Hacker News Reader

Getting to see a rheumatologist is way too hard. I have a more mundane autoimmune disease (psoriasis/psoriatic-arthritis) and excellent insurance, and it's still a struggle. And then it's a struggle to get authorization for the medication, even with good insurance

View on HN

I have nearly constant back pain, bone spurs and disc degeneration on my MRI, and a family history of ankylosing spondylitis which required surgery in two cases, and I still can’t see a rheumatologist for some reason. Probably because i am on Medicare.

Where I live, you basically can’t get without a referral. And primary care doctors are clueless about rheumatic symptoms, so they don’t refer.

You’re basically forced to suffer until there is visible irreversible damage (crooked fingers, permanent hunch, eroded joints, eye damage) for them to say “oh shit, yea, you should see someone”.

That’s not to say that the meds the rheumatologist will put you on will treat you any better.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com