Routine health care seems to take a back burner to my fibro care. I feel like I am always in a doctor's office and it gets to be a bit much. I am sick of making appointments, waiting room magazines, endless waits when I am on time and the office is far behind, and afternoons spent in a doctor's office rather than out and about living my life. This month is breast cancer awareness month and I know women near and dear to me who are survivors. I put off my repeat mammogram for longer than I care to admit, but my Lady Doc simply said, "That is unacceptable." So, off I went to have it done, along with a bone density test. I was absolutely fine on both counts. Whew!
It was important for me to take that step for preventative care and to also realize how easy it is to ignore little nagging symptoms and to attribute them to the fibro. One thing I am concerned about is that I will attribute something to the fibro and an important health condition will go untreated because I ignored it. I feel like I do enough complaining about how I feel on a given day and I don't want to add to that boring list of this hurts, that hurts and I am exhausted. My responsibility is to educate myself about my condition so that I will be able to more accurately discern which of my symptoms may need a second look. Sometimes my questions seem foolish to me, but a good (make that a great) doc never makes me feel silly for asking.
So today I am going to encourage all the sweet, wonderful, fun, witty and intelligent women I am in contact with, to please make sure to have your annual tests done. And please, if something isn't just right, trust your instincts and see a doctor - or another one if you aren't satisfied with the answers you're getting. At the end of the day, we are our best patient advocate. We know our bodies best and although it may be one more afternoon sitting in an office, it may be just what the doctor ordered to get us on our way to complete health.
No comments:
Post a Comment