PCP changed her mind about surgery

Roxy, Reading your post just breaks my heart. I fought an un-educated PCP for a full year and a half before I finally just STOPPED going to him and found a surgeon and pursued this on my own. Thankfully, the BCBS-OR insurance I was with at the time didn't require his involvement.. I returned to him a few months after surgery and he actually apologized to me for being so uninformed.. he told me after seeing the results in one of the office nurses, he would have recommended me to surgery years ago! He's in Oak Park if you'd like to talk to him.. email me and I'll give you his number.. two of their office staff have had surgery since I left him and they are a wonderful and supportive group. It's not over til it's over, hon.. you have to take care of YOU FIRST. If your PCP can't understand that.. it's time to find someone who DOES. Don't you give up! Stef

Hi Stef, Thanks for the info. I definitely am interested in that dr of yours. I've picked myself off the ground and I'm going to continue to forge ahead. In the meantime, I'm going to make a real conscious hard effort to start eating healthy, watching portions and exercising more. Perhaps my reasons aren't exactly perfect, but heck worse comes to worse, I lose a few pounds and am one step closer to being healthier. In the meantime, I've been calling the clinic every day twice a day for them to fax me a release form for my medical records. Still nothing from them. Tomorrow I plan on heading there first thing in the morning, before work and sign everything I need so I can get all my records and start my search for a new PCP! You figure that with escalating obesity rates that these doctors would become more educated in these issues. I get so crazy mad when they pass out these flippant remarks about how its all about self control and discipline. True, it does take alot of work on our part, but is trying to fight obesity and getting healthy all just about counting calories?? I gained close to 40 lbs alone from years (11 to be exact) of steroid therapy. These 40 lbs weren't due to gorging on big macs and cokes every day! Yet, when I confront the dr about how I feel my case was being mismanaged by prescribing potent steroid therapy for so many years, her tune totally changes to "well the weight gain is the lesser of two evils". I dont get it..I just don't get it. After all these years, I accept partial responsibility for not being proactive enough to learn about the long term effects of steroid therapy. But from now on..I will make the ultimate decision on how my healthcare is to be managed! thanks for your input! roxy