Aaaaarrrgggggghhh!!!

[Anonymous]

I cannot believe it!! Today was supposed to be “take another step forward” day. But it wasn’t! Here’s the rundown….

I was taking my daughter to see a psychologist for anxiety issues, and on one visit I vented about my son and jokingly asked if she helped get kids more organised. She asked a few quick questions and then floored me by suggesting my son be assessed for ADHD. Sure enough, he turned out to have it. But during it all, a comment my mum made to me once, when I was venting to her about my son’s lack of progress and motivation at school, came back to haunt me. She said “it’s genetics – he reminds me so much of you…..this is payback time!!” The diagnostic process and all the research I did about it soon started to get me thinking that perhaps she was more correct than what she thought, and that I could well have ADHD also. It certainly feels right, especially when I read the forums here.

Anyway, I got up the guts to ask the psychologist for some names of who to see (it has to be a psychiatrist for adults here, unless you just want basic therapy rather than assessment and medication). It took me weeks to call anyone, only to have the first one I tried tell me they weren’t taking any new patients, the second one had retired, and the third didn’t answer the phone. Had luck with the fourth, but had to wait 4 months for an appointment and I needed to get myself a referral letter from my GP.

I was really worried about getting a referral from my GP. I have not been entirely comfortable with him as my doctor, but I don’t have to pay (due to the way he bills and the way the government here funds medical care) and I can generally get an appointment the same day if I ring early enough. But in the end, he did his dash with firstly refusing to deal with mental health care plans (forms we need to get government funding for certain medical treatment of mental health disorders) when I needed one for my daughter, and secondly when he made a comment in front of my son after his diagnosis (about me being worried about nothing and my son was most likely a normal teenage boy….AFTER he had already been diagnosed and I had shown him the paperwork!!). So when it came time to get the referral, I picked a female doctor I had taken my daughter to see for her mental health care plan, and who I had liked right off. I left it till barely a week ago before I saw her, as I was so nervous about it, and because I procrastinate anyway. But I had huge luck because she was fantastic. I got my referral letter, and a promise of support.

So….the appointment with the psychiatrist was today….or was supposed to be….

I arrived at the office, only to be told I couldn’t possibly have an appointment because the doctor wasn’t there. All his appointments had been cancelled for the time being, due to his wife being extremely ill, and there was no record of me at all anyway. Turns out, when asked when I had made the appointment, that the computer system had crashed earlier in the year and they lost heaps of data. For weeks they had intermittent episodes of empty or double booked appointment slots, and it now looks like my appointment was also lost. I was devastated. The appointment has been on my mind for weeks, and I was so nervous that I got nothing done all day today. Now I have to find another psychiatrist to see, and the ones accredited to assess and medicate ADHD are few and far between.

To look at the bright side (yes, there is one, thankfully), if my details had not been lost with the computer crash, then I think I would have just been phoned to say my appointment has been cancelled and I may have even been asked to seek another doctor anyway, as I was a new patient and the doctor is now winding down his practice (due to his wife’s failing health) and is not taking new patients anymore unless they are acute (not chronic, like ADHD). But because I had actually turned up for a non-existant appointment after waiting 4 months, and did not get angry at her for something that was not her fault anyway, the secretary took pity on me and made some phone calls and got a list for me of doctors (psychiatrists) who deal with ADHD, AND she rang one to ask would they try and fit me in ASAP as a favour from one doctor to another. Thankfully the doctor she phoned actually keeps free appointment slots available (almost unheard of!!) for whatever reason, and they are hopeful he will agree to slot me into one soon. I am to ring on Tuesday at a particular time (when the doctor is free to talk) and they will take it from there. A much better outcome than I had hoped for when I was first told my appointment did not exist. And I also am not stuck with seeing the doctor I was originally going to see and then having to find someone else later, when he does retire (which could be very soon). I have had help to find a doctor who deals with adult ADHD, and help to arrange an appointment as soon as possible. BUT, I am still feeling let down simply because I had such high hopes of this appointment being the beginning of the end of my quest for a diagnosis, instead of still being in limbo, waiting for an appointment.

Anyway, thanks for letting me vent. I feel like this search for a diagnosis is just one big hurdle after another!! I swear that if I didn’t have such a supportive GP backing me up, then I would be sooo tempted to give up, as to have constant setbacks to battle also is nearly too much to bear, because battling my own anxieties about the process is hard enough!!

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[Anonymous]

Well, I may as well add the continuation of my journey to the story I have started here, though it’s not quite the right place now that I no longer need to vent 😉

I actually remembered to phone the psychiatrist when I was supposed to, which is a great start, because I hate making phone calls, and I suck at remembering to phone people. Anyway, I got an answering machine and left a message. I forgot to say why I was calling 🙄 but did leave my name and number, so it wasn’t all bad.

About an hour later, the psychiatrist himself returns my call. Thankfully I didn’t need to explain myself, as the secretary (or whatever she was) of the doctor who I was originally supposed to see had explained it to the new doctor when she made the arrangements for me to be referred on to him.

The psychiatrist explained that medicating ADHD is not something he likes to do because stimulants and methamphetamine are similar in composition and he believes that there are risks in stimulant use that are yet to be discovered and that are potentially similar to those caused by meth use. That said, he then told me that he won’t cause me any more grief by referring me on to yet another psychiatrist after all the difficulties I had been through with trying to get an appointment. He is willing to see me for assessment, and he then said that my GP is able to take over prescribing stimulants (but only if she is willing) after 6 months of treatment by a psychiatrist (which he is) as long as a psychiatrist assesses me every 12 months. So from what he said, he is willing to prescribe stimulants if I am assessed as having ADHD, despite his preference to avoid their use.

I don’t recall much of the conversation, but I know I did lose my train of thought completely during our discussion. I also know that I continued to argue the positive side of stimulant use in ADHD, despite the fact that he had already agreed to assess me and had implied that he would be willing to trial stimulants. Hmmm. I really hope I did not sound like someone trying to fake symptoms in order to get the drugs I just do not know when to shut up!!!

I now have an appointment for the coming Monday (5 days away), because one of his regular patients cancelled due to going away for the school holidays. I remembered to ask him if I should bring anything in particular, and he said no, unless I have school reports. Which I have. And they show evidence of ADHD. Well, some of them at least. I did well at school in general, and got pretty good reports for the most part, because I enjoyed learning new things and have a high intelligence level, but scattered through my reports are things like “daydreams”, “not working to her full potential”, “has a flexi-time approach”, “homework started but rarely completed”, “could do better”, “makes careless mistakes”, “rushes her work”, “needs to take more care setting out her work”, and “will apply herself only in subject areas which interest her”. I have selected the worst handful of reports (which cover several high school years) to take with me. The ironic thing is that my own mother was a teacher at my school, and she wrote something in one of them that supports an ADHD diagnosis lol 😉

Now I have to wait until Monday

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[billd]

KrazyKat, I do have a spare keyboard if you ever need one…………… 😉

>>which is a great start, because I hate making phone calls, and I suck at remembering to phone people. <<

you and me both!! No kidding – I need to go make a couple now – supposed to get some tests done and I plain spaced it off………

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[Anonymous]

billd, I might need that spare keyboard to bash my head against!!! I even amaze myself with the volume I write!! I could never write enough when it counted (in school essays). Go figure!

I have to catch up on my phone calls. I have a list of reminder notes for – kids’ dentist check ups, my dental check up, medical check up for me (pap smear…..Eeeeeww!!!)…….and then there is the pile of forms to be filled in and returned, along with associated payments in some cases…….

….one day….

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[Author]

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