ANGELGIRL: Thank you for the welcome.

I feel very strange, because my symptoms haven't much meaning and I can't be helped until some doctor decides I fit a pattern with which he is already familiar. Then I get the label and can possibly be helped.

On the other hand, there's always the possibility of being wrongly diagnosed and labeled, which has happened to me already. Have you ever tried to get a specialist to change his mind? The more devastating to you his wrong call has been, the more entrenched he may become in his error. Especially when the diagnosis itself undermines your credibility. It's only your word against his.

And the primary doctor is highly influenced also by the specialist's diagnosis, right or wrong. Additionally, my internist was very influenced by having seen me once at the bottom of the pit of darkness. Unfortunately, being in that pit can be interpreted as part of so many different "diseases" that it's a crap shoot.

This is for both you and TigersPurr to read. I was burned badly the last time I trusted a doctor. Now I'm seeing another doctor, in an attempt, possibly futile, to undo the damage the first doc did. If the news from the second specialist is good, I'll take it to my internist and then we can discuss the possibility of BP. *sigh*

Is there any help other than medication? It takes so much energy for me to modify my behavior, to act appropriately when I'm out among them, that at home I only have energy left to eat, browse the forums, and then crash. I'd like to change that.


Adieu