Request for help composing an advance letter to health care specialists

Posted on Feb 01, 2010 by Susie Collins in Blog, Disability Rights, MCS, Susie Collins

What should be included in a letter to a physician that arrives before WE do?

Elaine Willis, who has Multiple Chemical Sensitivity and a host of other illnesses, contacted me for help in composing an advance letter for her health care specialists. She’d love to have input from as many people with MCS as possible. Please leave your thoughts in the comment section.

My family doctor (primary care physician) has asked that I prepare the letter that will go to specialists prior to my first arrival. It needs to elucidate in few words what to do to make my visit safe. It must also explain MCS (Multiple Chemical Sensitivity) to a physician who may have had no education about or exposure to a patient with the kind of symptoms I experience. My symptoms can be mild (for me) which may include coughing, asthma, brain fog and increased ataxia (you see I already I have ataxia – the hereditary kind). Or, they can be medium, slurred speech, severe ataxia, altered blood pressure, complete inability to focus or answer questions, stuttering, poor word-finding skills and dizziness. And of course, the biggie… anaphylaxis… and it happens too often.

So, my desire with this post is to engage the assistance of others with MCS. What should be included in a letter to a physician that arrives before WE do? First appointment of the day? No waiting? This is a brainstorm – so all ideas are accepted. I will choose the ones I want for my letter and post it. Maybe it will be useful for others, too!

Please leave your suggestions here in the comment section. Thank you!

~~~

Read more about Elaine here:

Perfume blogger dismisses concerns from a member of our community

Canadian teacher fights for her right to workplace accommodations

Meet Elaine Willis

~~~

This post was originally published on Elaine’s blog and republished here on The Canary Report with her permission.

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13 Responses to “Request for help composing an advance letter to health care specialists”

  1. linda

    01. Feb, 2010

    A few useful websites for accommodation issues:

    http://www.mcscanadian.org/hospital.html

    http://harepublishing.com/es.html#Articles

    http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/legislation_policies/policy_environ_politique-en.asp

    Reply to this comment

  2. Connie Rae

    02. Feb, 2010

    While simple is supposed to catch attention, our illness is complex.
    When I wrote letters to doctors and their staff, I tried to keep the request page to two or three paragraphs stating what I most wanted first and thanking them for accomodating that last.(repeating the request in the form of gratitude, expecting consideration)
    On a separate page with each request on a separate line I would list what I needed to be able to visit the office.
    Hope this helps

    Reply to this comment

  3. Susie Collins

    02. Feb, 2010

    Thanks much, Linda and Connie.

    Reply to this comment

  4. Harry Clark

    02. Feb, 2010

    Hi Elaine, this is a complex question. But I think if the task gets broken into two parts then it becomes much easier to write and also more readable.

    Part 1) I have found a fantastic educational pamphlet on MCS that should cover most of the general material that you may want to get across to your doctor (s).

    Part2) The cover letter that deals with your particular situation and needs. Because you wont have to go into general background explanation -because of the pamphlet- this letter will be easier to write and read.)

    Here is the link to the pamphlet,
    http://www.mcs-australia.org/pdf/mcs.pdf
    I urge you to read it and print of some copies. Once you have read it please let me know if it is useful to you, then we can talk about the content of your cover letter.

    If you like this approach (or not) please let me know.

    Harry

    Reply to this comment

  5. Elaine

    03. Feb, 2010

    Harry, the pamphlet has too much information for a specialist to read. I am lucky if they even read the reason for my referral before i arrive in their oh so busy offices. I need something short, effective and to the point. I do appreciate your sharing it, though. There were some concerns I would have sharing that pamphlet here – which makes me wonder if we have some suybtle cultural differences!!! We should CHAT about it for sure! Here we are required to have a referral from our family physician before we are ALLOWED to see a specialist. They are very busy – and paid OH SO VERY MUCH MORE than the family doctors.

    Reply to this comment

  6. J Peachy

    05. Feb, 2010

    The one thing we found was a doctor who was willing to call the next doctor in which the patient was being referred to. It adds a level of credibility to what is being requested. Maybe you can have a letter co-signed by your physician, prior to visiting any other specialists

    Reply to this comment

    • Susie Collins

      05. Feb, 2010

      Aloha J, that is such a good idea. I think doctors asking their peers to cooperate may add credence to the request to those who may otherwise be skeptical.

      Reply to this comment

  7. Sandy Johansen

    05. Feb, 2010

    Hi Elaine, In Australian we have a wonderful Environmental Doctor Mark Donohoe. He wrote some years ago and is still current today “MCS – A Medical Perspective” I have presented this document prior to other Doctor’s treatment and have in most cases received respect for my condition. It may be of assistane to you. I think Harry has this on his site. There is also a summarised version on ei-resourse.org
    Good Luck

    Reply to this comment

  8. Elaine

    05. Feb, 2010

    I will have to go and check it out. thanks, Sandy. Maybe someone can post it here?

    Reply to this comment

  9. Elaine

    06. Feb, 2010

    Thanks for that!

    i have to ask since the letters after his name are different than what we have in CANADA (by the way, i like the essay)… is he an MD, medical doctor? In Canada our MD’s have little (unfortunately) respect ofr those in “medicine” who don’t carry the same title…I see Dr Mark Donohoe, MB BS.

    i need to creat a very short letter, distilled from good information like that above to present to medical specialists about to receive ME as a patient so i don’t end up on O2, with an epipen or in an ambulance.

    Reply to this comment

  10. Sandy

    06. Feb, 2010

    My apologies for being vague in my first reply. Dr. Mark Donohoe has been in general practice specialising in the areas of nutritional and environmental medicine for the past 23 years. http://web.mac.com/doctormark/DoctorMark/Welcome.html

    Reply to this comment

  11. Suzanne L

    07. Feb, 2010

    Good to know about the article by Dr. Donohoe. I was working on a document to present to medical people but I had a housing crisis that delayed that.

    Reply to this comment

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