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On not being crazy
Jan. 27th, 2010 12:58 pmA couple of weeks ago I saw an internist at the campus health center. I've been having abdominal isues ranging from mildly uncomfortable to incapacitating, and I finally reached the point of needing to do something about about it. Right off the top, he discounted celiac's disease; my symptoms do not present in a classic manner for that ailment though he did acknowledge that abnormal presentations do occur. He pretty much shoved me into the IBS box: female, stressed => IBS and then had me do all the basic metabolic screens to rule out something more dire. The good news is my screens came back all normal. I am very healthy for my age and overall condition. Yay.
But IBS doesn't have a cure. You can only treat the symptoms and do things to alleviate the initial causes. Like go see a psychiatrist to get treated for depression or generalized anxiety. Which I did this morning. And we agreed that I am not experiencing either. The symptoms I *am* exhibiting seem well within the realm of real life stress, given my particular circumstances. So I earned my IBS the hard way? The good news in the psychological sphere is that she is a very down-to-earth, reasonable doctor and was able to hear me telling her I don't respond well to most classes of anti-depressants. And she agreed to let me try a course of diazepam (Valium, mother's little helper) to take the edge of the stress.
The yay! gets a bit more emphatic here. Arguing with doctors over my own health is one of my least favorite things to do. And my choices here are very limited; I don't have the luxury of firing the idiot giving me grief until I find one who actually listens. Even if the internist is a bit quick to make off-the-cuff diagnoses, at least the psychiatrist isn't going to put me through the torture of trying meds that won't work and will make me miserable in one way or another, because the one that I know does work for me worries everyone with its dependency issues. I will deal.
Now maybe I can take the edge off without a bunch of icky side effects, get my stress levels to a point where I can effectively manage them and make changes to lower the stress without drugs, and y'know, get on with life. Which, for those who are curious, is pretty much nothing more than school this quarter. Then next quarter I get to appeal the denial of financial aid I know is coming. And hope I win. In the meantime, try to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors, hope nothing breaks that has to have fixing, do my best at the school thing and just survive. I even had to take a hiatus from the D&D game I've been in for five years. As I told my awesome GM, the payoff at the end of all this better be worth it!
So, not crazy. Yay?
But IBS doesn't have a cure. You can only treat the symptoms and do things to alleviate the initial causes. Like go see a psychiatrist to get treated for depression or generalized anxiety. Which I did this morning. And we agreed that I am not experiencing either. The symptoms I *am* exhibiting seem well within the realm of real life stress, given my particular circumstances. So I earned my IBS the hard way? The good news in the psychological sphere is that she is a very down-to-earth, reasonable doctor and was able to hear me telling her I don't respond well to most classes of anti-depressants. And she agreed to let me try a course of diazepam (Valium, mother's little helper) to take the edge of the stress.
The yay! gets a bit more emphatic here. Arguing with doctors over my own health is one of my least favorite things to do. And my choices here are very limited; I don't have the luxury of firing the idiot giving me grief until I find one who actually listens. Even if the internist is a bit quick to make off-the-cuff diagnoses, at least the psychiatrist isn't going to put me through the torture of trying meds that won't work and will make me miserable in one way or another, because the one that I know does work for me worries everyone with its dependency issues. I will deal.
Now maybe I can take the edge off without a bunch of icky side effects, get my stress levels to a point where I can effectively manage them and make changes to lower the stress without drugs, and y'know, get on with life. Which, for those who are curious, is pretty much nothing more than school this quarter. Then next quarter I get to appeal the denial of financial aid I know is coming. And hope I win. In the meantime, try to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors, hope nothing breaks that has to have fixing, do my best at the school thing and just survive. I even had to take a hiatus from the D&D game I've been in for five years. As I told my awesome GM, the payoff at the end of all this better be worth it!
So, not crazy. Yay?
