Doctor Drama!

A brief summary of what has transpired since making the doctor's appointment.

I went to the health center to see one of their dermatologists yesterday morning.  I told her about what I did and that, when I stuck to it, it worked (and that my face shows that I've been needing to do better).  She was very supportive, and wrote me a referral to the local allergist to test for food allergies.  Sounds great!

After the appointment, I called the local allergist to make an appointment.  First, they wouldn't be able to get me in until November (well, okay . . .), and then, when I told the receptionists that I was testing because of acne issues, they insisted I go to the local independent dermatologist (also the allergist's wife!).  Thinking, "well okay, maybe they just don't trust the university doctors", I relented and made an appointment with the second dermatologist for today, in the process messing with my office hours and my research schedule, to convince the allergist that I, in fact, needed his services.

Every time I see a dermatologist, I mentally prepare for an argument.  My experience runs counter to the standard Western medicine explanation that diet has nothing to do with acne, and I know that, when people are presented with fundamental challenges like that, they get . . . funny.  I was ready with the first dermatologist, and I was ready for the second.  I went in with my stack of papers, was very polite (if my teeth were clenched a bit because of the redundancy of this dermatologist visit), presented my situation, and asked for help.  This second dermatologist recommended that I drop everything I was doing and try another antibiotic and another suite of washes/creams because the people who had prescribed my biomedical interventions in the past had prescribed the wrong stuff.  I would just have to give her regimen two months of perfect adherence - including dropping my way of doing things.  I said (as politely as I could, I might add) that I couldn't give her those two months and I wouldn't give up the diet.

And then she got defensive.  She said that because I couldn't trust her (a doctor from a branch of medicine that has failed me for 10 + years who I'd just met and implied that my diet/regimen was bunk), I needed professional mental help.  She said she would call the allergist (but I didn't see her do this because she walked away before I could insist that she do it in front of me) and that she wouldn't charge me (for what amounted to a mutual waste of time, I might add), but I have a feeling that all she did was rant to her husband about some [insert your derogatory term of choice for young women here] refusing to just do what she said without question - she's the one with the MD in dermatology, after all.  What is more mentally - even spiritually - unhealthy?  Doing something just because an expert in the arena says so - even if your experience AND some legit research suggests that what that expert recommends may not hold as much water as they would like to think?  Call me a heretic (which I am - especially in my field of expertise), but I'll go with someone calling me crazy and going with my gut than doing anything that doesn't make sense to me - especially when we're talking about my body!

Anyway, I wrote back to the first dermatologist this afternoon, explaining the situation, and she recommended I contact the Arizona Center for Integrative Medicine - the institute Dr. Andrew Weil founded to do research in to doing medicine in a way that makes the patient a partner, rather than another body, and is open to dietary intervention and other more "natural" ways of healing.  I sent their resident allergist an email explaining the situation so far and asking his advice.  He redirected me to their senior director - who I just emailed a copy of what I wrote to the allergist.

We shall see what happens.  I'll keep you posted, dear readers.