Anne Rosales, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2018 at the age of 56. She shares her advice on advocating for yourself and knowing when it might be time to seek a second opinion or switch doctors.
Transcript
You know, sometimes you just feel like things aren’t working or that communication with your doctor is not going that well. And that’s really hard, but you have to go back to the fact that you are the person taking charge of your healthcare.
And it may be time to seek a second opinion if you feel that you’re just not getting your concerns responded to. It may even be time to find another provider.
MS is a disease that we have for the rest of our lives. And so we need to make sure that we feel comfortable raising concerns with our doctors and that we feel like they’re really listening to us. So it’s important, even though it can be very uncomfortable, it is important to take charge of your healthcare in whatever way that you can.
Sometimes you feel like you’re not getting anywhere. And that’s super frustrating because you know your doctor is trying to do the best thing for you, but sometimes you just feel like you’re off sync or you’re just somehow not connecting.
And while it might be awkward, in the moment, it’s time to probably look for another opinion or maybe even switch practitioners. It’s a long-term diagnosis that we have. We have MS for the rest of our lives. And so that’s a long time. It’s important to be very respectful of our doctors and their expertise.
But at the same time, remember that we’re the experts on us and that we are, in particular, not just a diagnosis, we’re a whole person. And so that is the time when you have to take charge of your healthcare and figure out what is the right thing for you to do.
