#im understanding more and more why ppl hate doctors and this probably isn't a huge deal

[boyingray]

i feel a lot less bad about googling the cause of health problems after asking my doctor if a medication i'm on is causing it (or if it's an actual problem). she says test results were negative (which means yay no alopecia but boo now i have even less of an idea as to why i seem to have hair loss). then i ask if it's a thing relating to hormones in medication, and if switching to a pill with lower hormone levels would help the hair loss. the doctor then looks for her list on this kind of medication, and which ones have higher or lower hormone levels, before realising it was gone. then she googles whether or not higher or lower levels of this hormone cause hair loss. and comes up with "one says higher is better, this one says the same, but this one says lower." she says talk to the doctor who ordered the test about other possibilities, but considering it took me months to see that doctor (because she's the only specialist in dermatology in a whole ass city of over 100,000) i doubt she'll see me for that.

somewhere in all of this, i mentioned that the doctor who recommended testing my scalp was concerned as to why i haven't had a work-up as to why my b12 has been low for four years. then the doctor says something about low iron stores, and how i should take supplements for that potentially. but then that could cause another problem of mine to return, and to just stop taking it if it does happen. then she says i need blood work, but in three months because of the iron supplements not having maximum effect until then.

nothing came of the appointment. this was over the phone so i kind of get that phone appointments have issues. but still. i mention tests regarding why my b12 is low. that i'm worried a medication i've been on for years is either causing hair loss, or masking something that's causing it. and i book an appointment for 6 weeks because that's the usual