Hypermobility Spectrum Disorder and POTs
Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome and Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders are connective tissue disorders that we are learning more and more about in recent years. They are associated with a number of co-morbidities such as Fibromyalgia, IBS, MCAS, Headaches, Anxiety, Fatigue, Dysautonomia or POTs.
I have HSD and have managed it pretty quietly throughout the years because there was so little knowledge of it. One of my worst struggles is POTs, for as long as I can remember I've had low blood pressure and had to squeeze my thighs and bear down while standing up. Mornings are the hardest, I feel weak and fatigued, I stumble and hang onto the walls until I get rehydrated enough. It can be very embarrassing to struggle with these symptoms and I've learned a lot of tools to cope, but if I have a bad dream or night sweats, I'm cooked.
My go to supplement has long been Liquid IV, but recently I've tried Buoy and it's given me a little more relief of my symptoms. I cannot express how much more confident I feel being able to stand without fears of falling. It greatly reduces my anxiety and distress throughout the day. It helps me show up and be more present for my patients, friends and family.
Ready to start your own practice?
Check out Simple Practice
Simple Practice is a great EMR. I previously used IntakeQ and their prescribing app was more user friendly than Simple Practice, but everything else with Simple Practice is better and more comprehensive.
Benefits to Simple Practice:
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You can design an intake page with your account, so I actually don't need my own website, but I worked way too hard on this to shut it down!
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You can add some members of your team for free
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You can use it to charge insurance
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There's an option to require a credit card which I felt weird about at first, but it is definitely helpful.
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There's an app for the practitioner, patient and telehealth available for your phone.
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I can do scheduling from my phone with ease
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Patients can send me messages and vice versa through the Simple Practice. I can access messages on my desktop and phone.
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Billing is very user friendly, I was pretty lost with my last EMR...
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They have plenty of templates for you to use with slight modification (adding your practice name, address, etc)
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Setting up my preferences was easy and I can modify them any time
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Overall, I'm so happy with my decision to switch over!
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It offers widgets for appointments and contact information. Here are mine:
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Freed AI Scribe
Freed AI Scribe is such a life saver. My brain is popping in the morning, but for those late afternoon notes this tool is so helpful. I do not use it all day, but definitely use it everyday because this shrink needs to sleep at night instead of writing notes all evening.
Being a doctor is hard. Being a married doctor is harder. Being a married female doctor just sucks the life out of you.
A prenup may help.
This is honestly some of the best advice I could give younger female physicians. We all feel so much pressure to get married and start having babies by a certain age, often it's before we finish training! The transition from being a resident to attending is difficult on so many levels, but one unanticipated one is the impact of a dramatic increase in income on your marriage. For anyone getting engaged, I encourage them to meet with a financial planner. You can blame everything on the financial planner... and you do not want to be married to someone that does not respect the financial planner!
I ended up getting married and divorced in residency. It's not that I did not love my ex-husband because I honestly still miss him 10 years later. I was transitioning from a resident salary to an attending salary and my lawyer told me to get out now! As soon as I got offered an attending salary, my ex got emasculated and started acting out by spending way too much money (before we even had it). It was so stressful and ultimately pushed me to file for divorce when I did.
I wish I would have waited until I was an attending to get married and then gotten a prenup to protect my assets. It would have been so helpful to see how my then future husband responded to an attending salary (and then decided if I wanted to still marry him). I also think that if he had known what he was marrying into upfront, it would have been far less of a blow to his ego.
So maybe have the baby whenever you want, but wait until you're an attending to get married with a solid prenup in place to protect you for whatever weird stuff the future brings.
