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You and Your Doctor It is important that you develop a good working relationship with your doctor. This involves speaking up for yourself, asking questions and getting good well-thought out answers. It means one on one communication. If you fear your doctor, perceive him as superior to you, an authority that you cannot question, you will not have a good working relationship. Your doctor is a human being who chose medicine as his profession. He does not know everything and he knows less about your body than you. The most important part of a good working relationship is communication of symptoms and how illness affects you. Remember your illness, whether CFS, FMS or EI is relatively unknown. They have not discovered a definite cause for it. Therefore, no cure has been discovered either. These are chronic illnesses that your doctor may know little about and you have to be responsible for educating him. This is an unfortunate but definite fact of life for a lot of you. Tell your physician all of your symptoms. Write them down in detail so that you do not have to depend on faulty memory. This ensures that the doctor will be able to rule out other possible medical problems as well as making him aware of all your symptoms. The physician needs to be aware of how much you are affected by the illness; physically, emotionally and mentally. This makes it easier for him to offer the most appropriate treatment, i.e. medication for pain, counseling for dealing with grief, help around the house because you are disabled by illness, pain or fatigue. Your doctor is an ally when applying for Canada Pension or insurance claims. He needs to give detailed information. You have to give it to him and make sure he writes it down. It is not enough to give generalized statements. Specific description of medical problems is required. If you are not happy with your doctor, his attitude, lack of knowledge, or poor communication you need to consider a change. This will be difficult for three reasons: emotionally you are dependent on the doctor and may feel you're letting him down, he knows your situation, if you go to another you need to start all over again educating him about "you", and there is often a lack of doctors taking new patients. But give it serious consideration. You deserve good care from an understanding compassionate person who is willing to learn about you and about the illness. If you wish to find out more about doctors in your area
please contact: 902-582-5862
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