Anybody else ever feel like they're sick of doctors? I know I am.
As many of you know, it's been a trying year for me. I've had a lot of issues crop up, some pouch related and some not, and consequently I'm being bounced around to different specialists because nobody seems to know exactly what it is that's causing my symptoms, or whether or not they're interrelated. Furthermore, my GI also left the country in July, necessitating me to see a "fill in" when I had (suspected) pouchitis a couple of months ago, and now I'm waiting to meet with yet another new doctor in October, who will hopefully become my new GI.
Anyway, yesterday, I ended up at an after hours walk-in clinic because I scratched my cornea. Totally unrelated to my other issues, yes, but as I sat in the overcrowded waiting room waiting to get a prescription for eye drops, I just kept thinking... my goodness, when is this ever going to end?
I feel like I get things that nobody else has. I mean, a j-pouch itself is relatively rare enough, but I get everything else, too. Although I was doing well for quite a few years, this isn't the first time I've had the ping-ponging physician stuff going on. In 2007, while I still had my rectum, I developed a rarer manifestation of UC in the form of severe mouth ulcerations. At the time, I was bounced from my family doctor to two different GPs, a dentist, an oral surgeon, my former GI and finally to an ENT who prescribed a mouth rinse to clear up the issue. I feel like I'm going through the same long drawn out process again, just for different symptoms.
All this does get depressing at times. I don't feel like a hypochondriac, but sometimes I do feel like I'm becoming a professional patient. It all gets so very frustrating, especially when doctors tell me that they can't find a cause for the symptoms.
I really need a break.
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