warning: ancient crone blood

I spend a lot of time looking for a doctor I feel I can work with before I actually make an appointment. I am lucky in that I have a PPO in addition to Medicare, and I have the educational background that lets me know how to do all of this shit. It is a pain in the butt, no joke, and it is not always successful. I don't do all of this for every doctor, and I hope it isn't just super overwhelmoing. However, if you are stuck in WHY AM I ONLY FINDING ASSHOLES limbo, here are some of the things I try in order to find a good doctor for me:
( US centric, based on what works for me and my health insurance plan etc, but putting this out there because it's taken me years to make an art out of doing this )
tl;dr I use a combo of word of mouth, finding out who's researching the thing, and double checking someone's background on the internet (aka "what's your internet resume?") I don't do all of this for every appointment; usually I do more if I've had a run of terribad experiences in a specialty or it's a super-rare thing I'm trying to find a doctor for.

(note: dw pingback to this is okay, but please ask before linking it out to the wider internets)

I get sick a lot, and doctors always tell you to frelling rest. Well, I have news for them: resting is hard, especially when you have generations of the Protestant Work Ethic kicking around in the back of your brain telling you that you are only worthwhile if you "accomplish" things.

Yesterday I managed to rest because I was too tired to knit. Too tired to knit = yeahhhh, Houston, there's a problem. So I slept, a lot.

Today I am going to try to keep things low energy but not boring. Things on my low-energy list:

• write letters
• knit, if body allows
• sort papers (or digital files)
• steamy shower
• read a magazine (if lyrica cooperates >.<)
• etc.

What do you do when you need to rest, be it your whole body or a particular body part, and you just don't want to? Do you reach a compromise with yourself, go for resting all the way, or just say "frell it" and ignore the doctor's advice?

After a night's sleep, here's my plan. I pursue the trauma-NES (non-epileptic-seizure) link with psychiatrist/therapist because it can't hurt to look (unless a rude doctorman is telling you to in a don't question my authority you are just crazy pants way), as it is suspiciously timed with the Crohn's exams bringing up all the PTSD stuff.

Also, I look and see if any of my other conditions could be causing this. Or meds. Or med interactions.

This brought to you by crying on the stairs about my assailant from 10+ years ago at midnight.

Also also as positive reinforcement for dealing with all this SHIT, I look into getting a service dog.