how do you get your doctor to HEAR you?

[boedica]

my tsh is almost undetectable, but my t's are low too. she is treating my tsh and i am a zombie. a cold zombie.

i have refused to let her reduce my meds until we figure out what is wrong.....i think she's almost done with that though.

how do you do it?

[yallolorry]

oh so difficult when you are hypo and feeling rotten! I sympathise and have been there!

I find doctors prefer not to have to deal with emotion and can get defensive and dismissive at the first sign of confrontation. Keep things calm and factual.

arm yourself with information.

avoid being confrontational or putting her in the wrong. be really careful to stay calm and respectful, however stressed you feel, but don't let her talk down to you.

I've found this kind of approach works surprisingly well: "...my symptoms are X (keep clear and succinct).....i've been doing research and I've learned this fact about best practice treatment, from an approved source (they won't respect any source they don't trust)...I would like to try this....this reputatable endocrinologist says X, given that, what do you thnk is the best next step...."

if you are not  happy with how you get treated write a letter explaining you are dissatisfied and why. Again, keep emotion out of it, just state your case, stick to facts. I did this with my endocrinologist and actually got a very satisfactory and prompt response. I now have a good relationship with her - and I got the treatment I wanted.

remember doctors are only human beings, they don't know everything but they are generally motivated to want to make people well, they should respond positively to you taking an active part in your own treatment plan. If you've got one who is not like that - you can get another one who is.

good luck!!

[ShelleyN720]

I changed doctors until I found one that understood how the thryoid /endocrine sysyem works and that testing just TSH & Total T's were not enough for a clinical diagnosis. Also a doctor who supports T4/T3 medications.