Struggling with Chronic Pain and Swelling

have you ever been tested for lyme disease?

Call your meds by their long ass pharmaceutical name and acknowledge your "positive family history" (the phrasing is important, that's how they chart it in their notes and shows you read and understand their appointment notes). Anything to let them know you're not stupid, you're not claiming to be smarter than everyone else, just that you know your own body very very well. I've found that going into an appointment and talking shop will either have me taken seriously immediately or it touches a nerve and the doctor with a degree he spent 12-16 years and hundred of thousands of dollars on gets mad that you think you know it all