I try to be in charge of my medical care. I really do. I take notes at appointments and I write little notes to myself in my calendar on things to ask my doctors at each visit. I am not sure if I am weird for doing this or not but I have no brain so I can't remember anything.
In recent months, I have a new pain management doctor who has been very good at talking to me about different pain medications and what are options. I am very happy with this. Basically he is helping me switch to new medications to replace the ones that I have with ones that work better - fewer side effects, reducing the number of medications I am on, and focusing helping me. I really like this (and resent my old doctor who just gave me more medications and more medications.)
After my most visit with him this week, I am now energized to talk to my other doctors about the number of medications I am on and how they work. The next two doctors who prescribe the most meds are my meds therapist, who I see this week, and my rheumatologist, next appointment at the end of the month. I want to review all my medications and see what we can do to get rid of ones I do not need or find better alternatives if available.
I often run into problems finding medications to treat basic things such as needing antibiotics. Because of my allergy to penicillin and my other medications, I am very limited in what is available to me. Maybe with changes, I could actually get treated when I need it.
But anyway, I want to talk to my rheumatologist and meds therapist to see what we can do. I also want to take a personal inventory of current issues and decide what I should ignore and what might actually be treatable. I feel I need to do this because I have so many issues and I rarely see my PCP. I need to be organized before I see her in September so I am in charge when I see her.
I think I need to take more notes.
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