Here I email the MD who mocked me when I refused her “care”
The other day I posted the below comment and picture on Facebook:
I think it’s time for me to send an email to the MD who mocked me when I refused to take hormones and opiates to treat my endometriosis. She told me I would be back in her office within 5 years for a hysterectomy…I left her office sobbing…
Today, I no longer suffer from endometriosis symptoms and have not for a few years. I found natural ways to treat it…it’s essentially GONE
I did write an email for her, but when I tried to find somewhere to send it I ran into trouble. I hunted for an email address via the internet but didn’t find one. I called her office and inquired how I might get an email message to the doctor. I told them I was an old patient and wanted to communicate about the care I got some years ago. The receptionist got off the line and was gone for a few minutes. When she returned she told me that I could not send email to the doctor. So then I said can I send you something that you might forward to the doctor. She said, no. That was something only current patients could do! I was rather astounded. I asked her, so, am I clear, the doctor does not allow any communication with old patients? The receptionist was clearly feeling uncomfortable at this point.
So, I had found a public Facebook fanpage. It looks like it’s virtually dead, simply not used. No one checks it on a regular basis. I did the only thing I could think of at this juncture having been stonewalled. I posted my email, intended to be private, on this doctor’s public wall. She did not really allow for much else, so I feel it was appropriate. I know that people who don’t use their Facebook accounts many NEVER view their Facebook inboxes.
I find it astonishing as well as sadly telling that an MD doesn’t allow for emails in 2013!!
This is the email I wrote to the doctor:
I tried contacting you privately but your office said that they would not forward an email from anyone who was not a current patient so that leaves me with only this way to make sure you read my complaint. (your staff could not tell me if you read your facebook inbox either or I would have simply done that. The page looks completely dead, but this being public it should at some point actually come to your attention)
So…here we go…this is what I’ve been trying to send you privately.
I felt a need to write you and share my experience of you as a doctor.
Several years ago now…I think it may have been about 9 years, I came to you to consult about my endometriosis. I’d had it all my adult life and had had two prior laser laparoscopies. The pain had returned with a fury.
I came to you and explained that I do not tolerate hormones or opiates and other synthetic opiate-like substances. I wondered what else I could do to manage the situation. I wanted to avoid having surgery again.
You seemed unable to hear that I COULD NOT TAKE hormones and opiates, tramadol, etc and spent the entire appointment telling me why I should take them. I have severe adverse reactions to such drugs but you didn’t seem to care or take it seriously.
By the end of the appointment when it was clear I was not going to bend to your will you dismissed me with a threat. You said to me, if I was not willing to treat this now (as you wanted me to) I would be back in your office within five years for a hysterectomy.
I left your office sobbing. I sobbed the whole way home…
You treated me with contemptuous disregard and lack of respect. But…that’s not the worst of it…you were also WRONG.
I’ve essentially turned the endometriosis around with diet and lifestyle changes. I was more than willing to treat and care for myself. You simply did not know what I needed. I’ve not had significant symptoms for a few years and none at all for the last 6 months to a year.
I hope that you don’t treat everyone who doesn’t share your opinion with such contempt, but I fear that is wishful thinking.
I also hope that this email might help you consider the interests of your patients in the future when they might not share your clinical opinion. It may be hard to believe, but you may not always know what is right for a patient.
Monica
So for this post I’ll talk a bit about what I did to heal from endometriosis, though I can’t be super precise because I did this healing as I’ve done all my healing: since the withdrawal and subsequent efforts to heal from the psychiatric drug withdrawal syndrome. It’s also important to understand that everyones healing path will be different and that the below is by no means a prescription for anyone else.
Quite a while ago now it’s become clear to me that ALL HEALTH, mental and physical is interlinked. Really on a grand scale our well-being and all sentient creatures and the planets too is all interlinked. Everything matters. That means that all health comes from FOUNDATIONAL well-being. What I’ve done since I’ve been gravely, acutely and chronically ill is come to understand this profoundly. I’ve been tweaking my diet, meditating, doing yoga etc etc for many years now. Somewhere along the line the endometriosis was clearing up along with other long term issues that predated the withdrawal syndrome!
I did do research particular to endometriosis and I incorporated much of what I learned. I found this site on healing endometriosis naturally the most helpful. Though as with all things I’ve departed some from their advice. They’re pretty hard-core vegetarian and I’ve, with much internal conflict, found I need to eat meat, most importantly for my metabolic issues that were created by the psychiatric drugs. My blood sugar level (and my imminent risk for diabetes) stays where it’s supposed to be when I avoid grains and beans etc. I cannot be properly nourished without meat. I have my standard disclaimer I attach to my food posts here: Note: In our society today whether people eat animal products or not is a hot issue. I would prefer not to eat meat but have found I must. I’ve also found that I’m intolerant of dairy and eggs, so that leaves only meat and fish. I have found others like me in my community with similar physical ailments who have found that animal products are essential to healing. I’ve experimented heavily with purely vegetarian methods of nourishing myself without meat since I deeply value the lives of animals and have failed. This choice does not come without pain. I’m always happy for those who find they can thrive without animal products and I certainly don’t begrudge those who can. I hope someday to regain enough health that I might be able to once again carefully tweak most if not all of the meat out of my diet. I write explicitly about this issue because we are all different and people need to find what works for both their body and their spirit together. Sometimes the needs of the body and the needs of the spirit seem to conflict. Such is life. Never simple. I take comfort in the fact that all of nature eats itself and I’m blessed with a consciousness that can recognize that I am part of this web of life, complicated and lovely as it is.
Another note: I’ve had periods since the writing of the post when little or no animal products was, indeed, best for my well-being. The thing I’ve learned on this healing trip is that my body is never static and its needs vary day to day. I respond to it fresh in the moment every day.
I think that the admonishment to avoid meat on the endometriosis website was really about avoiding factory farmed HORMONE-laden meat. Adding hormones into the mix of a disorder that involves hormones isn’t a good idea. All the meat I eat is off a local farm and grass and pasture raised. Not only is it hormone free, but the omega 6 to omega 3 fat ratio is very different which also supports foundational well-being.
Shortly after I could no longer see the acupuncturist I mention above I added a supplement that I found research showing helped with endometriosis pain. Pycnogenol. It’s the scientific name for pine bark. I mention it in this post about my battle with endometriosis with a link to the study. That supplement helped A LOT! This is the actual product I use: Pycnogenol
Here is a report about the study from medscape (you need to register, but it’s free): Pine Bark Extract Reduces Symptoms of Endometriosis
That supplement wasn’t the end of it. Diet and nutrition has and continues to be important. Nutrition and gut health, Mental health and diet: that is my nutritional adventure documented. Always on the road to total well-being because everything is part of everything. I can’t tease out what was the right thing specifically for the endometriosis.
I’ve also put a post together about dealing naturally with acute and chronic pain that also helped my endometriosis: Adventures in natural pain relief
Another thing that has helped pain not mentioned in that post are essential oils. I find a that a combination of Idaho Blue Spruce, Pine and Thyme is incredibly helpful for pain. They’re all anti-inflammatory. I put them in a diffuser for an hour at a time. Incredibly helpful. I will update that post now. (more recently, I have found angelica and sandalwood helpful)
Updated note: I have gone through phases in which I became sensitive to essential oils and no longer tolerated them. If you are dealing with hypersensitivities they may sometimes be contraindicated. I, also, no longer need any of the supplements (or essential oils) I used that were helpful at the time. The endometriosis was truly healed. I do use essential oils off and on for other issues now and also still need to take breaks sometimes.
What is endometriosis?–a little piece that explains
Comments about the endometriosis pain I was experiencing in 2007 — (when I visited the above doctor) I had advanced endometriosis which is considered the most severe.
The acupuncture I mention as having just begun in that post, actually helped a lot. It completely controlled it while I continued to see the acupuncturist whose specialty was women’s reproduction. The problem for me at the time was twofold. I didn’t want to dependent on visiting the acupuncturist in the long run, and then well, the withdrawal syndrome got so bad I couldn’t leave the house anymore and so I could not visit the acupuncturist at all. I needed to find ways to heal the condition myself. And so I did.
Anyway, in brief, that is about the best I can do to share how I healed my endometriosis. I cannot speak to whether or not all endometriosis can be healed in this sort of way. All I can say is that this took years and a lot of effort and paying attention to my body/mind/spirit. It’s a continuing evolution. Always.
I don’t expect to hear back from the doctor to whom I wrote the above message since it’s pretty clear she didn’t want to hear from me. My post remains on her dead Facebook page. I’m sure it will be discovered eventually.
I will include this post in my collection of correspondence to my psychiatrist. I’ve included a few other emails and communications I’ve made with other doctors now as well. I wish I didn’t need to do this so often!
Update: For whatever it’s worth, the doctor did respond a week or so later via Facebook private mail with this brief comment:
I have received your email. I appreciate your feedback. Sounds like you are doing well, and I am happy to hear that.
She also placed a setting on Facebook so that I couldn’t respond to that essentially blocking the option for further communication.
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