"Hypochondriac" - Anyone called that?

RosemaryB · Post by **RosemaryB** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 4:09 pm

Yes.

I had one doctor who said, "You are too young to have all those symptoms." in a skeptical way. Too bad I didn't get tested a long time ago when I was young with all those symptoms, though there wasn't much in the way of info back then.

I have two chronic conditions that are vague and produce myriad symptoms, gluten sensitivity and OSA. Doctors are still skeptical about the GS, even though I used to get 2 migraines a day many days and once the GS diet was underway they disappeared. Luckily I found an allergist who has it herself, so now I can at least quote her to these other guys. Unfortunately, the doctor I first asked for a sleep study talked me out of it, giving me all the reasons I didn't have it. Because he was the best one I'd found in the HMO, I belived him. I've wasted some years due to that. I still see him and am planning on taking my sleep study next time I see him.

Not only doctors but family members have treated me like I was a hypochondriac. The joke's on them, though. Now that I'm being treated, I'm forcing them to get treated too . They are coming up with the same diagnoses. They are glad I know so much about these things now. We have good relationships, but the hypochondriac label always rankled me.

The hypochondriac label is there partly because I was proactive and wouldn't just curl up and pretend it was all ok. I kept looking for answers. Some people just accept their ill health keep their mouths shut. I just kept looking for answers.

The doctor who did dx me with osa and got me tested is an alternaive MD who tries to look at the functions, on what's causing the symptoms. I think this is a needed approach.

RosemaryB · Post by **RosemaryB** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 4:14 pm

Slinky wrote:Giggle. Sorry, I shouldn't laugh at a hypochondriac label. It just brought back memories.

I finally encountered one pulmonlogy/allergy specialist who whipped out his pocket tape recorder for dictating his notes and right in front of me in the exam room proceeded to dictate his notes of our visit which included: "Patient is a doctor-hopping hypochondriac complete w/a notebook full of previous exams, procedures and labs .... "

I whipped out my wallet which was about the size of one of those hand held tape recorders and said as if dictating: "This exuse for a doctor is obviously an egotistic male chauvinist who doesn't bother to listen to a patient, ask any relevant questions or look at previous medical records and history before deciding he doesn't want to be bothered ...." and then walked out.

Slinky, that is just hilarious!

Nodzy · Post by **Nodzy** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 4:15 pm

What I didn't mention... was that my current new doctor assigned to me labeled me as a hypochondriac because I proved, with Encore and printouts from an Auto-M A-Flex I bought, that they prescribed and forced me to use the wrong machine type for over 5-years, and that I needed at least an auto-titrating machine or a BIPAP-Auto.

Just below his notes on prescribing the BIPAP, he noted me as a "hypochondriac" in case I find other issues or die suddenly from exacerbated health problems that mounted during those five extra years of almost no treatment. And, yes, I complained often about treatment being ineffective and being "medieval torture."

Integrity, the first cousin of Honesty, is just as hard to find.

Yep, Nodzy said it.

GumbyCT · Post by **GumbyCT** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 4:15 pm

Someone correct me if I am wrong - I thought the way the HMO thingy works is your primary doc gets some sort of compensation if he doesn't refer you to another doc?

In other words - you sign up for an HMO, select a primary, if you never go to see him, he gets a bigger check than if you see him once a week? And if you have Medicare they only get a portion of what they bill? So they don't like that.

Am I misunderstanding the way this works?
GumbyCT

RosemaryB · Post by **RosemaryB** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 4:22 pm

GumbyCT wrote:Someone correct me if I am wrong - I thought the way the HMO thingy works is your primary doc gets some sort of compensation if he doesn't refer you to another doc?

In other words - you sign up for an HMO, select a primary, if you never go to see him, he gets a bigger check than if you see him once a week? And if you have Medicare they only get a portion of what they bill? So they don't like that.

Am I misunderstanding the way this works?
GumbyCT

It depends on the HMO. Mine was a good HMO, and didn't use that system. This is a very good doctor, as conventional doctors go and is respectful, tries to work in partnership with the patient. Since I didn't fit the profile for OSA, he probably couldn't refer me under the HMO rules. Luckily, I'm no longer in the HMO.

The system is broken, not just the doctors.

Huntsman · Post by **Huntsman** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 5:29 pm

My doc from several years ago labeled me a "Hypo". I had not felt well in a few years, tired out easily, had high BP and cholesterol higher than I have ever heard of. He kept telling me it was all in my diet and lifestyle, I needed to get out and do more, I had always been pretty active, heck I've been up El Capitan! But I just kept getting slower and slower...finally I ended up in the ER one night with chest pains, attending cardio called my doc and within 2 hours I was out the door and on my way home with a new script for a BP med. Funny...they thought there was no way a 33yr old man was really having problems with his heart...2 months later I was in the same ER listening , in pain as they called out my BP dropping...last I heard was 60/40 then it was lights out. Woke up in recovery after having 3 stents placed in the 98% occluded anterior RCA. Since then my NEW docs take me seriously when I say I don't feel good. It's 4 yrs since then...and five heart attacks and 13 stents later, one of the docs decided to send me for a sleep study! Lo and Behold! Sleep apnea! Of course I know that is not the root cause of my heart problems...thats just in my genes...I shoulda gotten Levi's instead of Wranglers I guess...but if the sleep study was any indicator this will definitely help with my lethargy! So don't let the docs label you...if they do, it's time to find a new doc!

echo · Post by **echo** » Fri Oct 12, 2007 6:02 pm

jskinner wrote:In mid 2006, just before getting diagnosed with severe sleep apnea I had a doctor tell me point blank that I was a hypochondriac. He said there was NO way that I was having all those symptoms. That list turned out to be almost every symptom of sleep apnea.

Wow that's almost me, except the year was 2004, my father had just died, so i was of course feeling physically and mental out of sorts, which i always had, but it just got MUCH worse then. So I went to the doctor, who said (in reply to my symptoms and 2 blood test values that were slightly out of range, inflammation marker and something else i forget) "well there are too many things that these could indicate, where would we even begin to investigate" .. AAAAAUUUUURRRGHHHHH BLOODY IDIOT!
So the converation continued, me half ready to strangle him, I kept telling him my problem was something PHYSICAL, and his conclusion was finally "Oh well I can give you Prozac"
And which point I said no f*ing thank you, walked out, and never went back. Story's not over yet.. Then I had to go to the company doc, because I had been working unofficially half-time because I was too sick to go to work, then got threatened to be fired... and the idiot company doc agreed with the GP saying "yes there is nothing physically wrong with you, there is no reason you can't work full time. your problems are all mental and just related to the fact that your dad passed away"...
3 years later, they can all eat dirt!!!! and they call themselves doctors. morons.
Same story with allergies. Still no doctor will believe I am allergic to food because it doesn't show up on their skin-prick and whatever else tests. But boy do I get a nasty migraine if I eat peanuts or cashews.

I finally got a sleep study not because of any doctor (and i've seen a few, as someone else said they only treat one symptom and not look at your overall health - i have a good lymph node removal with near blood poisoning story but that's for another time...), but because my mother started nagging me (the son of a friend of hers got diagnosed, so she thought I should check into it too, since I always had had horrible sleep problems). Anyhoo I can always give a good rant on doctors if you like I have yet to find one that will look for the ROOT CAUSE of a problem, rather than just looking at symptoms. And I am sure that in many long OSA sufferers , that the initial problem turns into several problems that all need to be solved before health can be regained; at some point fixing OSA only is not enough. Another reason to detect it EARLY!
/end rant.

Nodzy · Post by **Nodzy** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 8:29 am

Yep, yep, yep... so right. It's a shame there aren't central OSA/SDB databases for medical professionals, and another for patients.

I was undiagnosed for decades because I had unwittingly learned as a teen how to compensate for the effects of sleep apnea. I refused to be called a "whiner" or "slacker." I always pushed myself to be better, be able to do more and demonstrate more stamina than compettitors. In part, maybe that is what helped me survive untreated OSA's mounting damage for so many years, and survive through another five-years or misprescribed and ineffective treatment.

A few years ago I also learned that through all of those years I had been "need-based" self-forcing endorphin and adrenalin surges in order to appear normal, very functional and energetic. I've come to learn that scenario has similar but somewhat slower-in-causing-damage effects on the body and mind in comparison to taking steroids and other "boosters." I have never used chemicals to generate energy or alertness.

Doctors ignored the OSA because I appeared to function so well. Most told me that, “only old people get that.” That all changed in about 1995, when the total sum of decades of OSA’s negative effects collapsed my ability to compensate. From '95 through early 2007 it was a hellish ordeal in so many ways.

My doctors occasionally treated seemingly disjointed symptoms. And until early this year continued to do that, but insinuated or said that I was making-up complaints because they did not understand the extensive physical and quality-of-life damage that untreated or ineffectively treated OSA/SDB causes.

The list of direct and peripheral symptoms and specific additional ailments that OSA/SDB causes, those known and others very common among sufferers, is quite long and growing steadily. Again, few doctors have a grasp of what is on that list. Many doctors balk at believing all of the symptoms and peripheral ailments are attributable to OSA, despite the commonalities among sufferers.

OSA/SDB is more common throughout the total population than any estimate belies. It is found in toddlers on through people in their nineties. It has been positively diagnosed in infants. Some now believe OSA/SDB is attributable to a high number of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) cases -- not blankets or body position, but hypoxia effects from OSA/SDB. It is also known to be involved in severe internal damage, physical incapacitation and premature death in very many elderly people.

Many of the numbered-few young stroke and heart attack victims are now suspected of having some form of OSA/SDB. Each year more and more preteens and teens are being diagnosed with OSA/SDB.

The highest estimate of OSA/SDB sufferers in the USA that I have found is twenty-four-million. But the actual number is probably closer to 40 to 50-million -- and possibly higher.

“The OSA/SDB medical field is past infancy and into adolescence, but too far from maturity.”

Yep, Nodzy said it.

mindy · Post by **mindy** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 9:20 am

Oh my .... I'm reading so many, many things that sound familiar!!!

I used to be labelled a hypochondriac and various other things. The "latest" hot topic in medicine now seems to be inflammation. I do have several inflammatory diseases and at one time they thought I might have Lupus but tests said "probabaly" no. They now think there are inflammatory links to at least some heart problems, diabetes, etc. There are known inflammatory diseases such as Crohn's, ulcerative colitis, lupus, ra, etc. My immune system destroyed my thyroid when I was in my teens.

Makes me wonder how much they are all connected. It seems like so many of us have multiple conditions. It may turn out that sleep apnea is connected, too. I suspect I've had it for about 10 years.

I've fought really hard to find docs that listen and treat me respectfully and are good at what they do. If they don't/aren't, I find another one. I'm lucky to live in an area where there are multiples of any specialty and have a few connections to find out more about the different ones. Mostly I'm happy with the ones I see now. My sleep doc is the newest of the bunch and I'm not sure yet if this one is a "keeper". I've already done some research to find out who to switch to if it doesn't work out well.

Mindy

DreamDiver · Post by **DreamDiver** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 12:01 pm

Yup.

I've been trying to figure out what's wrong with me since I was in High School. I was never able to keep up with the other guys. Couldn't run, couldn't move. Not so much obese as 'stocky.' I was always falling asleep in class. Everything hurt. The last time I didn't have a headache was when I took prednisone for anaphylaxis. While I never want to take it again, it made me realize that life could be so much better.

Throughout my life, I've always been told I was depressed, anxious, etc. But I'm the original leap-out-of-bed morning person. It's only as the day progresses that I feel crappy. And the older I got the crappier each morning got. Compromising one system throws all the others off balance. The last twenty years have been misery. Who wouldn't be depressed?

So on the advice of my doctor, I went to a number of different specialists and said flat out: these are my symptoms. I probably don't have "_fill-in-the-blank_" but I want to cross it off before going to the next specialist. After about the third specialist, I told my doctor I was getting frustrated because I was flush out of ideas. The last one was my last resort. She said that invariably when people start talking about last resorts it's time to start looking at sleep apnea. Darned if she wasn't right.

There are still other problems, predominantly food allergies and alimentary issues, but I hope this will help get a handle on them too.

Much reduced headaches and better breathing are on record so far.

Nodzy · Post by **Nodzy** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 1:04 pm

Mindy, and others…

“Ghost” inflammation is another little understood aspect of many ailments. Many of which are peripheral to OSA/SDB. Untreated or ineffectively treated OSA/SDB can bring on diabetes, which of itself is known to bring on a long list of other ailments including unusual inflammations and responses.

But OSA/SDB can bring on a host of other ailments, many of which cause low level, almost undetectable, persistent inflammation even without the presence of detectable diabetes. Usually “peripheral neuropathy” or “diabetic neuropathy” is a common diagnosis. But many other low level inflammations can occur in the bowel tract, urinary tract, chest or other muscles. Usually the inflammations are nerve related as one or more overlapping neurological disorders, or forms of neuropathy.

Here is a sampling of what’s in my med file, all of which are documented painful from troubling to debilitating levels:

Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Diabetes Melitus
Venous stasis
Persistently elevated CPK levels to 700 to 1300
Fibromyalgia
Neuropathy
Venous stasis
Migratory Arthralgias
Multiple Compression Neuropathies
Sensorimotor Polyneuropathy
Mononeuritis Multiplex
Chronic denervation/reinnervation in muscles

Now imagine a new, highly degreed, doctor being assigned who instantly disavows that any of those can yield more than “questionable pain.” And imagine that the doctor specifically and pointedly implied that my self-newfound effective therapy should immediately and completely heal all of the neuropathic damage at cellular level to render me as good as new. After decades of immense suffering and compounding damage? Then imagine that the doctor labeled me as a “hypochondriac” in the same medical file, during the same exam session, just below where the doctor prescribed a BIPAP-Auto in response me showing the doctor that I know the difference between their ineffective straight-CPAP therapy and the undoubtedly effective therapy I found with an auto-titrating machine.

In the medical community CMA and Buryem’s Law are widespread, for sure.

OSA/SDB obviously weakens the immune system as a byproduct, probably in large part due to repeated episodes of hypoxia. The immune system weakening can wax and wane and change modes without obvious explanation, other than better oxygenation of tissues by fewer and less frequent oxygen desaturations to or below the accepted 88% oxygen saturation threshold (by today’s standards).

Truly, one disease or affliction that begs for entire medical libraries to be devoted entirely to it and its extensive list of associated and resulting ailments is OSA/SDB.

Nodzy

mindy · Post by **mindy** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 1:05 pm

DreamDiver wrote:Yup.

I've been trying to figure out what's wrong with me since I was in High School.
....
So on the advice of my doctor, I went to a number of different specialists and said flat out: these are my symptoms. I probably don't have "_fill-in-the-blank_" but I want to cross it off before going to the next specialist. After about the third specialist, I told my doctor I was getting frustrated because I was flush out of ideas. The last one was my last resort. She said that invariably when people start talking about last resorts it's time to start looking at sleep apnea. Darned if she wasn't right.

Much reduced headaches and better breathing are on record so far.

Good for you, DreamDiver!

It can be tough to be assertive with the docs but we know our bodies and minds better than they do.

In my case, I think the sleep apnea was a result of gaining weight on prednisone but I have certainly had various problems since my teens. As I'm getting older, I'm finding the various symptoms tougher to accept and ignore.

There are so many of us it's hard to believe that the "H" word can possibly apply!

Mindy

jskinner · Post by **jskinner** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 1:15 pm

I think we need to form a 'Sleep Apnea Awareness" group. Our first order of businesses should be to develop a professional brochure amided at educating medical doctors. Once complete we should mail it to every MD in North America...

Second step should be to educate mental health professionals, every person being diagnosed with depression, anxiety, insomnia, etc should be given a sleep test before being prescribed psychiatric drugs.

sleepycarol · Post by **sleepycarol** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 1:23 pm

Great idea!!!

I take an anti-depressant and when I told my psych doctor his statement was I had told him I slept just fine -- which I thought I was but I told him I was ALWAYS sleeping!! It felt like I could sleep 24/7.

I think that we have came long way -- but there is still a tremendous number of doctors that do not understand the seriousness of Sleep Apnea!!

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Sat Oct 13, 2007 2:10 pm

My doctor had me see his FNP who told me that my symptoms (tiredness, getting up at night, etc.) were a result of depression and that I needed Prozac. It was the VA endo-diabetes people who treat my lipid problem who suggested I might have OSA since the statins weren't the cause of my tiredness. Long story short, I have asked never to be seen by the FNP when I go to a private doctor between VA appts. and find that I have to educate some physicians as to what OSA and CPAP are. My BP went so low that they had to discontinue my meds. The doc finally agreed it had to be the CPAP since there weren't any other changes. With all seriousness I believe that there is more collective knowledge here than in the medical community regarding OSA. There are several people on this forum that have helped me get my therapy straight and gone above and beyond.

"Hypochondriac" - Anyone called that?

Hypochondriac, me...

Re: Hypochondriac, me...