That doctor needed to repeat kindergarten

Please forgive me if this has lots of errors or isn't well-written. I'm incredibly groggy from cough medication and just generally being sick. I can't really do anything but lay still. I sleep about 1 hour of every 4 between doses and otherwise I lay still or dose. Fun, fun, fun.

But I wanted to write about this because it makes me so angry. I went to urgent care yesterday. Every time I do something like this it is the same, so I was prepared, but it still is so ridiculous.

When I started seeing my normal family doctor I told him up front that my psychiatrist will be guiding my treatment for just about anything. My psychotropics are vitally important and are volatile. I see her more frequently than him. She specializes in the psychotropics and knows the interactions and potential problems. I also need him to trust me that I have valid reasons for questioning things, and that I am going to argue when I'm sure I'm right because I know that he has textbook learning and little practical experience with these meds, particularly in these combinations, while this is my life.

This doctor yesterday got all bent out of shape when I mentioned the psychiatrist had suggested I probably needed antibiotics. ("Well if she knows how to treat you why didn't she just do it?"). If it didn't hurt to talk I would have had a lot to say about that. I feel pretty strongly about primary care doctors who would dare to deal with my bipolar (aka never going to happen); I don't really want my psychiatrist doing primary care either since she is kind of a long way from that part of her training. (Not that she hasn't prescribed a few things for regular care over the years when I had trouble finding anyone who would take me as a patient at all, much less listen to me). There's a reason for her having reminded me I needed to get antibiotics; I have the same thing happen all the time. Because I am limited on meds I can't take anything to dry up the mucus, which means my sinuses quickly become bacterial cesspools. There is an extremely good chance that next week I'll need antibiotic number 2; that would be pretty typical for me.

I am not out to just get antibiotics. I'm a healthcare professional and I see resistant infections all the time and they are not pretty. Until bipolar I had gone nearly 15 years with only 2 courses of antibiotics, one for walking pneumonia and one for an infected toe. I am far more aware than most people of the risks of ingesting any medication for any reason. But when I clearly have bronchitis and I clearly need treatment for that ASAP and I am spending $50 on an urgent care visit because I was unfortunate enough to get really sick on Saturday, I think it is fair to respect that I'm a healthcare professional (which he commented on and argued with me about what I did so I know he knew this), that this is fair.

Mainly though, I'm just sick of doctors fighting. It's why I'm extraordinarily loyal to my family doctor; he doesn't do this. Ever since I started psychotropics it's been like this. The psychiatrist from hell who first gave me Ativan I had self-referred to. First my family doctor, who I really liked but who was not doing a good job treating my yet-to-be-diagnosed bipolar, was upset that he hadn't been consulted (um, suicidal? I did what I needed to do) and then that I was on something "addictive" instead of what HE would prescribe, which was low dose Seroquel. The thing is that benzos are not addictive if taken as directed for the proper symptoms in a person without a history of addictions. (that probably should be qualified more but I don't feel like it). It's not like Seroquel, low dose or not, is easy to deal with.

So, that's my story. That urgent care man, who never introduced himself which makes me mad as well, needs to go back and learn to share, and also learn to accept that he's not always the best at everything. The psychiatrist I see every 4 weeks and have for years is always going to be more aware of my body than anyone else......

Not sure why this is so threatening.