Have you ever been seen by a Doctor that just didn’t listen to you? Well, that’s what my dr.’s appointments have been like lately.

You see, I suffer from Crohn’s, or at least most of my doctors have thought that I have this terrible inflammatory bowel condition for oh more than a decade. They keep doing tests and finding signs that I might have this disorder- but officially not enough evidence to fully diagnose me. At various times they have found narrowing of the terminal ilium, nodules in the ilium, dilated mucosal folds in the small bowel, granulated tissue on biopsy, and I’ve had several episodes of paralytic ileus (bowel obstruction).

I won’t mention all the lovely symptoms that I have that also go along with Crohn’s but during flares I’ve had huge drops in weight- although this time round I’ve actually gained weight- that’s a first!, low grade fevers daily, pain, pain and more pain, nausea and all those other “unmentionable” symptoms.

I’ve barely been to work in over a year. I’m an emergency nurse. I want to get back to work. My doctor doesn’t seem to really be trying to help me. Oh, I’m seeing him at least once a month, but he doesn’t schedule new tests to try to figure things out- he only talks about doing such and such a test or trying a new medication, but somehow by the end of the appointment I’m walking out of his office with no new medicine to try and no new test scheduled.

It’s not like I’m not telling the doctor how I’m feeling or discussing my symptoms. It’s just that he’s not listening.

He started talking about my taking a capsule endoscopy test in April 2005. Basically you swallow a camera pill and it takes pictures of your digestive tract as it travels through you- then doctors can study the pictures and decide if you have a disorder. Well, I still haven’t had the test, he keeps mentioning it but doesn’t work towards scheduling it (it’s done at another hospital and he needs to refer me to that program).

I’m tired of waiting to feel better. I’m tired of putting my life on hold because I’m in too much pain to do anything. I’m tired of taking pills- especially when the doses you’ve prescribed are not even maintenance doses, maybe if you gave me the correct dose I’d feel better.

If my doctor would actually listen to what I’m saying and not go back on what he has said we might get somewhere. I mean- I’m a nurse- I know how to articulate where my pain is, and what my symptoms are, likely better than the average patient. I know my body and I know something is wrong. I’m compliant, I’ve done everything he’s suggested, I’ve taken my medications as scheduled and I’m still not getting better. Something is wrong and we need to find out what it is, try some new things or new tests.

If you are a doctor or nurse out there reading this- please listen to your patients. Don’t get stuck in a rut or offer to help them and then not follow up on what you discussed. It’s very frustrating.

Frustrated and in pain in T.O.