The first thing to mention about the comparison between my old doctor and the new ones deals with timeliness. Can a doctor really be on time? Can you arrive a few minutes early and actually get in before the scheduled appointment? Well, after having fought my way in to the last few appointments with my regular old doctor, I can say that “Yes you can.” For my appointment, I got there a bit early and got into the exam room ten minutes or so early. The doctor entered right at my appointment time and apologized that he was late. What?
I had lab work of course. All in all it was almost the same as it was the last time I had blood work. The difference was that last time my doctor said- It is all normal. This time, with virtually the same test results, the new doctor went in detail into the results and what they all meant, and then told me the only slight problem was that I was just a bit anemic and that I could benefit from a dietary supplement of B-12 and iron. I mean, I already knew that from last time but I had not done anything because I was told it was of no concern to be just a bit off as far as being anemic. This time, I jumped at getting the supplement because I was told it could help.
Oh, and this one actually examined me. To be fair, it has been a while since I had scheduled a real extensive physical with my old doctor. But, I would have expected that for whatever reason I have had to see him that he would at least have done a cursory exam, since that was how my visits were billed to my insurance. The new guy did not do an extensive physical either. But he did a quick exam and found a tiny lump on my thyroid. It is too soon to say what this is as the biopsy is still in the future.
Long time readers, if there are any, may already know that I have been afraid for a while that doctors would have missed something about my overall health because they were thinking that all my symptoms could be explained by PTS/HNA. And maybe while I was seeing doctors specifically about that earlier on, they were not really looking at my overall other health concerns as much as I may have thought they would or should do. You know what though? I am not sure how long this lump has been there, but it is possible it may have been overlooked earlier from lack of interest. I can’t remember the last time any doctor anywhere examined my neck. They may have had reason to check. It turns out my thyroid function is still OK, but my thyroid could have been playing a part in my overall weakness. No one ever bothered to check that before. . .
