I have SEVERE white coat syndrome. I guess it was borne the day my 7-year-old self was mandatorily taken in for a checkup in Russia. I have had oral pathologies since birth. I learned early on to understand what was being said during a checkup - it simply equated to telling me how much pain I’d be in. My first root canal at the tender age of 7 was a dentist telling me to stop crying lest they drill through my cheek. I am resistant to pain meds which has been proven in my middle age. All of this to have you understand where my phobia and distrust took root. I have dealt with severe lower extremity joint pain for a number of years. I badly sprained my right ankle and received no care or rehab to speak of and then broke my left foot during Covid and once again, received no rehab other than being told I can rehab on my own. For the last several years I have been using a “natural” supplement that has been taking my pain levels from 10 to a 7. I recently learned that this supplement has been flagged by the FDA to contain a powerful steroid, a muscle relaxer and a prescription strength NSAID. After learning about these hidden drugs I naturally became distraught. I have been navigating life with severe medical phobia, going through menopause and now wondering how to quit this tainted “natural” supplement. Enter Ryan health. Because I have no insurance, I went there hoping to have a compassionate ear. Again, my severe medical phobia meant a BP reading of 195/115. Nobody HEARD me. I was on the verge of tears. My BP after two minutes was 165/100. They were concerned with inflated readings more than with what I needed. I was told as a new patient I’d get a full physical with bloodwork. But I got nothing. And got charged. What I did receive was a male nurse practitioner not LISTENING to me but writing me a referral to an endocrinologist who is not available in the clinic - and my securing one seemed like a mosquito he needed swatting - not his problem. He also told me that since there was no telling of what the hidden drugs were in my supplement, I should just quit cold turkey and go to the ER if having an adrenal collapse. I can understand the first part ( not knowing the amounts of the hidden drugs ) but absolutely do not understand a distraught human being who came to this place for help after decades of avoiding medical care because of my intense phobia being dismissed and ignored. I bought a cortisol AM test to find out how my adrenals had been. None of that was reviewed. Not my blood test, not the supplement I brought. Nada. Zilch. The final insult to injury was when I was told my visit would cost $25 - for nothing but more stress and stress induced hot flashes - to then check my app and find out it was $35. When dealing with severe medical phobia, this is absolutely unacceptable. I now have to quit my supplement and hope for no ER visit - which obviously is no problem with the so-called medical practitioners I came in touch with today. Thanks for validating my phobia.
