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megram - 55NovOttawa - Index

Rest is Best… continued from page Ottawa 3
great but the physiotherapist felt it
was more like bursitis.
My family doctor, at my request,
sent me for an X-ray. My doctor felt it
would show a bit of arthritis but wanted
to rule out any other possible problem.
(I could have opted for an injection
of cortisone, but pain relief was
not guaranteed and so I decided against
it.) In the end, the X-ray showed nothing
except moderate arthritis.
Okay, okay, you are probably all
wondering what I am going on about.
Many of you readers also suffer from
osteoarthritis.What’s the big deal?
Well,it is not the arthritis I am now
complaining about but the fact that
there were so many different diagnoses.
It drove me nuts.Was it bursitis?
Was it sciatic? Or was it just osteoarthritis?
(After all,I am getting older and I do
have osteoarthritis in my wrist.)
It was the frustration of so many
different approaches. If I were to have
had a serious illness, I might not have
had the energy or the state of mind to
call all the health care facilitators I did.
It was only when I went to my naturo-
pathic doctor that I got an overview
that explained the pain and how it
worked. I ended up having several sessions
of acupuncture.To my delight it
worked. (I did end up having a CT
scan and yep, it is arthritis.)
I heard recently that there are
people who do all that coordinating
for you — much like a contractor that
takes care of all the sub-contractors
when you are building a house. But
why has it come to that? If I had not
been so persistent, I may have ended
up having that cortisone shot.True, it
works for a lot of people but I opted
to try other methods that ended up
proving successful and thus avoided
any of the side effects of the cortisone.
Ultimately, only one of the health
care people sat down with me and discussed
the disease and what the effects
are and how to help it.In my mind there
are far too many specialists who don’t
look at the overall picture but concentrate
only on what they know best.
Once it has been confirmed that you
are suffering from something within
their expertise, things are fine. Should it
not be, then you are left floundering
and wondering what is going on.
I will probably get a lot of flak
from this column and perhaps I have
been just plain unlucky with those I
have gone to see,but that too is part of
the frustration.Who can tell what kind
of medical attention we are getting?
There are incidents that we hear
about — such as misdiagnosis and
infections being picked up while in
the hospital — it is absolutely scary.
While not overjoyed with my diagnosis,
I am certainly very glad that
what I have is osteoarthritis. It is a
pain, literally and figuratively, but it is
something I can deal with and yes,I am
trying nutrition, acupuncture, massage
and whatever it takes to keep me off
painkillers unless absolutely necessary.
I have a theatrical side and have
already planned on decorating a cane
in the wildest, most insane way. Hey! If
I need it, it will at least be creative.
Lorna Foreman is a self-described
50+ writer based in Cornwall,
Ontario.
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November/December 2008 • Ottawa 5 • Fifty-Five Plus Magazine