At the same time, he gives really bad advice. He's very absent-minded. We spend much of every appointment reiterating our son's allergens, past testing, etc. He's fairly conservative and doesn't (so far) support any of the clinical research treatment options. And, he can be very casual about food challenges, telling us to "go ahead and try it at home", something we were not at all comfortable with when our son was younger.
Should we have shopped for a new doctor? So many other FA parents we know doctor shop — some seem to do so constantly. I know people who have been through four or five doctors and who still conclude that the issue is with the doctors and not their expectations. Are allergists really that terrible, or are we simply expecting too much from them?
Most of us are roped in, of course, by the need for that yearly epinephrine prescription. But...if prescriptions were automatically renewed and health insurance covered other possibilities — say, nurse clinicians, nutritionists, anxiety therapists, food allergy lifestyle specialists (don't you wish there were such a thing?) — would we really choose to spend our hard-earned money each year at the allergist's office?
Food challenges are another area where doctors and patients can walk away from the table with very different ideas about what happened. What constitutes a food challenge "pass?" For many parents, any acute symptom in the next 48 hours, and mystery symptoms for weeks or months later, end up attributed to the food challenge or subsequent food reintroduction. For doctors, if it doesn't show up in the office, it seemingly doesn't count. How does it happen so often that doctors check the PASS box while parents check the FAIL — all while observing the same child? (About 13% of parents whose child passes a food challenge do not reintroduce the food because of real or perceived continuing symptoms.)
On the doctor's side of the river: why aren't parents giving epinephine when we've told them to? Why are parents still giving foods they know cause an allergic reaction? (Remember the Pediatrics study?) Why do they expect so much more from us than medical diagnosis, pharmaceuticals and occasional lab tests?
The river of misunderstanding is very wide. And, even if we're able to eventually build a bridge to better communication, there are often still a lot of bad feelings that have already flowed under.
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Thank you for articulating an arugument I've been having with myself for years. I'm saving this post to re-read when I need to right my perspective.
ReplyDeleteWe lucked into an allergist that was a perfect match for our family. He was knowledgeable, personable and treated me as an equal partner in managing my son's care. We saw him frequently due to my son's constantly expanding list of allergies. He is one of the few people who can tell me that I have crossed the line from appropriate avoidance to overbearing and get away with it.
ReplyDeleteA few years later, we found an allergist specializing in EoE who was just as good as the first. He had many of the same qualities. I just contacted him yesterday because I needed help to figure out if my anxiety about a new skin product was warranted or if I just needed to get over myself.
Then we moved. In two years, we went through 4 allergists. None met my expectations! They rushed us through appointments or dictated treatment plans without assessing my comfort with them. There were either too aggressive about food introductions or not aggressive enough.
We recently switched to Allergist #5 (or 7, if you count allergists in other states) and I am again thrilled. I am quick to call or schedule appointments. When I make holiday treats, we make extras for him.
All that to say that allergists are people just like us. Each has their own personality and their own style. By all means, keep in mind all that you've written about above. But if you are not satisfied that your current allergist is a good fit for your family, then get a second opinion elsewhere. You may find that the second is no better than the first. Or you may find that there is a qualified allergy specialist whose office will be a safe place for you to get information and support, even when it comes to consideration of clinical trials.
I fired my son's first allergy doctor pretty quickly. My son had asthma and was a preemie so was at high risk for complications of the flu but the doctor would not give him a flu shot. He had a mild egg allergy but had gotten the flu shot two years previously with zero issue so I wanted him to have it. I figured it would be worth a reaction if he did react but I doubt he would have. The guy talked down to me and was very rude and dismissive to me. So I went to another doctor. The other doctor also would not do it, but he did at least try to do some research on it and called other doctors from around the country he knew to talk about it and was respectful to me about it. He says he gets a lot of patients from that first doctor who pisses them off.
ReplyDeleteThey want us to go twice a year but I only go once a year. We only really need to go once a year to do a blood test to see if his peanut allergy has gone up or down and to renew our epipen prescription and just check in. Going twice a year would be a waste since that stuff does not change that often and epipens last a year.