@A myRAteam Member is it not enough to drive you crazy if they don't communicate.... And when you have to tell one what the other said you get the feeling they don't believe you. I always get told: 'but I don't have it from your Dr...' . Especially the specialists never send a report back to the referring drs. I have been jumping around Rheumatologists, but my GP my best support. I live in a tiny village and work in the next town. If I want to go to the Dr I have to take most of the day of work and have a 2,hour drive to the dr. Thus when I am feeling very bad its easier to not go to the Dr. So I seldom go to the Dr, but I make sure to collect what I can when I see another medical person so that there is some sort of record with my GP. Most decisions regarding drs visits are also based on the available finance. I am on medical aid, but they hardly cover any of the expenses. My rheumatologist is a 6 hour drive away, which is not easy when you are in pain, so I do not see him much.

Mentioned Users

A myRAtea...

A lot of hospitals and clinics are signing up with a new system called mychart so patients have better access to their own records. This includes appointments, medications and test results among other things. My pcp and rheumatologist are in the same hospital system so they have access to my records from each other, but my GI specialist is from another hospital. That hospital and my pcp are connect to I believe it's called great I can't remember but something to the affect of share care where my GI doctor will be able to have access to my test etc from my pcp over the computer no paperwork. So convenient. I will look into this more and see if it's in other places. O know it's in Wisconsin

I'm with you on just not going..
I always feel like what's the point. If nothing has really changed and I know it's from RD I just would rather not spend the time and money.
And I've been in between gp. And if it's something bad I'm not waiting around for an app I go to urgent care or ER.
Plus I have to repete the story anyway I only wanna do it once.
Sorry you have to drive so far.
But I always have to take a day even when I go to the closet clinic., and since they changed the narcotic laws it takes all day I usually have to drive to the denver office and then back to my town over to the pharmacy and either wait an hour or go home and go back then wait in line to get it the whole thing takes anywhere from 3 to 7 hours for a rx refill!

Agreed. A good RA doctor is going to be your best weapon. I love mine. He is there for me no matter what. I have a primary doctor who keeps up with my conditions with the RA. Carilion Clinic has all doctors within the Clinic on a single record keeping system so all doctors can see what the others have done and how I am doing. I had Osteoarthritis issues and I do have an Ortho doctor but they say I am too young at 53 to have knee replacement. The RA doc told me if it got really bad he knew one that would do the surgery if he consulted.

The key is a good rheumatologist.