Muffy wrote:BleepingBeauty wrote: I've been thinking about the thyroid and pulmonary issues for the past couple of days, and I've decided that I'm not going to push my PCP (or any other doctor, for that matter) to do further tests just yet.
Don't we at least want to tell the PCP office that they're doing the screening spirometry incorrectly?
I certainly do appreciate your POV and your opinion on this, Muffy, but I don't want to risk alienating my PCP (who seems to think I'm over the edge with this stuff already) any further.
We can do whatever we want, but
I don't want to be left without a PCP. This is a small practice in a small town, and I don't have many choices when it comes to local doctors.
You probably think my PCP is pretty useless, and I'd be better off anywhere else. I'm not sure I agree with that, as I get pretty decent routine care there (from my layperson's POV, anyway). But even if I did agree, my options are limited, and who's to say another small-town doctor would be any different? Driving an hour or two each way to see a specialist is one thing; I can't take that on for routine visits to a PCP. Perhaps when my sleep is more consistent and I can rule it out as a contributor to other possible medical issues, I can pursue this further.
It was you who said to me repeatedly that
sleep instability breeds breathing instability. (See, I listen.) It's not surprising that my lungs would have some restriction, considering my history; but I never feel so out-of-breath that I need an inhaler, even though I have one now. So I'm not worried about my
ability to breathe; my apnea (obstructive and central) is the big problem, as I see it. So that's what I'm focusing on right now, getting consistently good sleep for awhile.
I spoke with the smartest woman I know (my mother) about all of this, and even
she thinks I'm going overboard with these other avenues. She was a nurse for many years, and smart as a whip. Went to nursing school when I was in HS and my youngest sibling had just entered the first grade. Made the Dean's List every semester, was invited to join Who's Who in American Junior Colleges, basically put us kids to shame when it came to academics. As mother and daughter, we've certainly had some big disagreements over the years, but I respect her and value her opinion, especially on medical issues.
The way they're doing it now, everybody is coming out of there with some degree of restrictive component and an obstructive value so low (PEF, at < 50% predicted) that by definition, they should go to the ED. As well as a non-existent calibration procedure. And perhaps being prescribed medications that they don't need (you don't take bronchodilators for restrictive lung disease).
Muffy
I've been a proponent all my life of doing things the "right way," but I can't fix everything that isn't. I carry a good amount of personal responsibility in that regard, but I can't fight every battle, and this one just isn't at the top of my list right now.
I think you and I share a few personality traits, Muffy, and, with your background, you'd probably get along very well with my mother (likely better than I do). But I don't have the medical expertise that you and many others do, to make this kind of point with my doctor and be taken seriously. The title of your post indicates that YOU want to tell them where they're going wrong on spirometry; I'd love that if it wouldn't negatively impact my own situation, but I fear it will...
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