Who is the “right” medical professional?
The short answer is anyone who is knowledgeable about your condition. In medicine there are professionals who tend to be more gatekeepers like internists, physical therapists, and PM&R doctors. If you can’t get through the gatekeeper, then you get stuck.
When I started having a huge increase in symptoms. I had a PT complete an evaluation which was sent to a PM&R doctor and Neurologist. This shortened my time to diagnosis significantly because the two PT’s on my team were knowledgeable and able to take all the scary things I was experiencing and communicate them to the specialists in objective medical terms. I have found that despite being a medical professional, when I am living “in my” symptoms, it is hard to communicate them in a non-emotion driven, objective way that brings about action by my providers.
Unfortunately, most of the medical providers are burned out, they are forced to see 20-50 patients a day and they don’t have the mental capacity to clinically reason through symptoms. This leads to skepticism and medical gaslighting at the patient’s expense. When you are a patient who does not fit the medical “mold” you require a lot of empathy and mental effort that most providers just do not have to offer. This is why choosing the right gatekeeper is of utmost importance.
Please reach out if you have any questions about what gatekeeper might be right for you!
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