Help, anyone!

[lovelybreakdown]

Okay, so here's the story. I have a physical with my doctor tomorrow after school. And I'm sure that at one point or another, either when he checks my pulse or blood pressure, he's going to see my left arm. I had a pretty bad relapse on Sunday night, and I have some pretty bad cuts there. Does anyone have any idea about what I can do? And if he does see the cuts, can he do anything about it? Can he tell my parents, or is their some form of confidentiality? I already plan on wearing long-sleeves, but if he asks me to change into one of those gown things, what do I do? I would die if he saw the cuts. I'm really freaking out here, and I have no idea what to do about it Does anyone have any advice for me? Anything would be appreciated. Thanks.

[treasure]

i've had my blood pressure taken and my dr knew about my si but it was (and is) scary to let her see. generally you have to pull your sleeve up to take blood pressure so short sleeves won't stop them seeing.

can you tell him before he takes you blood pressure? ask whether any medical info would get passed to your parents (which is very unlikely but you can check anyway). you could ask he only look at your right arm so you feel less vulnerable, and you can maybe do that without saying too much about the reason?

or postpone the physical? but that would still mean the dr seeing at another time. just grit your teeth and try and breathe through it. they should have seen si before and not have a bad reaction. hope it goes ok.

[Beasty]

You could offer your right arm when he goes to take it? I try to do that (my left arm is verry scarry).

[lovelybreakdown]

Hm, thanks for the advice guys. What did your doctor say when she found out about your SI? I'm not quite sure how old you are, so I'm not sure if it's an issue, but did she let your parents know? And I thought about offering only my right arm, but I'm afraid that he'll ask why, and I'm not the greatest at lying. Baaahh, maybe I'm just being paranoid. But I'm not sure what I'd say if/when he asks why I don't want him to look at my left arm.

[Licentia Poetica]

If I were you, I'd just act as if it's nothing and he might just ignore it too. I've had doctors who didn't notice, and others who ignored it, etc.

Chances are he'll ask you what's up and if you need to talk about it. Maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing to open up to someone?

How old are you? Docs usually are only required to tell someone if you're a danger to yourself or to others, and self harm usually only comes into that confidentiality duty of care if it's really bad self harm.

If your cuts are bad, maybe it's worth him seeing anyway, to make sure you don't get infections and whatnot.

But yeah, don't worry too much about it. Docs see stuff like this all the time, and him asking a few questions to make sure you're going to be okay is a *good* thing, not a bad one.

[lovelybreakdown]

Thanks for the support guys It ended up that he didn't find out. I juse offered my right arm, and no one questioned it. I suppose it really wasn't worth freaking out about.

[Beasty]

I'm glad that it went smoothly