How did you find a tdoc?
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| Fri, 01-12-2007 - 1:01pm |
My pdoc is being really unhelpful. He's really conservative about meds in pregnancy and has a way of making me feel like I'm whining if I ask for help. So far I've only been dealing with him and have no therapist. Things are kind of falling apart for me at the moment and I finally went in to see him the other night and he told me what I needed was "a friend to vent to." The appointment left me feeling kind of desperate because I'm so tired of trying to hold all of this together by myself. When I got home and stopped crying DH and I decided it might be time for me to look for a therapist who could help me deal with the pregnancy and pdoc. However, I don't know how to find one. It seems like a kind of intimate relationship to leave to chance. I can get a list of people my insurance company covers, but then I'm in the dark.
And on a matter of ettiquette...Is there a particular need to let pdoc in on the decision? Is it alright to just let pdoc know I've started seeing an independent tdoc at my appointment next month? Or should I call and talk to him about it ahead of time. He's still kind of annoyed with me that I went around him to my primary when he wouldn't admit it was his med that was causing the withdrawal problem at the beginning of my pregnancy.
Mary

Sounds to me like you need a new PDOC....sorry JMHO. As far as EITHER type doc goes? Unfortunately, it is a process of trial and error. With a tdoc it helps to ask if they either specialize in bp OR if they have any other patients/knowledge of bp. What DW and myself have had to do is visit a doc for a few visits and see if they listen to us, if they actually have any helpful insights and then if we get negative vibes, we try another doc, both pdoc and tdoc....ESPECIALLY where DS's docs were concerned. I myself need to start a search for a tdoc and am dreading it.
I personally would NOT tell your current pdoc as he sounds EXTREMELY terratorial.
tk
Also I just got out of I/P for severe depression. I believe my meds have just stopped working, it has happened before. I went I/P so I could be taken off all meds and be in a controled environment and then start new ones. The STUPID PDOC 1. Only took me off one AD, 2. claimed he was raising the dosage on one, which he actually dropped by 100 mg, 3. prescribed Seriquil which is an anti-psychotic (I'm not psychotic just majorly depressed)and 4. prescribed Ativan which the drugs web site said in bold letters NOT TO BE USED BY PERSONS WITH SLEEP APNEA (guess what I have)it also said you had to sleep for 8 hrs and not get up because you could fall and not to drive for 48 hrs after taking it. Hello my DH works an hour away and I'm a SAHM with 2 kids. I can't take something like that.
Sorry that is OT but I wanted to share with you that NO PDOCS don't always know what is best for the patient and sometimes you just need to tell them to go fly a kite and find yourself a new one that is open to listening to your concerns.
Good Luck and unfortuanatly as DH (TK) said it is mostly trial and error. I just had a thought. IF you have a GP see if they can give you a recomendation for PDOC and TDOC.
Thanks to both of you. I kind of know I need a new pdoc. I picked this one randomly from a list last year around this time when I thought I was have a medication failure and some growing problems with depression. My primary told me it wasn't depression alone, but bipolar and tried to prescribe lamactil on a trial basis. I flipped out because I was sooo not ready to hear that my problems are bp. Now a year later and a lot of reading and I know he was right. My pdoc still says because I've never done anything like go out and buy 3 new cars in a single day that I'm not having true manic symptoms. The only reason I've gotten the bp dx is that I'm so much better on a mood stabilizer than off. I only know that because my neuro put me on topamax for migraine prevention.
I wish I could just go see my primary. He's the best doctor I've ever had for anything. Unfortunately he works for one of those hospital system clinics and has a lot of rules to follow. Technically he's not allowed to see me at all, for anything while I'm pregnant. He saw me when I was really desparate and withdrawing from all my meds only because DH called and begged. None of the people that had prescribed the meds would even return my phone calls after a cursory "It's not anything I prescribed" message on the machine. He wrote me a script for a smaller dose of effexor to help me wean off when pdoc refused. That's why we're having a problem over that. I want to call and ask for a script for a liquid suspension of effexor because I can't get off the last 37.5mg and I want it out of my system before 3rd trimester. I can't just stop taking it because I'll get severe vertigo and added nausea and since I'm still losing weight due to m/s I'm afraid 2 weeks of withdrawal would just put me in the hospital. Pdoc won't do it for some reason, but my pcp has offered. I just don't want to get him in trouble.
Blah. Thanks again.
Mary
atomic_girl said
"My pdoc still says because I've never done anything like go out and buy 3 new cars in a single day that I'm not having true manic symptoms."
JMHO. Your PDOC is CRAZY!!! There are several forms of BP. Besides the fact that every BP patient is different. I know for a fact that one type of BP does not have the HIGHS such as feeling on top of the world, feeling like superman/woman, but instead is just more irritable. How do I know this? Exhibit A my DH, Exhibit B my DS, Exhibit C a very good friend of ours (they her and her DH are still bulking at the diagnosise of BP but I think they are finally coming around) Both DH and DS are EOBP or early onset bipolar which is even a whole different animal than BP I or BP II. DH gets very irratable and very edgey. DS does show signs of the Superman complex but doesn't manifest as such it is just he knows everything and he can do what he wants BECAUSE he knows everything.
So again I really urge you to find a different PDOC. If you can get your GP to prescribe the meds to keep you stable while looking for a new one that would be a good route to follow. If she/he is unable to do that maybe she/he can reccomend someone who can.
Again this is JMHO, but you did come here for advice.
p.s. there are a LOT of QUAKES practicing medicine.
Hi Mary,
My first time that I sought counseling I went through the local county mental health services. I was bounced around to 3 different therapists in 6
Thanks for replying. My DH figured out on Friday that his EAP could handle referrals for me too. I got to talk with a really helpful woman that knows all about my insurance plan and who was willing to do some checking for me. I told her what I was looking for and she said she could find me a few names if I could wait until Tuesday. I'm feeling better about the process at the moment. She was even able to recommend a new pdoc for me right away if I needed to switch to a new one (which I might). Now all I have to do is find a new OB.
I feel so lazy saying this, but I really don't feel like I have the energy to go through the kind of run around you got. I'm so drained (physically and emotionally) this pregnancy and the little roadblocks are just painful to a level that is totally out of proportion with reality. And the worst part it that I'm guessing from my past experience that it will all get 10 times worse after the baby is born.
Thanks again.
Mary
Mary,
The best way is if you can get a referall from someone you know who's seeing someone they like, failing that another medical professional is a good bet.