Note to Endo

I hate sending emails to doctors. It seems to easy too cross the line into being a really annoying patient via email. I find I am unsure of when it is or isn't appropriate to email a physician and only one has ever invited me to do so (the weight loss guy who decided I didn't have asthma right after I got out of the hospital ...for asthma). And I never quite know what to say or how to balance the business with the social niceties. (Hmmm, maybe this is a good question for Dr. D.)

Well, the endo emailed me via the hospital's interface about my blood work, but didn't actually follow through on some things we had discussed during our appointment.

I waited a few days to see if they responded to my fax or not and if they would comment on blood work that came in after their initial message.

Nothing.

So today I sent the following note...

"Thank you. Regarding the thyroid antibodies, we had discussed that the results would indicate if I would need to retest every year or every six months. What testing schedule would you like me to follow?

As for the hair loss, if the TSH is fine, do we assume it's related to the adrenals and will it come back as my adrenals finally get their act together?

Lastly, did you receive a fax I sent? If not, don't worry about looking for it. Simply put, I've had some scary issues with the adrenals. Not just fatigue but low blood pressure (90/50), the worst I've been since March. I am now trying alternate day dosing of 5mg with the idea of tapering down to 2.5mg, to see if a slower, alternate day taper is more effective at getting me back on my feet.

If you want me to handle this differently, please let me know.

Eventually, I will be calling for refills and I want to be sure you know what I've been doing over here.

Thanks for your help, I really appreciate your assistance with all this.

Regards,
POP"

So what do you think? Crossing the line? Professional? Did I do okay? I really don't want to piss off my prednisone supplier, you know?

I don't like having to chase people down either, but this seems to be the norm in medicine today. Zero follow-up. The only docs I have that do any follow-up are the dermatologist and the OB/Gyn who was almost hounding me to come back in for some additional testing that was botched earlier.

Ugh. Why can't this be easy?