Repost: Thoughtful Thursday – 15 January
With another doctor’s appointment this past Tuesday (a gastroenterologist this time), I’ve really been spending this week thinking about the physical interpretation of health. I’ve been dealing with some issues that seem to enjoy masquerading as other things . After that little adventure a couple of months back, I decided to keep a food journal and track what I ate and my symptoms – my doctor was suspecting IBS, hence the GI doc, and I decided I’d had enough and would wait until after the holidays.
Well, the GI doc? Everything one would expect, and none of it good. More poking, tests, prodding, various unpleasantries. Agressive testing, in my opinion, that as he was talking about it, I found myself feeling distinctly uncomfortable.
Like, NO WAY AM I SIGNING ON FOR THAT.
Driving home with the knowledge that he, too suspects IBS, but “just wants to rule out other things,” I became suddenly philosophical.
How much is too much? This is MY body, MY medical care – it’s not what HE wants, it’s what I feel is best for me. If, on a scale of 1 to 10 where higher number = BAD, he wants to run a test on me that – all things considered (monetary cost, time, anxiety, discomfort), I rank as a 7, and it does not guarantee an answer, and further, how I FEEL is a 3, well then…simple cost / benefit.
I’ve already had a bunch of tests. If there was something really wrong, they would have seen it. Upon reading up on IBS, I don’t have any of the “alarm” symptoms. Only the classic ones. So – am I content to move ahead just knowing what I know now, or to I want to do every test on the planet to validate that? If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it’s probably a duck. I don’t need to run up to it and grab it to be 200% sure. I’m OK with 90%.
I’m OK with 90%. That’s a big step.
IBS is something that is managed, not cured. It will not kill me. If they were suspecting something damaging, something that would kill me, then I would want to know and I damn well would want it fixed. But I’m 31, not 70, so don’t run all those tests on me that you run on all those elderly people in the waiting room just because it’s what you do. I appreciate thoroughness, but COME ON.
My whole life, I have done whatever doctors think should be done. I trust them, almost implicitly because – well – they’re doctors. In this particular case, though….I left feeling not so trusting. I’m questioning. And for the first time, I feel that that is healthy to do. This is MY world, squirrel.
I don’t know what my deal is today with animals, but this realization is PROGRESS.
