Have any of you watched that show on television called HOUSE? Did you find yourself, BEFORE DIANOSIS, sitting there hearing them talk about tests your been through and diseases you've had ruled out? I HAVE! It's almost comical to look back at the shows I've been totally engrossed in, knowing it's a fictional show, but still wondering in the back of mind, "hmmm could it be?" LOL I think we should write the show and ask them to start including Mast Cell disorders as dianosis for their show! ROFL!!!!!

Yeah, we used to joke about hiring House to check me out. I must have missed the episode where SM was mentioned. I happened to be watching HOUSE and had to post this thread. I just wondered if anyone else watched it before they had a dianosis and had a moment where they wondered about something House was investigating. Crazy to say knowing it's a fictional show.

Hope you are having a good day Joan.

Some day, I'd like to be HOUSE..... Ok, w/o all the anger and addiction issues.....

Oh Kim, you didn't cause me ANY GRIEF!!   Trust me!  My kids really enjoy this program and they watch it, but they don't understand how hard it is to be in OUR SHOES!   They don't know how discouraging it is to go from doctor to doctor with the same hope that Maybe this time....! and then to walk out of there  totaly disappointed and even upset with yourself that you should have known better!  The problem isn't so much with the lesser level doctors, you expect them not to know, but he problem is when we go to higher leveled doctors, some with big fancy pedegrees and because they've been so big universities or they've got several letters behind their MD title your hopes get even higher expecting that Now this time I've found someone who can help me!  

What so many of us don't know and understand is that it isn't so much where the doctor went to school or how studied he really is, but what exactly has he specialized himself in!  This is part of the debate of why or why not to go to Mayo, right?  It has a big name and reputation for getting down to the matter, but in the end, if they don't know masto, they're no better help than if you'd gone to the hospital around the corner from your house!  The end result will be the same if not worse.  

The diagnosis I got of "hysteria" along with the accusation of Munchausens came from a House like doctor!  We had to travel 5 hours to Sao Paulo to see him, he was the highest authority in Carcinoid Syndrome.  Had done his fellowship at Sloan Kettering for 3 years and supposedly really knew his stuff!   Well he did, but he knew ONLY that and hadn't the slightest idea as to the carcinoids differencial diagnossis, that of mastocytosis!  He didn't ask for one single blood test and since I had so totally normal tests in everything else I'd been tested for (it as all focused upon Cancer and no other area of medicine at that point) he figured that I had been given a huge "scare" due to the hysterectomy, that this brought forth psychosomatic symptoms and then upon the "suggestion" of one of my doctors of disease I then read the information on the carcinoid syndrome and thus "DEVELOPED" ALL of the remaining symptoms from that point on!   We spent a GREAT DEAL of money for that "Diagnosis"!   This guy felt he was God's gift to oncology and still does!  He considers himself a House!  

Kim, you didn't do wrong in bringing up this subject and yes, I got your point as to Don't you feel like you're living these episodes yoursel?  Yes, I've laughed at it with my kids and say, Yes, they thought that one and that other one, etc.   But I'm the one who took it a step further for I know that most of us have stories very similar to mine of that of going around in ENDLESS CIRCLES until FINALLY someone is able to recognize that we  aren't making anything up and that YES something is indeed seriously wrong here and that we need HELP!!

It's wrong that it takes on average 9-11 YEARS for a masto patient to get a diagnosis!  THAT'S WRONG!   But this is because we all know afterwards that the doctors we went to just didn't have a clue and that even though they tried their best, they just couldn't put the pieces together because it's just TOO RARE and THEY DIDN'T KNOW!

So, please don't be upset that you brought up these feelings.  I've gotten over these a long time ago, but for these reasons I don't have any patience for House!  These kinds of doctors are arrogant and they consider themselves God's gift to patients and when they make a "diagnosis" it's set and they won't reconsider that they have perhaps made a mistake! They stick to their guns for to admit that perhaps they have made a mistake undermines their self-confidence and self-image and this is something they won't do for it means that they aren't perfect.  They prefer to keep their self-opinions than admit their mistake and who suffers for this is not really them, but  the patient!   And this is the worst of it!!