Deciding on a Doctor

Once I was diagnosed with Graves’ Disease, I had to find an endocrinologist. I feel like for me personally, my symptoms kind of came out of nowhere, but maybe that’s just because it was happening to me. I remember being very skinny. I had lost a ton of weight. My heart was always racing and my eyes were bulging. Speaking of my eyes, my eyes felt weird all the time. I do not even know how to quite explain it other than they felt tired, but not sleepy tired. Like my eyelids felt heavy and uncomfortable all the time. I remember my anxiety was on another level. Ever since I was a little girl I had always had anxiety, but it has been a lot worse since my diagnoses. My parents and I knew we had to find a doctor, and quickly. It was a bit of a roller coaster ride.

The first doctor and a voicemail

We saw one doctor first and got her opinion. My mom always likes to get a second opinion so we made another appointment with a second endocrinologist. I will never forget that on the way to the second opinion the first doctor who I had seen, called me and left a message telling me that I needed to figure out what I wanted to do because this disease is very serious and I could end up on the hospital if I did not get on medication. Now, granted, she did not know I was on my way to see a second doctor for a second opinion, but imagine getting a phone call like that when you are in your early 20s and also just coming to terms with the fact that you have a thyroid disease?! It took a lot for me not to completely break down.

The impact of my second opinion

I ended up going with the second endocrinologist, who has helped me with my Graves' disease and thyroid eye disease (TED). It is a bit of a drive to get to her, but to me, that does not matter. I will drive over an hour for a great doctor who I feel truly cares about her patients. She really is incredible. She is everything you want in a doctor and I have been with her for years. She has taken great care of me and helped me a lot through this whole process. I can honestly say there has never been an issue and I have never felt that she has neglected my feelings. She has always answered every question I had and is always there when I email her. I know that if I needed to reach her at any time of day she would answer me as soon as she could. Since the pandemic, I have even been able to do virtual visits with her, where I get my blood work done and send it to her and we go over everything. The whole process with her really has been good.

What I learned from this whole experience, and in picking a doctor, is it is always worth it to get a second opinion and not to feel pressured to go with the first doctor I speak to. In my opinion, people should feel comfortable with their doctor. You are in their hands and you want to trust the hands that are helping you.