Another day, another doctor
First impression of Dr B? In a comparison with Drs A & J, I am seriously unimpressed.
As anyone who knows me (and quite a few who don’t) are already aware, I don’t like it when I feel my concerns are being ignored. Especially when I’m consulting someone for their professional opinion. Even more so when the clinic is running about 2 hours late.
So, apparently I have Polycystic ovaries. This is news: the ultrasound technician said she only saw 1 cyst and Dr A said in his opinion, the scan was perfectly normal. However, Dr B now says the scan showed my right ovary ‘full of cysts’. Who do I believe?
As for everything else, well, this berk suggested I saw the dietician again. Like that’s going to happen, after last time. Obviously, so far as the medical profession in AnyCity are concerned, successfully completing the OU’s “Studying Human Nutrition” science course is a complete waste of time so far as demonstrating you have any understanding whatsoever about nutrition.
Once again, I asked for the numbers from the various sets of tests. I didn’t ask Dr B to describe the results as ‘normal’ or otherwise, but that is all I got, even after repeating myself. It’s obviously not the hospital trust’s policy to refuse to give out such details to patients, as the Endo investigation unit nurses were quite happy to give out the numbers when I called about the overnight dexamethasone test. So why don’t the doctors respect their patients enough to give them the information they request instead of answering questions that were not asked? That’s the kind of behaviour I expect from a policitian, not someone who’s supposed to be entrusted with caring for my health. I could get the information anyway, simply by asking the hospital for a copy of my records, but at the moment, I’m not really in much of a position to pay for it (Anytown charges something like £5 or £10 per sheet, I doubt AnyCity will charge much less than that), but frankly I don’t see why I should have to do that. If I ask for certain information during a clinic consultation (especially if it is information relevant to that particular clinic!) there’s no need for a doctor to be defensive. Why should it be considered so unusual for a patient to take an interest in the detailed nature of their care?
I have to say, this kind of attitude was outdated decades ago in an era when doctors were trusted without question. These days it is simply indefensible and does nothing positive for long-term care relationships between professionals and their patients.
So, you can guess his response to my self-medication experiment. Despite the positive results it generated (I lost a little weight, my PMS improved immensely and even my head and abdominal pain control improved a bit!). So far as he is concerned, my only endo problem is PCOS (for which he was prepared to prescribe spironolactone for a trial period of 6 months, but only on condition that I stopped taking the 7.5mg prednisone I had imported for myself, despite the improvements to my health I had experienced – and documented – in detail – when I was taking it and despite the temporary improvements I experienced when I had undergone the various other steroid tests).
I get the feeling this is not going to be a good working relationship.
Leave a Reply