Might suggest you have the fellow contact the Flying Physicians Association. They are a group of flying doctors who are passionate about aviation. Many of them are AME’s as well, and pride themselves on being “pilot friendly” and keeping folks flying to the best of their ability within the regs. Contact info can be found at www.fpadrs.org

True if the playing field is level.  There are AME’s and there are AME’s and too many of them view their job as a mandate to be sure the letter of the FAA laws are aggressively followed to the extent that they forget their real job is to keep the public safe and help pilots who are in good enough health to continue flying.

Don’t give up looking for a good AND SENSIBLE AME until you are in a health situation where your most trusted and gifted GP tells you you are a time bomb with a short fuse while driving a car at high altitude.  You are just as dangerous in that scenario as you would be in most airplanes with regard to health issues.

My two cents.

John Barrett