Dr. Gabby Is a Jerk

I regret attending my follow-up appointment with Dr. Gabby. Her EEG tech was right: she is a jerk.

After arriving half an hour late, she had difficulty accessing my spinal tap results. She was completely unprepared to see me. It took a while, but she got someone at the hospital to read them to her. All normal.

My auditory evoked potentials were normal. My visual evoked potentials were delayed.

She suggested fibromyalgia, MS, depression, anxiety, or a nervous breakdown. Seriously. And she brought up migraines, "just to make sure."

She dismissed fibromyalgia, because patients with it complain of pain, which is not a primary complaint for me at all. And they don't have white spots showing up on MRIs. And they don't have bladder issues. Or disturbances in evoked potentials. Yeah, probably not that.

She admitted that my symptoms do fit an MS diagnosis.

However, she felt that I must be depressed, because I was not "my old smiley self." Excuse me? Number one, I'm not smiling at you because I don't like you. Number two, I'm not smiling because you hit me with a diagnosis without providing follow-up education or support, and now you're changing your mind. And suggesting that I'm crazy. I asked what signs of depression I have, and she said tiredness. Um, people with MS are known to be tired, no?

She suggested anxiety but didn't really go into it much, focusing instead on my alleged depression.

Nervous breakdown. I can't even believe she had the audacity to say those words. And she meant it--she wants me to see a psychiatrist (not psychologist). She described a man who was paralyzed on one side of his body and he ended up having a psychiatric disorder and nothing neurological. Yeah, except that I have SCARRING ON MY BRAIN. She couldn't really reconcile that.

Migraines... She asked if I'm sure I've never had them. YES!!!!!!

Here are some Dr. Gabby inconsistencies:

1. Two weeks ago, she looked at my MRI, turned to me while pointing to one of the images, and said, "My dear, you have MS." Now she is simply ruling it out. And she stated (lied) that she had never said that I actually have it.

2. Two weeks ago, she looked at my MRI and said, "These are classic MS lesions, look here. Who was the other neurologist you saw? No, no, no, he should not have missed these. This one is quite large. Look, one is in the memory loop, and the other is in the temporal lobe." Apparently she forgot about them, or she isn't sure anymore.

3. Two weeks ago, she said that I had to get the MRIs, evoked potentials, and spinal tap completed within three business days so that she could see me within five. It was important that I get on the steroid and disease-modifying drugs immediately. Now... she's okay with the steroid. Disease-modifying drugs are suddenly off the table.

4. Two weeks ago, she said I would be taking Nuvigil to combat my fatigue. Now an anti-anxiety/depression should take care of it.

5. Two weeks ago, she said that I would have patient education. It never happened.

6. Two weeks ago, she said she would fax a request for steroid approval to my insurance company immediately. Now she let me know that she had waited until now.

7. Two weeks ago, she said that the spinal tap results might be positive or negative, depending on the phase of the disease. It wouldn't make a difference in the diagnosis. Now the fact that it was negative is somehow meaningful.

8. Two weeks ago, she said that it is nearly impossible to identify areas of damage on an MRI of the spinal cord. It wouldn't make a difference in the diagnosis, because it isn't correlated with symptom severity anyway. Now the fact that no damage was found means that I shouldn't have symptoms.

Funny, her staff were all abuzz with the fact that she had diagnosed me with MS before finishing all the tests. Suddenly she's Careful Cathy? Maybe someone said something to her?

And I found out that she lied about the other neurologists in the practice. She said that they only do seizures and migraines. Apparently not. And she said that the practice was breaking up and going in a different direction, which is why she's leaving. The practice is not breaking up. She is leaving and another doctor is replacing her. That's it. She also accused them of being in it for the money, that they are trying to get more "procedures" and do more sleep medicine, because that's where the money is. Funny, she gave me the brochure for the new practice she'll be in... It's a pain clinic! They do injections, back surgery, etc. Procedures.

I'm so offended and frustrated that she accused me of having a nervous breakdown or making up symptoms. She admitted that I couldn't make up the scarring on my brain or the delayed visual processing. But she still was adamant that I have depression. I'm frustrated that this will be in my medical record.

She brought up the fact that I'm single, as if that were relevant.

Do single people tend to invent health issues? When I told a good friend about this, she reminded me what the first doctor said after she described her symptoms of hair loss, dropping things, tiredness, and losing 40 pounds in two months: "How's your marriage?" Unfortunately, I don't have a large thyroid tumor to point to in the face of medical lunacy.

Do single people have more nervous breakdowns? Frankly, I know an awful lot of nutty married people, so I don't think marital status is medically significant.

I didn't even think that nervous breakdown was a clinical term.

I talked with my best friend about it, and she suggested that Dr. Gabby was probably kindly asked to leave the practice. I suppose there might be truth to that. She has certainly behaved erratically with me. Remember how she forgot who I was last week and asked me if I had had a bubble test done? What on earth is a bubble test?

And there was the comment that the EEG tech made about her patients going downhill fast. Maybe she's just a crappy doctor.

So do I really have MS? My symptoms do fit that diagnosis. And there is definitely something wrong with me. But I'm getting better now. Although part of me wants to let it go and get back to my life, part of me is scared that it will happen again. I guess I need to continue working to get a diagnosis. If it's really MS, okay, I'll handle it. If it's something else, that will certainly be awkward telling people oops it wasn't MS after all... but I can handle that, too.

I heard back from a psychologist who was recommended to me. She is a member of my church, which is what I wanted. She doesn't seem to be very good about answering email. Hopefully she is a good shrink. Now I'm not even sure what I'll talk about with her. I haven't felt anxious in five days. I worked through it last weekend and have been tons better since then. My sleep problems have vanished. Getting healthier might have something to do with my stronger emotional health, but I think I'm also kind of a "Oh my gosh, what will I do??" person for a while then get over it. Even if I'd still been very sick this week, I probably wouldn't have been mentally stronger anyway. I had a rough week last week, but I've been pretty well-adjusted for the past three months, considering everything I've had to deal with. I think. I wonder if a psychologist can diagnose or rule out depression. She can send her report to Dr. Gabby. I'll give it to her myself, so I can stick my tongue out at her. Jerk.