Last year, I didn’t go to a lot of doctor appointments that I was planning on having. Because of the pandemic, I didn’t want to have to go to the hospital more than I needed to. And while some of my appointments were regular ones, the ones I skipped weren’t urgent and I knew I could put them off for a little while. If any of my doctors told me I had to go to an appointment, I would have gone. But nothing was needed and I think all my doctors understood why I was postponing them.
One of the appointments I skipped was with my dermatologist. That appointment was going to be for a regular annual checkup and most of what is done at those appointments are things like skin checks for skin cancer. Since I didn’t really go out in the sun at all last year, I didn’t think having my skin checked for sun damage was really necessary. I also had some other questions I wanted to ask my doctor, but again, nothing was urgent so I was fine putting it off.
But then my autoimmune condition flared up really badly and I knew that I needed to get some more help than what I can do on my own. My dermatologist wasn’t the one who diagnosed me (that was another doctor), but he was the most recent one to discuss treatment options with me so I figured he would be the right person to reach out to. I started with just an email to my doctor and he wanted to set up a phone appointment to talk about what’s going on. I was hoping somehow a phone appointment would be enough for me to get some help even though this was discussing something with my skin.
I had my phone appointment the other day and it went ok. I discussed the pain I was in and what options I knew I was ok with and what I wasn’t ok with (there is one medication I could try but it would make me immunocompromised so I don’t want to do that). But like I suspected, this type of appointment wasn’t really able to be done on the phone and my doctor said I needed to come in.
Fortunately, I was able to get an appointment for next week, so things should be better for me soon. And I am lucky because my dermatologist is familiar with my autoimmune condition (it’s not something that all doctors understand or have experience treating). He wants to go over a few options that I have for treating things and he didn’t seem too worried about my concerns with some medications. So I’m hopeful that after next week I will have a good idea of a treatment plan I can work with.
I’ve had this issue for a long time and have tried a few different treatments in the past, but I’ve never really worked with one doctor who was very familiar with it and was willing to work on a long-term plan with me. I’ve had other doctors who wanted me to temporarily try one medication or another to see what it would do, even though the studies say those medications don’t work. That’s why I never have stuck it out with one doctor or a treatment plan. But now, I feel good about going forward with this and I’m hoping that in a week or so I will have a better idea about how I can get out of pain and maybe make it so I don’t have to deal with this as often as I do. I know it’s not likely to be resolved right away, but feeling like I’m on a path to figuring it out will be helpful.
I am a little nervous about having to go into the hospital for this appointment, but the medical offices are not the same building as the main hospital. So I won’t be around as many people and those who are going in for more serious things will be in a different building. And I’m sure there is some sort of plan so that there aren’t too many people in the waiting room at one time.
Even if I feel totally comfortable after this appointment with how things go at the hospital, I still think I will be waiting on some other appointments for a little while. Unless I have something come up where I need to be seen sooner or my doctors tell me they want me to come in, I want to wait until I am vaccinated and the case numbers are a bit more under control. And then I can go in and take care of everything I skipped.
Hopefully, next week goes just as smoothly as I hope it will be and I will have a good treatment plan in the works and out of the pain that I’ve been in for a while.
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