Dammit, Doc... LISTEN.

[KiaKat]

For the most part, my doc is great. I went with a D.O., hoping that maybe I'd get a more holistic treatment - and that does seem to be the case.

With one exception.

I'm asthmatic. Severe enough that I need a daily inhaler as well as a rescue, especially this time of year. I have a good history with the inhaled corticosteroids, and keep hoping to just go back on one of those.

Instead, he keeps giving me samples of various LABA/corticosteroid combos, and telling me that this is what is currently recommended. We're butting heads over this - I have good reason for not wanting any of the LABA drugs (long story, sister was on one, had an attack that sent her to the ER, likely due to the inhaler, she and I react the same way to drugs), and he's NOT LISTENING. Just keeps telling me that this is the current recommended treatment, so he wants to try it first.

And I can only be so stubborn before being worn down by his insistence.

Bah.

[Teskeria]

Ask him if he is willing to sign a witnessed statement that he insists you try those medications, knowing what you have informed him. Comment that 'of course' you realize there may be no problems, but if you do have the same deadly reaction your sister had, you want evidence for the courts that he had been informed ahead of time and refused to listen.

(yes I am mean)

[KiaKat]

He told me that if I was concerned with this one, to call him and he'd write out a scrip for a corticosteroid. I'm calling on Tuesday.

[rose_metal_nz]

RED FLAG RED FLAG RED FLAG - you have family history of allergic (I'm assuming) reactions to this med, but when you tell him this he tries to overrule you?!
I'm sorry but what the flamin' hell are you doing going back to him?!
Sorry if I'm overreacting, but had a similar issue & it nearly killed a family member, so... touchy subject. Do not let him argue with you about this. If he won't stop pushing it, go to another doctor, I'm begging you.

[PepperElf]

Sometimes it's ok to be a bitch and say "no".

Or "what part of allergic reaction don't you understand?"

[KiaKat]

I think part of it was that I didn't understand that this was the same class of drugs. Basically, I didn't ask the right questions. As soon as I got home and looked it up, I realized that my concerns were with the class, not the particular combination he'd given me the first time around. I just put a call in today about it, though he's in the other office - I may not hear back until tomorrow.

So far, on everything else, he's been really good. And he pinpointed a number of old (mostly-healed) issues, plus recommended that I wait till after I'm done having kids to go on the ADD and anxiety meds. I hadn't realized that they were contraindicated in pregnancy. I can give him a bit of leeway on this one. He's also trying to find me a non-narcotic, non-NSAID painkiller that I can take when my cramps are hellish and I have to work.

Not defending. Just... explaining. Baby sis is a doc, so I'm generally pretty happy confronting them if I feel they're not paying attention to something important. He's just frustrating me with his adherence to this particular class of drugs.