Several of you have sleuthed out which doctor I saw last week and, upon reading her website, have asked (kindly) why in the world I even saw her. “Quack” is the word that comes to mind looking at her site — her version of science is hogwash and her treatment practices are over-the-top woo. The appointment proved that she is indeed a quack.
Why is someone who understands and appreciates science, dislikes quackery, and has solid critical thinking skills seeing a doctor like this? It’s really quite simple: I want to feel better and current medical science isn’t moving quickly enough for me. If this doctor had given me even one piece of helpful information (and her credentials indicated she could), the visit would have been worth the money spent.
This is odd an odd place to be. I have the utmost respect for Western medicine and appreciate that diagnoses and treatments are well grounded in science. Pursuing treatment that has little or no empirical evidence to support it goes against my inclination. However. The most improvement I’ve had has come from a treatment that’s untested and unproven for a diagnosis that’s outside mainstream medicine.
I continue to set aside my skepticism (as long as I don’t believe a treatment to be harmful) because Western medicine hasn’t yet been able to help me much. I haven’t given up on allopathic medicine, but I’m also not sitting around waiting for it to catch up to my needs. If I had, I wouldn’t have felt better in the last nine months than I did in more than a decade.
My ability to function is more important than money or having my beliefs called into question by finding a treatment that goes against the grain. I won’t bankrupt myself for a treatment and I won’t try anything I deem potentially harmful or total bull. I evaluate every provider I see with logic and reason and, if I have to stretch my boundaries a bit sometimes, that’s OK. Time out of bed is the most precious commodity I have and I will always seek to increase it. This is my life.
(Since some of you have asked: I didn’t do any of the tests and will not be seeing this doctor ever again.)
Thanks for the positive reinforcement! It didn’t work the first time for me. Dr says that he has seen it not work until the 3rd time and then take effect, so I have another scheduled for 12/16 (gotta get ’em in while we’ve met our deductible, ya know.)
Haven’t seen a recent post from you in a while. My prayers are that you’re doing so well that your life is now too busy with other things!. Hope that is so, but we miss your insight. It really does enlighten so many.
You’re so sweet, Ellen! I’ve had a rough couple weeks migraine-wise. Between that, managing my diet, and holiday madness, I’ve barely had time to finish a thought.
Please let us know how the Botox went. The third time is usually the charm. I learned at the AHS meeting in November that Botox reps are now telling doctors it can take
five
rounds of injections before it becomes effective. The doctors I spoke to about it said that they’ve seen no data to that effect, but were willing to try it for some patients. I wish you the best of luck.
Take care,
Kerrie
Just wanted to share a new procedure that I’m having tomorrow morning called a sphenocath ganglion block. It is a non-invasive nasal catheter that sprays a solution on the ganglion nerve bundle at the back of the sinus cavity at the top of the trigeminal nerve. Evidently this “shocks” or “resets” the pain sensors to the brain and is known to give lasting relief from migraine for as long as 2 years in some cases. The whole procedure takes only abut 5 minutes, outpatient or done in the specialist’s office. There is the possibility that it won’t work or that I won’t get relief for very long, but I’m still very excited to try this and will be sure to let you know if it works.
I hope it went well, Ellen! Even if the SPG block doesn’t help, occipital or trigeminal nerve blocks may be helpful. (They target different nerves and locations on the nerves. The SPG block gets the SPG as well as the middle branch of the trigeminal; trigeminal blocks are usually done in/near the eyebrows; occipital are done at the back of the head.) The only drawback is that the trigeminal and occipital blocks require needles.
Take care,
Kerrie