Do Dr's have quotas? Absolutely they do!

Do you ever wonder why your doctor orders certain tests or procedures for you when nothing is wrong? They say it’s because you are a certain age & it's preventative medicine right? And you do it because you believe that and want to be sure you don’t have any hidden illnesses. Well if you're a nurse like me, you may choose not to do some of these tests especially if my family history doesn't indicate a need for them and the great thing about my primary doctor is she’s pretty straightforward with me. I emailed her recently & she brought up the colon screening test which I skipped & I told her, “hey it’s not in my family & to be honest if I’m going out like that I don’t want to know let it be a surprise because you know my stance on cancer treatment.” She replied “Well, it’s just a matter of our matrix for the office (quota in other words) we don’t even have to give you the results if you do it lol" just think about it"

So you see some doctors are honest, 🤷‍♀️😂 and every test is Not necessary but there’s a financial reason your Doctor is ordering it! Educate yourself & don’t just be a pawn in a game of life, ask questions & know why you are getting tests done and what happens next. I’m a big believer in educating patients, but most medical professionals won’t take the time unless they have to! Make your medical providers take the time, You deserve to know Why things are ordered and have things explained to Your satisfaction!

If your doctor isn’t honest with you, it’s time to find a new doctor, your health is too important to trust to a liar or someone who doesn't respect you enough to be honest.

Living with P.O.T.S

I was diagnosed in July of 2019 after I started having episodes of dizziness when I stood up & feeling like I was gonna faint, I actually thought it was an allergic reaction to a new medicine but after stopping that medicine under advice of my doctor, we saw it wasn't & so began the discovery of my pots diagnosis.

I had the cardiac work up to confirm it & basically the cardiologist told me read this literature about the condition & try to drink more water, increase your salt & if it doesn't get better we'll refer you to the Only specialist in LA for POTS, 🙄 well, 6 weeks later, I asked for the referral. Omg, you won't believe this drama but the specialist wasn't taking new patients so my primary dr tried referring me to 3 other cardiologists who actually Refused to treat me, stating they were Not qualified to treat my condition & I should see the specialist I tried to see first😡

Long story short, it took 2 years to get me to the specialist I originally started with & then I found out he just retired, but his partner took me on, omfg😳!!! What a journey🧐, & I had to go to the ethics board cause my insurance tried to deny me to go to Cedars-Sinai (where the specialist was) because I have facey medical group, but since no cardiologist would see me & they couldn't provide the care I needed they had to pay, so this was quite the drama to get care.

My quality of life has changed so much and it’s so bad I'm on permanent disability & basically have to take a walker that has a seat with me if I go anywhere because I get tired easily & run out of air when standing so I may need to sit suddenly. I can walk 10-15 minutes at a time on a good day before needing to rest, but some days are worse than others & things like heat set off my heartrate too & I can get short of breath right away and need to sit down, so it’s frustrating the way my life has changed.

I hardly go places and spend most days watching TV laying or sitting in bed, I get up often & walk to kitchen or other room in house for activity just to move around but even that is so exhausting most times, 😥 I spend alot of time planning my final end, making sure everything is in order so my kids don’t have to worry about stuff so thats all done, guess it’s wishful thinking, cause I’m so tired of just being a lump of nothing😔.

From a bad ass life saving ER Nurse, saving lives, running things in the ER, controlling the loud mouth psych patients, drunks 🤪lol, rowdy patients, calming little kids, fixing injured people …To this nothing existence of wondering why am I still here when I can hardly function,🤷‍♀️ everything sets off my heartrate & I'm out of breath with very little effort. I guess there's a purpose but I just don't see it, I feel pretty worthless, I try to cheer myself up with dumb things but it’s getting harder, I’m so tired of being tired.

The bottom line is this, there is no cure & the medicine helps my heartrate not go super high when I’m standing but it still goes high & I still get short of breath so basically it’s a case of learn to live with & manage the symptoms the best you can cause there’s nothing else they can do. This is after physical therapy & the cardiac pots specialist has treated me & put me on the heart medicine, which I’m still on 🤷‍♀️. Life changing, career ending suck it up & deal with it condition, POTS! That's my life now & I'm living with it cause I must until I’m free.

Waiting for my sibling DNA results

 I found out about this when I was about 12 years old because I needed to use my birth certificate for some project in school & when I asked my mom who that was listed, I got a story that at the time seemed logical, so I left it alone, and as a kid what was I gonna do? As time went on it bothered me and I tried to distance myself from that name & did by getting married young then changing my name to that name when it didn't work out, as well as my child, so at least I got rid of the last name, but it never solved the issue of the wrong man being on there.

  My dad who raised me never married my mom so I think he just thought I had her last name, I don't think he ever knew about this because he would have probably reacted violently towards her if he knew or maybe he did know & thats why he was that way for so many years with her, I don't know. I know asking for a DNA test to change it while he was alive wasn't an option because I feared he would hurt my mom. By the time he was too old to hurt her after his stroke & he was living with me , then I could have done it but the thought that if it came back that he wasn't my dad & she lied about that too would have broke his heart, so I couldn't do that to him, so I didn't do it then either. 

I just focused on spending the last few years with him since she left him after his stroke, it was just me & my dad. I didn't think about it again until I had to pull out my birth certificate for my passport & it all came up again, & I decided I can't die with this imposter on there! This must be fixed! So I'm in the process now, a court angle to remove and also doing a sibling DNA with a half sister who lives on the east coast that I only met once. 

  It's the most stressful thing I've ever done & I'm very nervous because I'm scared that there could be more lies or secrets in my family & I would be very angry if that were the case. My dad is my dad, even if this sibling DNA doesn't match & she is my sister, that won't change but the dagger that's already been stuck in my heart by my mom will just go a little deeper if that happens. 

  Time will tell, all I can do now is wait. We have sent in the samples so its 6-8 weeks they say on ancestry, plus a week for matches, then we should know 🤞🙏.

Me & my sister bettye 👇