Must be nice for Justice Roberts.

[BluePatriot]

Must be nice for Justice Roberts to get in and see a neurologist lickety-split.

I have a biopsy to rule out cancer scheduled a month out after my ultrasound found a 2 cm nodule, and, a blood test that will rule out a pituitary tumor in about two weeks.

I wonder if Justice Roberts has to juggle his vacation days and wonder about his sick time and had to fight for years to attempt to prove he had a real medical problem instead of it being "all in his mind."

And then, I wonder if he's ever had to sit around weeks and months waiting for results while holding down a job and maintaining a home, and having the world expect him to act cheerful and upbeat and to reply "Fine. I'm doing just fine. You?"

Why, I have stabbing migraine headaches, peripheral vision problems, fuzzy thinking, drastic personality changes including angry and violent outbursts...do I get in to see a neurologist? Nah, I get a pat on the head and a speech about stress in the seven minutes my doctor has the time to see me.

If Justice Roberts were a woman, his doctor would have put "her" on an antidepressant and sent "her" on "her" way. Because, well, being Chief Justice must be an awfully stressful job, and "she" just needs to take better care of "herself."

And that's all I have to say about that.

[NYC Liberal]

1. He has the coziest job of them all...

it's lifetime. There's no getting fired for him (unless a majority of the House and 2/3 of the Senate vote for it, which ain't happening unless he kills someone or something, and even then...).

He can do and say whatever he wants and not worry about it. Must be nice.

[peace13]

2. I hear you loud and clear.

The waiting is the worst part. Not being listened to is a close second. So sorry for what you are going through. Peace and love, Kim

[fob]

3. As I understand he had a similar episode in 1993, which should

make whatever is causing this an "existing condition". Any chance his insurance carrier will reject paying for this trip to the neurologist?

I suppose not, I'm sure he has the "I'm not a peon" clause that makes his coverage golden.

[Perky]

5. Umm he was on the same program (FedMed) in both instances

I am pretty sure.

[area51]

4. Roberts

Yeah, that was my thought when I heard he was having health problems. So what, his healthcare is probably paid for by our tax dollars, whereas millions of people in this country can't afford healthcare.

[Lance_Boyle]

6. Bullshit.

If Justice Roberts were a woman (Justice Ginsberg), she would have gotten exactly the same treatment. It's exceptional treatment for the Haves, not just for the have-balls.

[BluePatriot]

8. Perhaps.

I actually thought of your point and think it's valid too.

However, let me point you to the Kelly Ripken Foundation and Kelly Ripken's story. A wife of a star baseball pitcher is a "have," right? She should have no trouble getting a diagnosis because she has so much money and can get all the best doctors...right? Took her two years. For me, it's taken around ten. This is common for women with thyroid disease because many doctors are dismissive of subjective symptoms as psychological, especially in women. "Stress/menopause/your new marriage/your hard job/your kids"

http://thyroid-ripken.med.jhu.edu/

Let me also point you to the article below:

"Communication barriers between older women and physicians"
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=1478043

"Use of jargon and a nonempathic interviewing style by the doctor tend to discourage free exchange of information. A third consideration is the many psychosocial factors which affect the behavior of older women and their relationship with providers. One element is the belief in negative stereotypes of women in general, and older women in particular. Fear of being labeled a "hypochondriac," a "nuisance," or a "crabby old woman" inhibits accurate reporting by patients. Attitudes toward doctors, especially male doctors, make some older women timid and fearful. Physician and patient alike may accept signs and symptoms of disease as a normal part of aging and may cause medically treatable problems to be overlooked."

And a few more abstracts:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=1943269&dopt=AbstractPlus
"Sex differences in patients' and physicians' communication during primary care medical visits"
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a713658270~db=all
"Problems in doctor-patient communication: the case of younger women with breast cancer"

Etc...

The irony is, the docs can't figure out what happened to Roberts either, and I'm hearing "stress" tossed around in threads. It's true that the mind and body are linked together but it can be frustrating to have "stress" tossed around as a catch-all if you know on the inside something is wrong and you are wandering around sick for years with people giving you speeches on attitude and vitamins. Anyway, someone totally needs to make a unified field theory of human biochemistry but I doubt that will happen in my lifetime.

Once I get all settled down I've been inspired to write a patient-targeted book pointing out how women get treated differently by doctors, using studies as reference, and offering advice on how patients and doctors can better communicate about subjective (non visible) symptoms.

[fed-up]

7. hugs & hopes for good test results from one who has NO health insurance-just a stack of

unpaid bills