I cannot say enough about the importance of being your own advocate when it comes to your medical care. Do your own research. Never assume that the doctor has all of the answers. No one knows your body the way that you do. If you don’t agree with the diagnosis or the doctor doesn’t seem to care to take the time to hear what you have to say, move on to another doctor. Don’t let any doctor belittle you for watching out for your best welfare. If you don’t, who will?
There have been all too many times in my life when I have had to stand up to a doctor and refuse the treatment being “suggested” or speak out on behalf of a loved one who was too ill to care for himself or herself. There have also been times when I did go along with the doctor’s recommendations and in more than one case it cost me serious damage to my health. At the time I believed that doctor knew what he was doing. After all, he was a doctor, right?!!
Over the past 5 or 6 years, I have had some neurological symptoms that concerned me. I have had a history of head/neck/spine trauma from 3 car accidents all involving whiplashes (2 serious) as well as some other traumatic events to my body. I had developed a mild tremor in my right hand at first. I went to a neurologist who seemed to consider himself king of neurology. In time that opinion seemed to carry over to some of his neurology colleagues. After a few simple tests the first neurologist proclaimed that I had Parkinson’s Disease. I wanted to tell him about the many traumatic occurrences that had happened to my body but when I began to ask him about them and the part I believed they played in my symptoms, his exact words were “You have Parkinson’s Disease. Get over it and move on!” Shocked by his unprofessional attitude as well as having a deep down feeling that something else was going on I followed his advice—I moved on to another neurologist.
The problem with moving on, especially in a tight knit old boys network of neurologists or other doctors for that matter, is that when you move on you likely are seeing one or several of the first doctor’s buddies. So with each new neurologist, I was barely seen for two minutes without the resounding “Yes, you have Parkinson’s Disease.”
Now, it wasn’t as if I didn’t WANT to believe this diagnosis. It was just that a strong voice inside me kept saying no, it is something else. I am not afraid of a name of a disease. My God is far bigger than that disease name. He can heal anything! What I was concerned about was being treated for the wrong thing! After having seen several (7 sounds about right) doctors, mostly neurologists who gave the same diagnosis, I stopped the search. I turned to prayer in a mighty way. I knew that God knew what was going on with me and that He would lead me to the answers in His time.
One day a friend of mine, Sharon, called a friend of hers to pray over me. As Nancy, her friend, prayed, she said that God was giving her the word “myelin sheath”. She was quite perplexed at these words she had never previously heard. Then God began to give her pictures of my spine and brain and He spoke to her of tears on those areas. She had no idea what she was saying but I did. I told my Integrative doctor about this and asked him if I could have Multiple Sclerosis. He was shocked by these specific responses to prayer and didn’t answer my question. He then referred me to another doctor who, when told this scenario said “So, God is now in the business of diagnosing?” Uh, yes, absolutely. . . . . I moved on yet again.
Later I was asked to participate in some clinical trials for a new hypertensive supplement that was being developed by my Integrative doctor. The nurse helping with the study and I were talking and I told her my plight in finding a neurologist who would listen to me. God intervened again and this nurse gave me the name of my current neurologist whose specialty is Multiple Sclerosis! In fact, I have heard from his other patients that he is one of the foremost diagnosticians for MS in the country! (She and I didn’t know that at the time.) Not only that, but he is a great listener and an altogether wonderful, caring person! This doctor ran a multitude of tests but within a matter of minutes of examining me he said, “No doctor who knows what Parkinson’s Disease looks like would think that you have PD. However, I do think that you might have Multiple Sclerosis with some Parkinsonism symptoms.” After many tests, including a spinal tap, an MRI, a multitude of lab tests and more, it is now confirmed that I DO NOT have Parkinson’s Disease but I do have MS!
Oh, yes. . .I forgot to tell you that God told 2 other people who were praying over me that I don’t have Parkinson’s Disease but that I just have the symptoms due to other causes.
Now I know the truth and as my Integrative doctor said, we now have a target to shoot at. Think of my story the next time your doctor doesn’t have the time to listen to you. You know your body. Find a doctor who is in the business of caring for each individual and will listen to what you have to say. Those doctors do still exist. I actually have two of them now. And I still reserve the right to pick and choose whether or not I will follow their recommendations because I do my homework and I am ultimately responsible for myself. We are meant to work as a team. It just might take some time to find doctors like this but you will if you trust God to help. You can know beyond a shadow of a doubt that He cares about you!
