My wife woke up one morning and realized she couldn’t walk because of weakness and loss of balance. I took her to the emergency room where she had blood tests, urine tests, x-rays, ECG and a brain CT scan performed. By the time the tests were completed and the results reviewed showing no abnormal results she could walk. So she was released with instructions to follow up with her family doctor.
Her family doctor referred her to a neurologist who performed testing and suspected myasthenia gravis but admitted that the equipment required to test for it was not available in our part of the state. He made arrangements with a facility several hundred miles away to have the tests performed. In the interim he gave her a prescription for the medicine to treat myasthenia gravis stating if she had the disease she would know it a few hours after taking the medicine. The medicine made no difference.
“And while some doctors might be resistant to you coming to them with your Google theories, others will accept and even embrace it. In my opinion, it’s better to come in armed with as much information as possible.”
I researched her medical records which were available online. I noticed that she had not had a thyroid test in many years and learned that an overactive thyroid gland could prompt symptoms similar to what she had experienced. I requested her family doctor to order a thyroid test and he willingly did so. Two days later her extreme hyperthyroidism was confirmed and her family doctor referred her to an endocrinologist. Since we would have to wait 6 weeks before she could see the specialist her family doctor gave her a prescription for typical medication to use in the interim. It turned out that she has Graves Disease which is a special form of hyperthyroidism that could have been life threatening if not promptly treated.
We live in a suburb of a rapidly growing city. The emergency rooms are overcrowded with patients being treated in the hallways on gurneys. Patients are “boarded” in the ER while waiting for an available bed so they can be admitted to the hospital. Office visits with various specialists have a 6 to 8 week delay. Medicare for All would overwhelm our already stressed medical facilities and personnel.
