In the past few years, and mainly in the past few months, I’ve had a lot of opportunities to think about being ill. A couple of years ago I was having periodic abdominal pains, often not very bad, occasionally severe. my doctor talked to me and diagnosed me with reflux. So I ignored the pain and toughed it out. Turns out it wasn’t reflux, it was gall bladder disease. Because I hadn’t known what was wrong, I hadn’t taken care of my gall bladder, and I ended up having it removed.

I don’t see that doctor any more.

Last spring I began having pain again, along with chronic diarrhea. I’ve been to two MDs, 3 gastroenterologists, had tons of bloodwork, 2 ultrasounds, and other labwork done, and had a colonoscopy. The first two gastros I saw diagnosed me with IBS as soon as they laid eyes on me. They wanted to do colonoscopies to confirm their diagnosis, and what they told me was that if they found nothing wrong in my colon, that meant I had IBS. In other words, they’d already decided. And their treatment for IBS? I should shut up and deal with it.

I don’t have any time to waste on morons, even if they have letters after their names. I know good diagnostic procedure when I see it, and that ain’t it. FIRST you get the data, THEN you make the diagnosis, not the other freaking way around.

I still don’t understand all of what’s wrong with me, but one big problem was lactose intolerance. Which, oddly enough, doesn’t show up in the colon. Imagine that.

I know another woman who has been having all kinds of health issues. The docs were clueless. She posted her problems on a website we are on, and the membership, none of whom are medical professionals, diagnosed her with everything from celiac disease to ms to lyme disease. Eventually she remembered that she’s been in a car accident several months before the trouble began, and began to insist on an MRI. The results were abnormal, and now, after months of feeling awful every day, she can begin to get some help. This woman has been going to see specialists and her regular doctor for months now, her insurance company has been paying for all this unnecessary testing, and all they had to do was an MRI.

Good patients do as they are told, accept everything the “expert” (a doctor or random strangers on a website, pick the authority figure of your choice) says, and does not push. A bad patient thinks about things, questions what she’s told, and pushes for what she wants. Bad patients live longer. Be a bad patient.