Doctor RANT!!

[delorisdoe]

who your husband??? how does he normaly call you?

[Al]

Just said that more or less to my husband. I feel it is the beginning of s new relationship. He even started calling me by my first name!!

(Hmmm....If my wife calls me by my first name, I know the ensuing discussion is to be about some subject I want no part of!)

We're all proud of you, Rose! Empowering oneself is the proper way to deal with employees (like the doctor) and husbands....It is very therapeutic.

Al

[Al]

who your husband??? how does he normaly call you?

(We know what Leigh calls her husband....)

[Rose]

who your husband??? how does he normaly call you?

That made me laugh. Meant the doctor.

[Dryhill]

[QUOTE=Rose;50709]Just returned from an appointment with, I thought, my soon to be ex Rheumatologist but I took your advice Al and pointed out to him a few things which I was unhappy about concerning the handling (or lack of) my recent flare.....QUOTE]

I read about the problems some of you have with your doctors and think how fortunate I am. Dr. Makadsi keeps me totally informed of what is going on and is planned for me and expects me to do the same about any problems/pains I have. If our paths happen to cross on my frequent hopsital trips Dr. M always stops and asks how I am and he uses my first name. Not bad for a doctor who is working in at least three hospitals

[mishb]

I had my rheumatology appointment yesterday and my normal lady doesn't appear to be there. Maybe she is on holidays or maybe she has been rotated .... I hope not

I saw Mr. Non Personality from Jerkville in the land of Jerk. Yep that bad, and he had two poor trainee 2nd years with him.

First sentence of the appointment - Sit down we don't have time.
Second sentence - How old are you and do you still have your periods. If so, it's a fact that you wont for ever and I'm telling you this because of the risk of Osteoporosis and we will then need to do another bone density scan.

Okay, jerk I'm thinking.

However, after this he tells me something that actually floored me.
He said, Have you been referred to a kidney specialist? .......ha,no what for? I didn't think I needed one.
He said, it shows on your chart that you were in hospital last year for 4 days for tests which also involved a 24hr urine sample. Did they tell you wh?y .... yes, they said there was a trace of blood and protein and they wanted to rule out any kidney issues.
Did they give you the results of the sample? ........they just said it was fine and nothing to worry about.

He said that they have been keeping an eye on my blood tests and my UA's because there has been slight kidney involvement from day one and it appears that they didn't want to tell me about it, so as to avoid any unneccessary stress, and that if things got worse they would then become pro-active in treating it.
The reason he asked if I have seen a kidney specialist is because my December and also my February blood and urine tests show NO sign of any kidney issues whatsoever. The results are all within normal range.
We can only put it down to the increase in MTX from November. All other bloods were still outside normal range though. Oh well, take the good with the bad.

Even though this is excellent news to hear, can they actually hold that information from me in the first place?

He was still a jerk right to the very end, so much so, that one of the young trainees walked out with me and apologised and also said, can I ask you a question, I presume by all of that, that you have some type of vasculitis, am I correct, can you tell me what type? poor guy.

I think after all of that, maybe they were right to keep it from me ........ if it was only slight involvement...... because I did find myself stressing slightly about it last night, all of the what ifs and why fors and I guess if I had of known right from the beginning, it would of been on my mind daily.

I never did get to ask about my proposed holidays

[pberggren1]

Michelle, are you serious? Did this actually happen?

I am floored to say the least.

My doc calls me if anything is slightly out of wack on the blood and urine. I think it is time you start getting copies of everything.

I can't believe the resident did not know what type of vasculitis you have. That is just insane. This must be a very poor institution or hospital you go to.

[mishb]

Yep seriously,

Its not easy to get copies of paperwork from our hospitals (it takes letters and money) but very easy to get it from our GP's, however the hospitals don't always copy the GP's in.
I will speak to my GP this week and see what she says about it. In a way (and a big way) I am now glad I didn't know but will probably worry with every other test they do as to whether it has come back or not and/or whether they are going to tell me. At least now, I know to ask them about it each time.

To be fair to the poor little residents, they had no idea. I think they were just as stunned as I was by mr non sensitive.

Normally, because it's a teaching hospital, I get introduced to the trainees and then they are told what I am there for and they are told to take notes and ask some questions if need be. And they have quite a few times I have had them in with me in either ENT or Rheumatology.
This time, nothing, they weren't introduced, weren't told my condition and weren't given me file to look at.........they just looked like two young men sitting there with glazed looks on their faces.
I think it was just mr non sensitive's way.

[Al]

Maybe, Michelle, he was teaching the residents how not to do "bedside manner"--you think?

It stuns and riles me that any doc would decide, without your input, what you can and cannot deal with. This is truly fishy. Can you make it a point to never leave an appointment without copies of lab work? I've got my people trained to do this automatically. (Hey, I own that information!) It seems to me a worthy crusade to teach doctors how to doctor.

Al

[mishb]

Apparently he is one of the best in Melbourne and has clinics outside of the hospital.

Whenever I see my GP I get copies of anything that has been done but it is different for the hospital. They operate from a 'dumb' terminal which is connected to their mainframe somewhere within the building or possibly outside of the building. They don't have access to printers or anything and everything is handwritten (notes, scripts etc) and any referrals are done by a handwritten request to Admin and then it is typed up and mailed out. So even if they wanted too, they wouldn't be able to give me copies.

You have to send a written request to medical library (or something like that) to actually get them.
I might do that in the next few months though, so I have something with me for whenever I travel over to see your vast Country.