This may turn out to be more of a rant than anything else, but anyway, here goes....
I have a pre-diagnostic assessment coming up on Monday, and my anxiety is building. I have had councelling before, but I have never talked to a psychologist or a clinical psychiatrist
My first worry is that having got this far, having jumped through the first hoop of the NHS and got funding for a referral I was told I would see 'Dr X, or a member of his team.' Now, Dr. X is a clinical psych., but my outpatients appointment is with Dr. Y., a member of his team who is a Senior House Officer. SHO sounds high ranking, for those who don't know, but in reality he will be a very junior doctor. My wife rolled her eyes when she heard this, as we have experience of SHOs from her pregnancy. You quickly learn to say no thanks, I want to see the consultant.
I phoned the NAS helpline, which I have done before, more for reassurance than anything else, and their advice is to go prepared - which I knew of course - and to ask questions about what diagnostic criteria they would use in a diagnosis etc. My worry is that I will come across as challenging his authority and antogonise him. At the same time I don't want to be dismissed out of hand by someone who has been in post for a few weeks, and know less about AS than I do because I have been living eating and breathing it since my son's diagnosis last year and the realisation that I have it too.
Any advice or reassurance would be good, especially from older people (I am fourty eight) who have already been through the hoops, but anyone really who understands what this is like.
02 Mar 2006, 8:30 am
