Doctors Treating Adults with Autism

[Guest guest]

Hi SherryThe problem with doctors is that they either don't want to treat them or have no idea how to treat them. Getting one who takes Medicaid is totally unrealistic up here. I took him to a GI doctor who said he had tons of experience in dealing with the developmentally delayed population and even did an endoscopy on him. But he got frustrated at the hospital because Blake was having such a hard time waiting that they pushed him ahead of another patient, and the doctor didn't like having his schedule messed with. Also after the endoscopy, he admitted he had no knowledge of the correct medication to give Blake for his condition and hinted I'd be better off having him see someone else. I've called every PCP in the book, and am hitting a dead end. Dentists are a whole other issue since we have to give Blake general anesthesia. I originally took Blake to see a dentist up here who does in office sedation dentistry. But sedation dentistry is not the same as general anesthesia so we were not successful. We used to go to Nova (they are terrific), but they don't take our insurance only straight Medicaid. (Blake has Medicaid but you have to go through the insurance first.) We finally found Dr Tuman in Miami who is superb. Though he sees people without special needs, this is really his thing. As I mentioned, he has his own OR in his office and is in the process of developing a system where a person can have dentistry, GI work and gynecological treatment under general anesthesia all at the same time. But he doesn't take Medicaid (he does take MedWaiver) so there was a considerable out of pocket for us this year. But when Blake turns 21 next year, it won't be an issue aside from the long shlep to Miami. I have 10 more months until the pediatrician kicks him to the curb. If I don't find a PCP by then, I'm just going to make an appointment with a good internist and take him there and see what happens. When Blake goes to the doctor and he sees an examining table, he has to strip down naked no matter what (this behavior developed after many hospital visits where stripping down is de rigueur), so I bought a hospital gown to use which has helped. But the GI is an issue now. I'll take recommendations even in Broward. But they have to be for adults. The pediatric ones won't take him. He used to see Dr in Boca, who was willing to take the time to learn about autism, so I'm hopeful we can find an adult GI who will do the same.