The Blackburn Digest

* Jesus Christ Superstar (Revival) - Andrew Lloyd Webber & Tim Rice.

I Really, REALLY dislike meeting new doctors! There’s always a “learning curve”, during which they flex their medical credentials and I counter with 26 years of my own experience with RA. It doesn’t matter, very much, if it is a dental surgeon or an orthopedic surgeon, an orthotics expert or a new GP ~ I have to give them a crash course in ‘Chris Blackburn - Informed & Stubborn Patient’. It doesn’t always go smoothly. . . . . OK - it rarely goes smoothly! Medical professionals expect their statements to be taken as gospel. Um, No. Not likely with this patient!

I met the orthopedic surgeon this afternoon - the man who will be operating on my feet and making it possible for me to walk with much less pain . . .maybe. Granted, he did have the good sense to recognize that joint fusion is not a viable option for me. (One point for ‘his side’ - - -if you have a chronic illness, you tend to develop a somewhat adversarial role with the parade of physicians you have to deal with; not all of them, hopefully, but new ones must always be vetted!).

We traded some of the usual chit-chat. . . .his opportunity to try to figure me out & my opportunity to listen for possible attitude problems and send up a few signal flags;) He then proceeded to explain what he would do - he even had visual aids (copies of the six x-rays taken minutes before I met him.) Total bi-lateral amputation of all ten toes. After a moment of silence (while I digested this rather welcome news), I realized that he was expecting me to either start sobbing or become downright hysterical……his right hand was resting on a box of facial tissue and he was “leaning” (OK - which family member can cite the movie title first?) toward me. I have no doubt my immediate acceptance, lack of drama and chuckled comment (”Shoot, I’ve been wishing for that for years!) branded me as a lunatic rather than a realist :o) Even I could recognize that my reaction was not “normal” - hehe, I haven’t been “normal” for a very long time!

I’d have been more concerned about explaining that I wasn’t nuts if the “dear doctor” hadn’t chosen that exact moment to place himself well out on a couple of ‘tree limbs’! Fortunately for him, one of his chosen limbs was sound and strong; he firmly stated that I must quit smoking before the surgery could take place. While I wasn’t happy about this edict, I knew he was right. (Cut me a bit of slack here,please - the only times I have managed to successfully cut myself off from the nicotine addiction have been my two pregnancies!) The other limb he ventured out on seemed immediately suspect/overly cautious/ridiculous - - - I had to be off of my Enbrel injections for six months before he would be willing to operate!? Excuse me? Enbrel is still the only drug which has brought about a remission in my RA activity! “You want me off of it for how long???

I left the orthopedic clinic feeling a mixture of relief and panic - relief that someone was finally discussing a solution & panic that I could potentially be off of the Enbrel therapy for 10-12 months (pre-surgical & post surgical delay). Called DH from my car phone , and then called my Rheumatologist’s office to request an Rx for Chantix (a stop-smoking aid.) Overall, I feel rather beaten up - hence the title.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 13th, 2008 at 10:05 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.