Seeing an Internal Medicine doctor in a few weeks, what kinds of questions should I ask?
37 Female. I'm in Ontario, Canada if that matters at all for the bloodwork. I've been having a lot of issues with brain fog, concentration, absolutely poor sleep quality, hip/thigh pain that have been getting progressively worse since Nov 2025.
Sometimes it's barely being able to get out of bed to go to the bathroom, sometimes it's driving halfway to work and not remembering leaving the house. My primary care physician says all of my symptoms are "too general". I've asked for iron testing but he is old school and believes that if my Hemoglobin is fine then my iron levels are fine (I know this isn't necessarily true).
I have seen a rheumatologist in the past month who has ruled out any kind of inflammatory arthritis, lupus, or lupus-like condition. He has now cleared me.
I'm seeing an Internal Medicine specialist in 3 weeks and wondering what types of questions I should ask him. As a side, I used to work for this doctor and he's incredibly well respected & stays up to date on what's current in medicine.
Looking for advice, questions I should ask, confirmation that I'm not crazy, anything really.
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Daydream88
San Antonio Healthcare
Gallbladder, Pancreatitis or something else?
Hello! I’m hoping to hear from anyone who’s had similar symptoms because I feel like I’m going crazy.
About 4 years ago, I started having random, intense chest/upper abdominal pain. One episode sent me to the ER. CT was normal, but an ultrasound showed gallbladder sludge but otherwise normal. They recommended a HIDA scan if I wanted to pursue it further, but I never followed through because I convinced myself I was overreacting and was broke at the time (go United States!). I later became pregnant, and my OB felt my gallbladder may have been the issue but said removal would have to wait. I notably was nauseous the whole pregnancy.
Now, 2 years after having my daughter, the attacks are back. I get intense pain that can radiate into my right shoulder, usually after eating, lasting anywhere from 5 minutes to a couple hours. It’s not always fatty foods—a smoothie triggered it this morning.
Other symptoms during/around attacks:
\- Nausea
\- Cold sweats
\- Loose stools/diarrhea
\- Increased heart rate
My doctor is now looking into pancreatitis vs. gallbladder issues. Gallbladder problems also run heavily in my family, and several relatives had theirs removed despite imaging not showing much.
Has anyone had similar symptoms, especially with normal or mostly normal imaging? I’m starting to feel like I’m losing my mind dealing with this.
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SouthDakotaGhostGirl
San Antonio Healthcare
Sought help and was told there isnt help for me. I have no options.
I'm in the UK. I sought out help for my rapidly changing moods and issues determining what's real and what's not, as well as worsening suicidal thoughts. I told the doctor that yesterday I cried in bed all day, held knives to my arms, slept for 3 hours total, barely ate, and tried to order specifically researched chemicals off the Internet to kill myself. I told him ive felt like this since childhood, but its been escalating to a point I can't ignore recently and I'm worried I'm going to completely lose touch with reality and off myself during an episode.
He seemed uncomfortable, and kept asking me what exactly I wanted/asking me "to lead" - how? You're the DOCTOR. He suggested CBT/counselling, and I said I had tried it and it hadn't helped. He then said he didnt think medication was suitable for me and wouldn't help. He suggested lifestyle changes and I informed him I already eat healthy, workout, avoid drugs & alcohol, etc and it doesn't help.
He then said there's not really much he can suggest. When I told him about the chemicals, he said he would write me a script for sertraline but again didnt think it would even help.
I just dont understand why you would tell a 23 year old girl contemplating suicide that you dont think there's anything else she can do. I dont think that's helpful. Maybe there's not, but it would have been nice to feel like he was trying. He told me i didnt "sound depressed". Like yeah man, thats the problem. My moods are so rapidly shifting and transient that its scary. What an apathetic homunculous. Its made me want to do it even more so that he has to go to coroners court and look my crying family in the eyes and see i actually was worth taking seriously.
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mastelmo
San Antonio Healthcare
Beautiful rose I saw outside the hospital 🏥
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Buffalo_Independent
San Antonio Healthcare
I cant tell people the whole story to anyone
i have been struggling with depression for a long time and have been medicated before,
but i was underage at the time so my parents took me off my meds (they were worried i would get addicted and have long term issues) and to be honest i didnt feel the same after those meds.i just felt so empty afterwards.
(Im not religious and have never been but when i was on the meds i somehow started praying and became religious, idk if they should've done this but they also made me too emphatic and super positive about absolutely horrifying things)
i didnt knew what to do for a long time , i just had this feeling that my depression wasnt as small as i thought. i had a goal that if i was gonna die it should atleast be related to planes (yes even though i hated my life i liked planes and wanted to be a pilot\[spoiler: i didnt become one\] so that seemed fitting for an end to my life)
and one day in September i saw a girl that looked very familiar. i didnt talk to her that day but i pondered all day about where have i seen her before but couldnt really find an answer but she was really cute and pretty (still is the prettiest woman there is) and something led to another and i somehow convinced her to date me whic is surprising
its surprising cuz i have been on dates before , they were pretty,they were nice , but never have i ever thought i would feel that way about a person but she was different.
we went on to date for another 21 months (632 days to be specific, yes i counted) and i enjoyed every second of it, yes we argued a lot and we were sometimes rude to eachother but i mean according to her at the time "its both of our first relationship so we just gotta learn how to live like this" and that felt like the nicest thing i have ever heard cuz she knew my problems. The fact that i am suicidal and helped me atleast accept myself for who i am and i guess actually fully fix some problems that i had for years.
anyway the last few months of our relationship was rocky, i felt her getting distant over time but i didnt know what to do, she was stressed about a lot and i blamed the stress so i didnt push her too much but that made me more careless and one thing led to another and we broke up
now i knew this was coming, but not like this.
she stopped following me everywhere where i could contact her, (even cancelled the spotify duo i was paying for) and didnt even tell me we broke till i called her
she told me she wasnt feeling the love that she used to have and she said i knew it was gonna happen and stuff(i honestly dont remember much of that night. i kinda passed out after drinking too much after the talk) Well i didnt wanna let it go and drunk texted her on multiple occasions but the thing that i saw whic actually sobered me up faster than anything else was
"I actually was missing you but u reminded me why i left"
And that hurt , like a lot.
Not because ohhh i fucked up she might have retuned type of thing but i felt as if she wants me to feel bad and thats something i dont want to accept.
idk what to do now, she is going to move to another city for life reasons and im stuck here.
Blocked on almost every platform but still waiting for her to just to come back and help me get through stuff
this isn't the whole story but there is a character limit so its the most details you guys can get
Little_Curry30
San Antonio Healthcare
I (55F) found out why my autistic son (32M) wants to move out, even though he has always said he never wanted to
Title: I (55F) found out why my autistic son (32M) wants to move out, even though he has always said he never wanted to
Well, like the title says, my son is 32. He has never even thought about moving out and has always wanted to live with me. I'm fine with that. He pays me $900 a month in rent, and he needs help with a lot of things. He does have a job, though.
He got a girlfriend three years ago. She recently moved out of her parents' house, and now he wants to move in with her.
It was crazy to me because he is afraid of change, and basically, I've always done everything for him. He wanted to move out as soon as she moved out of her parents' house, but I told him no because I didn't think he was ready. Honestly, I still don't think he is.
Now he's saying that he is moving out by December and that he has given me enough notice. I was completely blown away. I never thought he would do something like this without her. She has changed him so much.
I know he is 32, but he has lived in my house for so long, and I never expected him to be in a relationship this long. Technically, this is his first real relationship.
Don't get me wrong, I am happy for him. So I went over to his girlfriend's apartment to see what it was like. It was clean, not cluttered, and quiet. Her roommate is her sister, who mostly keeps to herself.
His girlfriend cooks amazing food. She even makes things he doesn't normally like, and he actually eats them when she cooks. She cleans, has even started booking his doctor's appointments, takes him to work, and goes grocery shopping by herself.
She is an amazing person, and I'm happy he found someone who understands his autism.
She never gets mad at him. One time, she was cooking dinner but had to leave for two hours. She told him, "I set a timer for the chicken. When the timer goes off, turn it off and just leave it in the oven."
She came back, and he had literally just turned off the timer. The chicken got burnt. All she said was, "It's okay. Next time, I'll explain myself better."
Honestly, she seems perfect for him.
I'm okay with him moving in with her. I think I'm finally realizing that maybe this is what growing up looks like for him, even if it's really hard for me to accept.
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throwawayMamaBear198
San Antonio Healthcare
