The gang from the FMS/CFS list has decided to inundate TV talk shows with letters asking for a show on FMS/CFS, showing the devastation it can cause -- some of the gang have been bedridden for years. I'm one of the fortunate ones ... most days, I'm able to get out of bed, though I might exhaust myself merely walking as far as the couch, and many days even a small amount of housework is impossible.
On the other hand, while I don't have the severe physical problems that they do, I'm having to deal with a bunch of documented lies in my medical records from someone who doesn't believe there is such a disease, and who set out to make sure that I wouldn't get disability benefits. If that meant lying that positive test results were negative, he was willing to do it. I guess he figured that I'd never read -- or wouldn't understand -- the actual lab reports.
And now he's testified with as many lies as there are in his medical records.
The Medical Board apparently feels that he can lie all he likes; their letters intimate that only if I'd died or lost a limb would the situation be serious enough to investigate.
Thank goodness, I knew to look in Business & Professions Code, and found out that the attorney general has power to investigate B&P violations. The A-G can't tell me anything more than "we're looking into it", so I won't know the status of their investigation unless I suddenly find that the doctor has been defrocked (de-stethoscoped?)
But at least I feel like I'm doing something pro-active, instead of just letting him get away with lying (and causing me to permanently lose any chance at State Disability benefits). His refusal to give me either pills or referrals (or to tell me I'd be better off with another doctor) may have cost me any chance at returning to full-time work; statistically, if you haven't recovered after five years of relapse, you more than likely won't. And I was three years in at the time I finally got an effective sleeping pill; at that point, I'd gotten so deep into the hole that I had a long way to go to get back out of it. If he'd worked on the sleep problem right away, I might not have gone that far downhill.
If you'd like more information on CFS/FMS, visit www.cfids.org. And it would be really great if you could make a donation for research while you're at the site. They have found some organic problems that explain the symptoms, but need more money to find a treatment/cure.
