A Young Wife’s Tale

David saw his New Jersey rheumatologist again last week. He still doesn’t have David’s file from his Texas rheumatologist. They’ve sent a second copy, but I’m tired of calling back and forth between the two offices. I want the offices to talk to each other. We signed a release form. My TMJ specialists can talk to each other. Why can’t rheumatologists? I want the NJ doctor’s office to call me when they receive the file so I can quit calling them to ask about it. And if his file is on CD, why can’t they just email it?

It was a frustrating visit all around. The NJ rheumatologist thinks David doesn’t have arthritis. David has never had swelling in his joints. David’s blood work and new x-rays looked “perfectly healthy” to the doctor. David is on “one medication from almost every classification of drugs”, but he’s in extreme pain. He’s not in remission. The rheumatologist thinks that if David has arthritis, he should be responding to all the medication. He thinks David has fibromyalgia. But, the rheumatologist is hesitant to take David off of anything until he sees David’s complete file and bone scan.