~Don't Put on a Facade for your Doctors Sake~

      She walks into the Urologist office, sits down in the waiting room and waits for her name to be called. She has been in pain, relentless pain; she has had all she can possibly take. She goes in with a attitude that no one is going to push her around anymore, yet when the doctor enters, her demeanor changes and she is silenced by his knowledge and thinks he knows better. The words he speaks are knife cutting, “why won’t He believe me”?

   I felt compelled to write a entry about being real, about not putting on a façade for our doctors sake. We might at times have a tendency to not be completely honest with our doctors at times. Do we feel the need to walk into a doctor’s office and appear that all is fine, with a nice pretty smile and when asked how we feel, we feel intimidated or afraid to tell them like it is. This is not helping our cause, its damaging our cause.

   We want our doctors to be kind, understanding and compassionate and willing to help us, I think one of the most important characteristics we as patients look for in a doctor is do they take us seriously, yes sadly there are still many that don’t, or don’t understand IC. What would happen if we looked how we felt? Think of that for a moment. We can’t let any doctor walk all over us, we cant silenced because of fear that we won’t be believed, if a doctor does not take you seriously, its seriously time to move and look for one who does, don’t settle for less than what you deserve.

   If we expressed in words how we truly felt, more doctors would be put in their places. Sometimes its tough ti find the words to express what’s going on in our bodies, but we need to know our bodies well enough, that why its important to be your own advocate. What we feel is real, raw, and horrific, we deserve our words to be taken at face value, not pushed aside as if we have no idea what we’re talking about, we are the ones who deal with this disease day in and day out.

   If we go in to our doctor’s office and we feel like we’ve been hit by a mat truck, voice that we deserve the best treatment, we deserve to be treated with reject and dignity and gentleness. We need to take off our masks, stop saying im fine, when you aren’t. What good will that do for us raising awareness, part of raising awareness is, being the face to this disease, show in g them exactly how this affects our lives, not just tell them in words.

      at times we say to ourselves, I don’t want to be viewed at a complainer, so we stay silent, then wonder why our doctor doesn’t do more. Or we don’t want to be overlooked and pushed aside, well then speak UP and let your voice be heard, tell your doctors how bad of a time you’re having. When we hold back we really are hurting ourselves.

   Doctors try to tailor our treatments to what we express to them. WE know  our Bodies BEST! When we only tell them half the story, what kind of damage are we really doing to ourselves without even realizing it, maybe misdiagnosis or half a diagnosis. Its easy at times to be intimidated by the position they hold, the degree behind their name, we may not even question what they do or why, what good will that do to our future? Its important to educate yourself. don’t take a doctors  opinion as fact all the time, don’t let their ego if they have one make you doubt your own pain, you know what you deal with, you know what you can  handle. Second opinions need to be sought out at times or  if you aren’t being respected or you’ve heard those words that ive heard before, its all in your head, YOU turn around and walk out that door and never look back!!! You DESERVE better! If you feel like you can’t hold in the tears, don’t, let them flow, let them see you at your worst, its time we show the medical field what living with a chronic disease is like. There is no need to hide. IC is as real as it comes. Our disease is Real and raw! Now its time to let our words express our reality of what living with Interistial cystitis or any chronic disease is like.