Talking to Medics

Yesterday I had an appointment with a new consultant at Guys Hospital. I had been seeing Professor Davies who is the leading expert in Fibromyalgia ie the only one that seems interested. I am noe seeing his Registrar Dr Aslam. So after a mix up with my appointment which meant I was a month behind I arrived with some trepidation as always when seeing someone new. Will they understand will they give me time to answer will they listen?

The only way I can deal with appointments is to be as prepared as I can be with my trusty notebook in hand with a short overview of where I am now how I feel, what my symptoms are what medication I am taking together with a typed history of my condition with medication tried together with a bit of family hostory in case asked for this to refer to if needed. Ideally it would have been useful to have a diary of my last week but I just find that too depressing to write so I didn't have it with me. Mu history of conditon wasn't quite up yo date but it was good enough to answer a querie that the doc had about an effect a previous medication had had, will update it soon.

I like to have it all written down for two reasons so I don't forget a question that is worrying me and also in case I get a fibrofog moment which did happen to me before and can't say properly what is wrong then at least I can point feebly at the relevant question. If you do have a lot of fibro fog I would advise taking someone with you that knows you well to help out if you get stuck.

All in all it was a good meeting am being snet on a residentail pain management course depite my having tried many courses before and some new medication which I have to try with quarter tablet then half then three quarters to whole so I don't get too many side effects. Can't remember name of it- should have written it down in trusty notebook= but know have not heard of it so probably experiwmntal for us guinea pigs oink oink