A Fruitful Doctor's Visit

Medication refill

My newly prescribed medication needed a refill, and although I could have done it on Monday, I prefer taking them as soon as I wake up so getting to the clinic on Monday is not ideal, therefore I made an appointment for this morning. The doctors in this private clinic are not ones to look beyond an issue, they love prescribing medication but never ask any further unless I tell them something myself, which after the last incident with my blood pressure just doesn't feel good.

It made me realize that they should have sent me to the cardiologist or at the very least let me come in to check on the blood pressure values themselves rather than prescribing me my meds only. Anyway, I will make sure that this is done now so it was a good lesson for myself. Two doctors that I usually deal with (depending on who is available) are a bit harder to communicate with beyond what I prepared and translated at home. I always come prepared and never expect the doctor to communicate in English with me, and it goes smoother every time that I go there, thankfully.

The odd one out

There was this one doctor I never saw before until I went there for my back medication last year. A lady who didn't know my history and I handed her my translated document but then she asked me which language I speak. I told her English or Dutch. She said ok, we can do it in English. Fine, all my effort for nothing, but the doctor was happy she could practice some English. This is something I hear all the time, they apologize for not speaking English well enough (which they do fine, really!) and then say they love to practice.

This goes both ways of course, I prefer making an effort myself to do it in Spanish, sometimes I manage to do it completely in Spanish without any help of translations for example when I'm there just for my refill and don't have to mention any health issues they should check. Anyway, this doctor I had last year prescribed me my final round of heavy medication and not long after, I weaned myself off them half dose and then noticed I could skip them some days.

I found the visit very pleasant because I noticed she was one to think with the patient and not the average joe who just half listens. This was comforting because I often feel they only want to treat the complaint without looking further for the cause.

Today I saw her again

And even though normally I'd still come prepared (even if I know she speaks English) as again, I want to make the effort to show that I'm trying to learn Spanish, they really appreciate that. This time I could not prepare because I was in so much pain with my left hand/arm, a known thing, which was first said to be probably carpal tunnel syndrome, later when I had blood pressure medication, the pain went away, and it came back on and off over the period of a year but nothing bad enough to see the doctor again (until recently when I ended up in the ER).

The difference this time was, we already discovered it came from my neck/shoulder area as my boyfriend put some ointment on it and tried massaging it for me. It was clearly caused by the combination of this desk/chair that I can't adjust and maybe the boxing sessions on top of it. That's my best guess. So this time she had to either communicate with me in English mostly after I apologized for not coming prepared, or I'd ask the help of my google translate app on the spot but with voice to typing instead. Luckily, she was not bothered at all and listened carefully to what I told her.

The appointment took much longer

Than it usually does and I felt a bit bad but because of her taking the time to examine me and listen to my complaints in combination with some questions I had about diet, I felt heard and I felt that she'd have my best interest instead of just quickly working through the appointment to help the next. Where I'd normally only ask for the recipes, I told her about my arm as well as that I'm quite sure it's not from my heart but caused by the posture with my desk / combination with boxing. I explained the health improvements I've been working on since the ER visit and that I also notice something that I'm curious about.

That's the fact that my "smart scale" always shows data where my protein level is way too low. Now I'm no expert and I've been trying to figure this out myself by adding protein from different sources and hoping to see another result when measuring but it only went up to a normal level once in all these weeks. The question I had is simply is this even correct? And if so, what's the best approach as a whole because I'm finding it a bit of a puzzle to work around the knee acting up, having to rest a day (mandatory to recover from knee pains) and then finding that my protein level is again too low and nothing changes.

Then she asked the right question, which @hetty-rowan also mentioned yesterday: how's your menstrual cycle? And after Hetty asked me yesterday, I went into my health app to discover that it's been getting longer and longer and in combination with my shit headaches lately, there might be something hormonal related as well. Which made me realize that I used to have an underactive thyroid as a child, which I "outgrew" in my teens but I have been wondering if this is the case again. Without me mentioning the thyroid, she already wrote down to examine this too and a bunch of other things.

The bloodwork will hopefully bring some insights

I know things must be off after having such a long setback of barely being able to do anything for maybe 5 months last year, first my knee, then my back. To me it makes perfect sense that some levels are so far off and maybe this means I need to add some extra stuff to my diet, but I don't want to go there before it's actually confirmed by bloodwork that this is true. I'm doing my best trying to change my lifestyle on different levels, which I'm also determined to do so but why keep wondering and trying to figure it out by yourself if things can be examined by bloodwork?

We've spoken about having some bloodwork done many times here at home but I always feel bothered to even start about it simply because of most doctor's attitude of just take a pill and leave. Don't get me wrong, I've been happy with some relief they gave me but I'm well aware that these heavy meds are addictive and therefore I weaned myself off them as soon as I felt I could. I honestly don't wish to take blood pressure medication forever either but right now, I'm happy they exist while I try to get back into shape and see some positive changes.

Impatient

I'm impatient seeing results, even though I very well know that FEELING results is just as good (if not better) because mindset matters and I know that I'm making good changes, I also know that I can't have everything changed overnight, sadly. My knees have been issues from my teen years and this will not suddenly change to them being strong knees that can handle a marathon without popping out of place, I'm realistic too! Therefore I listen to my body very well, and when my knees give me a sign of pain, I don't push it further and take a day rest from the treadmill. Which seem to work well and good enough to recover, so far so good.

Disappointed

I feel disappointed about not being able to box though, I can't lie about that. This is actually the only mental struggle I have today that she told me this needs to heal first before I start boxing again. I need to let it rest and it kind of kills me because the boxing part is where I feel powerful and feel a huge mental boost every time I do it. But hey, it's a bumpy road for now, and I will just have to get through the hard part until my body is stronger again and can handle more. I can't wait!

More insights incoming

It's a good thing to know that next week I will have some more knowledge about things that are ok, some that are probably not and I will book an appointment with this doctor again to discuss what I should do as I really felt she was trying to help me and will probably give me good advice reading the results. Of course I can google and figure things out, but I'm still not a doctor.

So even though I'm going into the weekend with a painful arm, I'm feeling confident that after the weekend, things will look a lot brighter :)

Have a good weekend everyone!

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