No one wants to think that they are going to be discriminated against or “profiled” by anyone let alone a DOCTOR but it happens.
About 2 years ago I went into the ER after 9 days of a constant horrible worst headache I have ever had. I mean this was a headache that every movement I made seemed like torture. Even moving my EYES caused immense pain.
After running running the basic blood work and a CT the doctor came in and said..”Well your blood work looks ok, your CT shows a sinus infection but I don’t think that would be causing all your pain. You have ONLY CAME INTO THE ER THREE TIMES THIS YEAR so I think there is something else going on. I want to do a lumbar puncture.”
Now I have multiple chronic illnesses that can bring me into the ER just out of necessity. I have Chrohn’s Disease which can cause bowel obstructions and perforations. Something I can’t tell at home. When I call my Gastrointerologist they tell me I have to go into the ER. Thankfully due to Modern medicine called REMICADE that cost $20,000 per infusion I had been in remission at the time so my ER visits were minimal. But that medication makes me susceptible to infections. Which means MORE ER visits because the infections can spread so fast that I can’t always wait until a doctors office opens up to be seen.
So had a been seen more than THREE times would you have not taken me serious and done that Lumbar Puncture? Which lead to me being diagnosed with the condition Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension. Which in layman’s terms means I have too much pressure on my brain which can lead to blindness(irreversible and damage to my brain).
Would you have assumed I was only there for DRUGS had I been in the ER more that THREE times in the last year?..(which I hadn’t even asked for during my entire stay in the ER that night). Would you have sent me home without that further testing because of an assumption?
An assumption that being in the ER more than 3 times in a year somehow equates to me faking my symptoms. Yes a “Headache” is a fairly perhaps “overplayed’ rouse used by true drug seekers. Yet I had been there hours and hadn’t even asked for as much as a tylenol nor received anything before you made your comment.
I do believe that doctors have a tough job. They have to make judgement calls not only about the medical facts but also about the people. Misread it and you end up giving a drug seeker their next fix or you miss some other psychological condition. Of course they are human and therefore not perfect but they also carry great responsibility and power. I believe they many times miss the forest for the trees. They see a person in and out of the ER throughout the year but they fail to see and consider the conditions behind it. They see a person covered in tattoos and their mind goes sour.
Chronic Parenting 