to stop the "alternative health" crap being paid for by taxes.)

Silence.

Me: "Physical therapy?"

So he writes a prescription for that, asks if I've been doing the exercises he gave me last time. I have, they make it worse, he concludes I'm just doing them wrong and should ask the physical therapist how to do them correctly (couldn't be that they're wrong kind of exercise or any other cause, since I'm perfectly healthy after all)

And that was it. It took way longer to write it down than the appointment actually lasted. So I go back to the waiting room and my helper looks at me like I'm a ghost. I was in there for less than a minute.

She is as shocked as I am. Her main gripe is that he didn't offer anything. No solution, no speculation, bno further diagnostics, no referral to a different doctor or anything. He was just done with me. NEXT!

You can so tell when doctors are just in it for the money. More appointments, more money. My GP takes at least 10 minutes, often 20 to talk to me, brainstorming ideas and looking up stuff.

So yeah. I'm left with almost nothing. My back still hurts like a bitch. I can't lie flat on my back or even really touch my lumbar vertibrae because it hurts to put the slightest pressure on it. Which was explained by my previous diagnosis, the one that magically disappeared.

I lumber around the apartment like a zombie penguin. There's sharp pain from my lower back to my heels, along the back of my legs, when I lift something too heavy (which on some days can be a 1,5L bottle)

But I guess it's all just my imagination.

#we're looking into getting another opinion #it's just really hard to get an appointment #especially right now #non-emergency is a bit on hold #rightfully so i might add #but still #and honestly #i don't think the fact that i'm afab is completely irrelevant with how i was treated #i once went to a rheumatologist who was know for not talking to women #one time he gave me pieve if paper #containing diet tips for when you're suffering from gout #he just slid it across the table. got up. and left #didn't say a word #to this day i have no idea whether i have gout or no #personal #rant #medical #back issues #bad doctors #acupuncture is woowoo #i'm sorry #it's a fact #long post #feeling lost