The Good Doctors In Your Life

[deucykub]

We have all run into the bad doctors that have ruined our day, or week, or month, or year, and those are the stories that we most often share because we're frustrated and feel alone.

But how about the good doctors? The ones who have gone that extra mile or who are always there for you... They are few and far between and such a rare and precious find! They deserve a few hurrahs.

So, here is a place to share your story about the superb doctors who have made a difference in your life.

I'll start the thread out with a toast to my Occupational Physician.

I don't see him any more because my disease, POTS, turned out to not be environmental, but I was referred to him because of my shortness of breath. I saw him a few times, and my tests for asthma weren't that bad. I had asthma, but it wasn't severe enough to justify the shortness of breath I was experiencing. He was always compassionate and listened to me. He believed me even though the tests weren't showing him what was wrong.

Because of his compassion and listening skills, he made me feel comfortable and free to really talk about what was going on with my health. So during one appointment, I told him, "You are the doctor who listens to me the most, so I'm going to lay everything out for you. This doesn't seem like just asthma. My symptoms are worse than coworkers who have asthma." And then, I told him every single symptom I had noticed. I talked about my hands and feet changing color, how I was short of breath just getting up to pour a bowl of cereal, how a pulse-ox test showed my heartrate at 120 after walking about 20 feet... and on and on I went.

Right then and there, he did an incredibly thorough examination of me from head to toe. He was the first doctor to not say "gotta be Raynaud's" when I told him about my feet and hands. He actually looked at my feet, checked my pulse there (it was weak), and tested the capillary refill time, and found them to all be abnormal. When he pushed on the tops of my feet, it took around 6 seconds for the color to return. It was supposed to only take 2 seconds. My heart rate was about 120 just sitting for the examination.

He sent me out for all kinds of tests - pulmonological, cardiac and rheumatological, which came back as moderate asthma, tachycardia, no cardiac abnormalities. He found that I was positive for an indicator of autoimmune disease (positive ANA titer), but a rheumatologist ruled out lupus and other autoimmune disorders. He kept looking and researching. At my next appointment, he said I think you have something called POTS, and I want to run some EKGs. He had printed out about 100 pages of research on POTS and gave me a brief overview.

He didn't have the right equipment for a tilt table test, but bless his heart, he did three EKGs (it took a few hours to get the three to read properly), lying, sitting, and standing - not an easy task without a tilt table! I was holding on to the leads for the EKG so that they wouldn't fall off when I changed positions! He also took my blood pressure in the three positions. The results were abnormal, a POTS diagnosis was tentatively made, and I went to an autonomic neurologist who did a formal tilt table test and made a diagnosis.

POTS was way out of this doctor's field of practice, and he could have simply said, your illness is not environment and passed me along to the next doctor. He didn't, though. He went out of his way to give me an answer and get me to the right people for treatment.

So, to this doctor, and to all the doctors who go the extra mile and truly care about their patients (INCLUDING YOU DOCTORGUEST ), I say a great, big THANK YOU!

What good experiences have you had?

[MomtoGiuliana]

I have an excellent endocrinologist and electrophysiologist a 20-minute drive away, even though I live in a fairly rural area. They are both knowledgeable about POTS, my EP is an autonomic dysfunction specialist. Both are kind, understanding and will go the extra mile when needed to answer my questions. My EP will always inform me of new POTS information when I go for my 6-month check-up; he has an excellent nurse who is knowledgeable about POTS. After I went undiagnosed for months with no diagnosis other than psychiatric, and I finally was referred to him for the extreme sinus tachycardia, he was nothing short of my hero! I know I am fortunate.

[MightyMouse]

Kudos to my ep cardiologist and to my gastroenterologist. Neither one knows much about my disorder, but treat me as an equal partner in my care. They are both compassionate, and follow up with things happen to me that fall outside of "my normal". The GI doc has even had his nurse call me at home to follow up and make sure I was doing better.

Nina

[pat57]

My MD is Marcis Wellby. In the flesh......

don't get any better!

[morgan617]

My ENT is wonderful, always has been.....

[sally]

*

[lilsagestar]

I have two doctors who have been a real Godsend to me. Without them, I would have no quality of life whatsoever.

When I was a senior in high school I started experiencing bits of near-syncope and irregular blood pressure. I was exhausted all the time and had to fight through an almost constant brain fog. In addition to that, I was dealing with early-onset endometriosis - I had been popping cysts and dealing with painful menstruation cycles for about two years and the new symptoms were only making it worse. My two docs at the time, general and obgyn, both agreed that all of my problems, including the "invisible cysts" were all in my head as a result of "teenage anxiety" and they both suggested that instead of seeking medical help I talk to the school counselors. Unfortunately, every woman in my family has had endometriosis and I was well aware of the warning signs, so I KNEW that something wasn't right.

Shortly after the end of high school my family moved to a very small town in Alabama (Alexander City) which had a surprisingly advanced and learned medical community. At that point my syncope and blood pressure problems had gotten much worse, with the new additions of hot flashes and irregular heart rhythms, and so my NEW GP sent me to a cardiologist to get checked out.

Dr. Natello is quite possibly the most compassionate doctor I have ever met. In our first appointment he discovered that my problem wasn't cardiovascular, but he refused to send me to another doc until he knew what was wrong with me. He performed dozens of tests, including EKGs and a 24 hour heart monitor, fully examined me and shared the research he was doing for me with each visit. It took about two weeks of visiting him almost every day (I even celebrated my 18th birthday in his office) but he finally came to me with an answer - POTS (and for the record - he was also the first to diagnose my endometriosis, but he wanted me to go to an obgyn to confirm).

Even though it wasn't his specialty, or even a disease in his department, he still insisted on being my treating physician. He worked with me to find a treatment plan that was effective, had his nurses call me at home every other day to see how I was feeling and (since I needed blood drawn once a week) instructed the nursing staff on special ways to draw blood so as to avoid blood pooling in my hands. Until the day I moved away from Alabama he personally watched over me and made every effort to make me more comfortable.

Now as for my endymetriosis, it wasn't until I reached Texas that I found an obgyn who didn't pass my problems off as "phantom pains" and suggest psychiatric help. Dr. Franklin of the Women's Hospital of Texas instantly saw my pain for what it was, and in my first appointment he set me up with a treatment plan AND two of his partner doctors who would all work together to fix my problem. He made sure to listen to every little ache or pain (even researched POTS so he could tell what was gyncological or autonomic) and set me up to have the surgery that I truly needed. Even now, two years after the first time I saw him, with my endometriosis under control, he still keeps up with me. Most docs will just deal with the emergency, then just let you fall back into their files until another problem arises, but Dr. Franklin and his staff are committed to not only getting their patients well, but keeping them that way.

I owe both of these doctors a HUGE debt of gratitude, and if anyone either in Alabama or Texas is looking for a brilliant doc, I would be more than happy to send you their way.

[Sushi]

After 25 years, a few referrals to psychiatrists, and a basket of blank stares, and "let's change the subject," you really, really appreciate it when you find a doctor who is very knowledgeable about dysautonomia, listens to you and values your experience as much as lab tests, and always includes you in decision making. My life turned around with his help and my hard work.

Guess why? I'm told he was an excellent internal medicine doctor on the staff of a local hospital, but then he himself got POTS and had to leave the career he had put everything into when he was at the height of his career. After a couple of years of being totally out of commission, with the help of an expert in the field, he went back to medical school to specialist in the autonomic nervous system so that he could help others. And, in this mid-size city, his story really caught the attention of the medical community and now a great many of them are aware of dysautonomia and its symptoms and refer their patients to specialist care.

He now practices 3 days a week, and yes he still has POTS but he is much, much better and certainly gives me and others hope that there is meanful life out ahead of us despite our disabilities. And, when you describe a symptom, he doesn't just nod like a good actor--he gets it, cause he has lived it himself. He he helped my restore self confidence also by showing me how so many of the vague and often debilitating symptoms I've had for so many years were related, had a real physcial cause and that I wasn't a hypocondriac. Applause for good doctors!

[pearsjon]

After 25 years, a few referrals to psychiatrists, and a basket of blank stares, and "let's change the subject," you really, really appreciate it when you find a doctor who is very knowledgeable about dysautonomia, listens to you and values your experience as much as lab tests, and always includes you in decision making. My life turned around with his help and my hard work.

Guess why? I'm told he was an excellent internal medicine doctor on the staff of a local hospital, but then he himself got POTS and had to leave the career he had put everything into when he was at the height of his career. After a couple of years of being totally out of commission, with the help of an expert in the field, he went back to medical school to specialist in the autonomic nervous system so that he could help others. And, in this mid-size city, his story really caught the attention of the medical community and now a great many of them are aware of dysautonomia and its symptoms and refer their patients to specialist care.

He now practices 3 days a week, and yes he still has POTS but he is much, much better and certainly gives me and others hope that there is meanful life out ahead of us despite our disabilities. And, when you describe a symptom, he doesn't just nod like a good actor--he gets it, cause he has lived it himself. He he helped my restore self confidence also by showing me how so many of the vague and often debilitating symptoms I've had for so many years were related, had a real physcial cause and that I wasn't a hypocondriac. Applause for good doctors!

i 2cd sushi.we have the same story. he is also my dr. and he is the best.

[taylortotmom]

My wonderful cardiologist, Michael Aikens, MD in Opelika, AL. I have been with him now for six years- he diagnosed me and I travel six hours one way to him now. He has dysautonomia himself and is a fantastic physician- his patients absolutely LOVE him.