US Healthcare vs. Ours

[ListoR]

Since going on this forum I have been amazed by the difference between the treatment provided by the US healthcare system and ours! I can't believe that they can visit a neuro emergency room! Beats a 4 hour wait in the local A and E to see a junior doctor! After 3 neuro visits (which I had to wait ages for) and an EMG I am still none the wiser as I was told to wait a year and go back. I was told that I would be in the clear if there was no weakness by then. No BFS diagnosis. I couldn't live with that so this is what I did. On Friday I went to the good old family GP. He knows me and my family and he actually CARES! He's more bothered about my welfare than litigation. He looked the email written to him by the neuroligist and read parts of it out to me. The neurologist told HIM that I had BFS! Why couldn't he tell me that! My GP said that the neurologist was itching to discharge me but gave me the 1 year appointment to reassure me. It had the opposite effect. My GP has looked after people with MND and he said that he wasn't worried that first time I went into his surgery 8 months ago as a nervous wreck. He knows what it looks like and my all over twitches just didn't match. He thinks that my condition is fed by anxiety wich is made worse by worring about the condition!I came out of the surgery feeling much better after being spoken to as a person. A hot shot neurologist who doesn't smile did nothing for me - all I needed was reassurance and the good old family GP hit the spot. He told me that I will probably have to live with this for a long time but that I'll be in there bending his ear until a ripe old age. He reminded me that it doesn't prevent me from doing anything - it's just bloody annoying. I walked away determined to get on with my life despite these twitches. I'd love to know if anybody has had a similar experience.Go and see your GP - he'll tell it how it is and you won't have to have needles stuck into you or wait 6 weeks.

 

[EyeoftheWild]

Great advice:the GP knows a thing or two. The reason there are so many bloody test in the States is because doctors are afraid of litigation. I have spoken to a couple of doctors who moved from the US system up to Canada, and they both said that patients would come in demanding this and that, and they were actually afraid not to give it to them; even though their training, and common sense, told them otherwise. Once a person gets on the "testing" merry-go-round, there can be no end of trouble and anxiety. Many people have spoken of how cold neurologists can be, but put yourself in their shoes. If you saw people coming in with ailments that you KNEW were benign, you would hardly get that fussed about it. Remember, they actually see the people with nasty stuff, and so a bit of twitching and perceived weakness is hardly enough to provoke their real interest. Of course, it would be nice if they had a good bedside manner...and I'm sure most of them do for the ones who are really in trouble.Basso

 

[ListoR]

And of course - on the cynical side - how much money are the privately motivated American neurologists making from all of these very worried people? If somebody told me to pay £1000 to find out what this thing is, I would! I just don't feel that test after test will help me because they don't know what causes it. I have to learn to live with it just like people live with angina and arthritis. My BFS is a LOT less debilitating than either of those two. At 52 I could have worse things than annoying twitches which keep me awake at worst. My GP told me that I have as much chance of getting MND as somebody without BFS and THAT'S why the neurologist won't diagnose BFS. He's looking after himself, not me. After 8 months of worrying about it, he has finally shook me out of it. This thing is 20% twitching and 80% worry, which makes the twitching worse. If I quit worrying and cut the caffiene down I can reduce the twitches to a stage where I can count to 10 without one - that's amazing!!

 

[mrpizz33]

My GP was pretty good to but refused to accept BFS as a condition. In her words you have fasiculations which are benign, if you want to label it as a syndrome that fine by me.