Here are three good rules to follow:
- My mother-in-law once said, “If you’re having a foot problem, go to a doctor who got an ‘A’ in foot.”
- My aunt once said, “Don’t go to a Chinese restaurant for spaghetti.”
- I’ve always said, “A primary care doctor is only good for cuts and bruises.”
Go to a specialist!
Should you stick with one doctor for everything? No!
We used different legitimate specialists for each of our son’s conditions:
- Pain/cancer doctor for nerve pain and severe itching
- Wound care clinic for pressure sores (his primary-care doctor couldn’t recognize a pressure sore)
- Radiation oncologist for treatment of salivation
- Nutritionist and diet specialist
- Pulmonologists for breathing issues
- Urologists for his kidney stones and urinary tract infection
- Many neurologists
- Podiatrist for foot swelling and pressure sores on the feet
- ENT doctor for his tracheostomy and mucus
- Dentist, who identified the thick yellow crust on his tongue as just dried saliva (not thrush) and scraped it off
- Optometrist
- Gastroenterologist for his feeding tube
- Primary care doctor (we were forced to use him for ER admissions and for initiating hospice)
Needing hope
Our son also saw health practitioners offering non-scientific, non-FDA-approved treatments, such as stem cell clinics and homeopathic infusions.
He was taking supplements of dubious use, but as with many ALS victims, everything he did gave him hope.
