Q & A: Working With Labs & Doctors

Hello There!

You’re welcome. Great questions you ask – I love these kinds of things! When I started this Forum these are exactly the kinds of things that I was hoping that someone will bring up. Thank you to Dbal and you. Perhaps, a fruitful discussion will ensue.

“For the future, how would you advise others to get that testing when working with skeptical or otherwise unhelpful medical professionals? "

There are a couple of things that you might consider as possibilities.

1. Print out the articles on testing labs. There is one that I’ve written on our site.
   

There is a post that I made on hospital/medical labs from a published article – I did this specifically so that people can see the problems, beyond anything that I have to say. I’m sure some people assumed that the post was all about RHR Plus, but it was not! People need to educate their practitioners, because that is the ONLY thing that they can rely on for a diagnosis. If the main diagnosing mechanism is faulty along with blind treatments, how does anyone heal? Perhaps physicians will insist upon better testing methods IF they had proper information because they aren’t informed that there’s a problem! Simple.

2. Keep looking until you find the “right lab”. You being the tenacious person that you are with 12 samplings of stool, perhaps that’s the route for some people if they have nerves of steel! People may need to inform their physicians that it COULD take that many samples. Again, thank you for sharing that story because it is a good one for people to keep in mind when confronting skeptics. The skeptical doctor will have to realize that 1-3 won’t get the results he’s looking for if he must use his lab.
   

3. Find out from your insurance if they have a reimbursement or extra “spending account” program for alternative practices. If this is the case, you might be able to go through RHR Plus and get tested. You pay RHR Plus directly and your insurance might reimburse you. Not sure if the hassle is worth it, but it is a try.
   

One thing I want to mention…. if you review 70428’s 7 micrographs again with the small notations that Apxr provided, you might see the wisdom in them. He asked, for instances, in one of them regarding possible pathogens or bacteria present. You’ll see a notation of “Charcot Leyden-Like Structures?” He doesn’t make a diagnosis but a question had been raised. I didn’t know what those structures were and was curious enough to look them up. I read 5 different publications about them (I’ve learned from the past to never assume 1-2 publications are good enough). The information was very interesting to read.

If someone were to take those into an Infectious Disease physician, I believe that he might have to take note (you might have to specifically point out the question, I’m serious)! “What about those structures and is this something to look further into as a possible cause for diagnosis?” They might be able to do more specific tests for diagnosing purposes to confirm the findings. After a clear diagnosis has been made by your doctor, they can work out a treatment protocol or whatever.

“Change doctors? Go to a different specialty?”

Definitely change doctors! No sense in being tortured with continual insults and humiliation. Most people start off with the General Internist and don’t get very far. Before dumping them, try to get a referral to see an Infectious Disease doctor  – Tropical Medicine, Parasitologist, or Microbiologist would be far better (this may have to be a referral through the ID doctor, I’m not sure and don’t remember). It would be best to find a GP who is curious enough to collaborate with the other specialty docs.

The ONLY problem is that all of them use the exact same labs, unless the testing is highly specific – like antigen specific testing! A Parasitologist or Microbiologist might have their own lab, but Monique-1 had a run in with her Microbiologist and her tests came back negative! This was around the time that she saw a load of creatures.

Here’s a really good question to ask your doctor, “If you had a possible infectious disease who would you go to – who do doctors see for these kinds of things?” No sense in seeing any doctor that you’re referred to, go to the best instead! Also, ask several doctors that question. If the same name keeps coming up, you may have a bright physician who is willing to help you.

“Go to a teaching hospital? “

OMG, N– O!  IF you don’t want the run around, spare yourself the agony. Here’s a brief scenario: you see a medical student; the student turns over the case to a 1 yr intern; the intern turns over the case to a resident; the resident turns over the case to a Chief Resident and/or FINALLY a practicing doctor! In each of these turn arounds, you’ll have to explain your story again because they are poor at passing on information to one another until it has been officially determined that you have something that they can work with.

If you find yourself in a situation where you have no choice to go to a teaching hospital, cut to the case and ask to speak to the senior resident or Attending doctor. Whatever you do, don’t go there during their annual graduation turnovers with new students and residents. If you have a senior resident working on your case, it is likely that it maybe dropped because they don’t care with graduating, knowing that someone else will pick things up (maybe).  It is a crazy time for them and it takes about a month or so for everyone to become acclimated. June/July is the official graduating months but I say from the months of May-Aug might be safer.

Don’t assume that the person in the white jacket is “the” doctor because you’ll be in for a rude surprise with mounting frustration.

On the other hand…. Teaching Hospitals can be a great experience for everyone all around. If you have nerves of steel and you have an interesting case, you might want to “volunteer” yourself to be a case study. Your doctor does the research, testing, and gets credit for it along with a publication (you’re anonymous to the world); you, on the other hand, will have the pleasure of silently teaching the physicians about this problem on a wider scale. Sometimes lessons learned indirectly have greater impact, than direct learning experiences. Who knows where this may lead you in the future!

“What would you like to see people do to help themselves? Is there some way to better educate physicians?”

Good questions, again. I’m working on something more pertinent that will help people and physicians, I think. Education is the biggest factor in all of this.

At this point, I think we must take the responsibility of sharing information with physicians. They don’t have ALL the answers and neither do we, but there needs to be some kind of balance or well-thought collaboration when it comes to health issues! I did this with the first doctor that I saw. At the time, I could only find 2 articles on resistance involving cases in Africa; little or nothing on scattering (it happens); and the useless pharm meds. It is a “hot” topic for me because the damage of what was done, and I’m always interested in proving my point because this is dangerous. After being a much better researcher I’ve found plenty! I wish, I had the information a couple of years ago of what little I know today but I must continue to forge ahead.

A good feeler in discussing matters with your doctor would be to ask them, “I’ve been doing some research in reading scientific publications if I brought in something would you be interested in reading it? I’d like to get your opinion and see what you think.”

Also, you may want to ask another critical question, “If I find something that is extremely important, may I talk to you directly? Can I fax something or use an email address? I promise that I won’t abuse the privilege.”

This is good collaboration because you’re not telling them what to do and he/she will take you more seriously. Also, it will give you a heads-up to see where their mindset is. If you get stonewalled with the “I know everything” attitude…. you know what to do!

Again, many thanks for your insightful inquiries. Brilliant questions!!!!