Thursday, February 14, 2008

Two Great New Blogs

I hope this post finds everyone doing well and in good spirits. I have felt a little better over the last few days which I am very thankful for.

I contacted a fellow blogger after finding her blog and reading it. It is called “Life With Shaky”. It is written by a wife, whose husband has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease. Additionally, her husband recently began writing his own blog called “Shaky’s World”. I believe that their combined blogs give great insight to not only how Parkinson’s Disease affects the person who has it, but how it affects the spouse. With their permissions I am adding links to both of their blogs. I believe it will be interesting and very informative to read about each of their perspectives as time goes on.

On a different note, I have begun writing letters to all of the former doctors that I have seen throughout my entire diagnosis process. I intend to write to doctors who not only were helpful, but especially to those who were not quite so helpful. I think it is important to let the doctors who tried hard to help me, know that I thank them and inform them of my diagnosis. On the flip side, those doctors that were not helpful and sometimes downright arrogant might find it interesting that their depression theories and other theories were incorrect.

I will be including the address for my blog in all of the letters. Hopefully, with the many links provided on this blog, along with my detailed story included on my blog, those doctors might think twice before presuming that a patient’s symptoms are mental health related. Hopefully, they might find that it is much more beneficial and morally correct to take each patient they see seriously. If only one of the doctors that I had a bad experience with takes the time to do a little reading, he or she may find that the negative experiences I had with the medical community are all too common. Although we share knowledge with one another through our blogs, I believe that doctors can gain a little education from our blogs also. This is my hope, and this is what I am currently working on. I will offer further updates on this topic, if I receive any feedback from any of the doctors that I write.

4 comments:

Mary said...

Thanks for the shout-out to our blogs!
What a great idea to send out letters to all the doctors you have seen! I image the ones that helped you will be more than willing to write back, but the others, probably not so much. You've got a great blog here, so hopefully at least a couple of those not-so-nice docs will visit. It's good to see you trying to change things, one dr at a time.
Let us know how it goes, and if any of them respond.

KEITH said...

Hi
My name is Keith - Shaky's World and husband to Mary - Life with Shaky. Thanks for the shout out on your blog. I found it interesting how much trouble you had getting a diagnosis....I knew a number of years ago there was something wrong with me and I suspected PD. I waited until the symptoms really began to affect my life before seeing a Neurologist though, so I bypassed your ordeal. Glad you finally got an answer though. If you would like to keep in touch on e mail that would be great. Keep blogging and good luck.
Keith aka Shaky

Patient With A Plan said...

Mary,
You are so welcome. If even one of the doctors takes a look at my blog and the other blogs that are linked, it may help. I will definitely update if I receive any feedback.

Patient With A Plan said...

Keith,
I also have known for some time that something was wrong, but PD never entered my thoughts until the Summer of 2006. Part of the problem is that I have little or no tremor. I have severe Bradykinesia. I will definitely keep in touch via email. I think we all learn more about our own PD through our contacts with others.

Nicole