American College of Rheumatology
http://www.rheumatology.org

On the lefthand side of the main menu, click on  "Locate a Doctor"

It will ask for a state - enter Washington.

You'll see a list of RD's.

... Why are there so many Smiths in the phone book?
... They all have phones.

{{{{{{{{{{Aim}}}}}}}}}}  Oh, how important it is to have a good GP!! Hang in
there, Little Sis!

DeeTee

Glad to hear your gp has a brain :-))  And I'm glad too to hear that you
are going to go to a different RD. I wish I knew of someone in Seattle,
but I never got to an RD down there.

BTW, I'll be in Seattle on December 21st. David Lanz is doing a winter
solstice concert at Benaroya Hall. It's going to be super!

Carole :)

God bless your GP.

Taht RD must have studied with the one I saw at the last place we lived.  The
first visit with that guy was ok, but subsequently he sat on the other side
of the room for the whole visit (yes, I WAS taking showers and using
deodorant!) and never looked at a single joint.  When he took to berating me
about the decision my PCP and I had reached regarding staying on Premarin, it
was the last straw.  Our insurance then didn't cover office visits and we
couldn't afford another new patient fee, especially when we knew we'd be
moving soon, but htere was no way I'd darken his door again.  I, too, had an
excellent PCP and she agreed to monitor my labs until we moved and I got set
up with docs here.  She was a better RD than my RD was.  Good docs are such
gems, the bad ones are so dangerous.

well, heck.  i never doubted, that it was not all in your head, for a
moment!  thank goodness you have a great gp, indeed!  bummer that the idiot
rd's chart notes can't simply be deleted, too.  i hate when things, like
judgments about us, follow us around that are not correct and/or are
misleading.  it takes so much energy to have to keep backtracking to explain
everything.

no news about gwenie, yet.  i've been trying to reach her or her daughter in
law by phone.  no luck.  it is getting worrisome.

i supposedly found a good one in puyallup; two friends reccommended her
highly.  but i haven't set up an appmt. with her yet.  if you're interested,
the rd's name is:  nancy s. karr.

take care, hon.

kate

Firstly, to all who replied to my previous post: THANK YOU. Your support
was so helpful. I logged in and read it on my cellphone while tossing
and turning from pain the other night, and while I couldn't reply from
there, reading your messages sure made me feel the support. I do love
you guys.

Second, HAS ANYONE TALKED TO GWEN??? I saw her post and didn't see any
followup from her or anyone who'd gotten ahold of her or her family.
PLEASE tell me I missed an update! It's now been 3 days since her post
and I'm worrying. She was my roommate at my first Gimpfest! I love that
lady.

So, on to the update. I'm doing better tonight. Saw my regular GP on
Wednesday and he essentially told me that RD was out of her mind. The
medical center where I go has all their patient records on computer now
(FINALLY) so he was able to show me her notes. He let me read them over
his shoulder as he was reading them. He had a look of absolute horror on
his face when I told him what she'd said, and immediately pulled up her
notes for us to read together. His face just dropped into a look of
disbelief and disgust as he read. She wrote that I'd had 10 of 18
trigger points. She never even checked them - she felt my hands,
squeezed my knees, one of which is inflamed and I said ow, and then she
pushed on my SI joints. I didn't react to anything but the knees, as I'm
fairly stoic unless it really hurts, and she was missing most of my sore
joints anyway. She dismissed my entire list of symptoms and said I had
"unsubstantiated complaints of musculoskeletal pain, likely due to
extensive history of depression/mental illness."

My GP put it best, "what the...? We're in Seattle. Anyone NOT on some
sort of treatment for seasonal depression is nuts." I then talked to him
about that "extensive history" - hypothyroid having been untreated for
so long, and then mistaken for depression. I've been stable on the combo
I take for the last 10-12 years. I take a higher dose in the winter, and
a very low dose in summer. I'd love to try tapering down a bit but I'd
like to get pain and such under better control first. He fully agreed.

I explained that when I was in college the student health center had put
me on a combination of prozac, imitrex and fen-phen and that threw me
into "serontonin syndrome" and made me very manic. They labeled me
bipolar as a result. He looked at me, and then scrolled up in my chart
and DELETED all references to bipolar disorder. He said that was a
ridiculous diagnosis, and shouldn't be in my chart if it was
drug-induced. He left the depression notes in, which is fine. As he put
it, everyone in Seattle has some method for dealing with the dark half
of the year.

Anyway, he gave me a small supply of pain meds so I could get some sleep
and break the pain cycle. And he is going to refer me to any RD I choose
as long as they are OUTSIDE that particular hospital system so that they
can't see the previous RD's notes. He asked me to "get on the internet
and do some research, and he will try to come up with some names too."
He's a really young, new doctor, so he doesn't know many specialists
outside Virginia Mason's system yet. But I like that he wants me to
specifically go outside the system so the notes won't follow me.

I'm definitely feeling better mentally about it all after seeing him.
Mad as heck after seeing the RD's notes, yes. But better about the plan
of attack.

Thank goodness for a good GP.

But I forgot to have him renew my placard. I'll call him on Monday and
ask. When I call about the referral to the new RD - whoever that may be.
Anyone know one in the greater Seattle area? I'm willing to travel an
hour or so, too.

Thanks for being here you guys.

Aim