The Importance of Health Advocacy By Lynda Adams I
haven’t been feeling well since last Fall. I was under a lot of stress in September so I thought it was just remnants of that, but as time went on and I continued to develop more and more symptoms, I knew it was time to visit my doctor. Now you would think that my being involved with ELMTM
gotten, I said, “Yes, quite a bit.” I didn’t even finish my sentence and she said, “Would you consider taking something for that?” My response, “Absolutely NOT!”
Maine for the past
couple of years would mean that I would go to a Naturopath or at least an Integrative Doctor, but to be quite honest, I just hadn’t made finding another practitioner a priority. So, in November I went to my traditional medical doctor for a physical since it had been years since I had any bloodwork done. They listened to my complaints of having chills, body aches, periods of extreme fatigue, neck pain, dizziness and a persistent sore throat. They tested me for everything under the sun. Mono, Lyme, Strep, Thy- roid and all the usual bloodwork. All the tests were negative and all my levels were in normal ranges so they sent me on my way and told me to come back if I didn’t feel better.
Fast forward two months and many more symptoms later and I decided to return to my traditional doctor again. This time, the doctor wasn’t available so I saw a Nurse Practitioner who was assisted by a Nurse Practitioner in training. I explained again all the symptoms I continued to have from the last visit and the new symptoms I had developed including joint pain, especially in my fingers; numbness in my hands and fingertips; headaches; depres- sion; memory fog; involuntary muscle twitches in my eye and legs; and flashes of lights in my right eye. The Nurse Practitioner took note of my symptoms and then left me alone to be examined by the trainee. She started running me through a series of neurologi- cal tests and I immediately had flashbacks of going to that same office with my now deceased father a few years back and seeing those exact same tests performed on him. I started to get emotion- al and when the trainee asked me a question my voice cracked. She immediately asked if I had been suffering from depression. Didn’t I include that in my list of symptoms? Seeing as she had for-
20 ELM™ Maine - March/April 2018
After my examination, the Nurse Practitioner returned and consulted with her trainee. She then asked me which symptom was bothering me most and I answered, “Joint pain.” She said, “Well, then I would like to send you in for some inflammatory tests to see if you might be suffering from Rheumatoid Arthritis.” I said, “But how would that explain all the other symptoms I have? From my research, I believe I may be suffering from Lyme Disease. Isn’t there another test you can do that would check further for that?” And her response was….wait for it…..”We understand that some people believe in Lyme Disease, but we don’t recognize that here because it’s not in our books and we aren’t trained on it.”
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