just wanted to share my experience at the GPs today somewhere I know people will understand….
Went today for a non-B12 issue but it wasn’t my usual dr so I mentioned it just in case there was any relevance. I got a lecture on how I don’t need any B12 injections. I said how unwell I had been before the injections and how pleased I was to be well again and he said I would have got better even if I’d been given salty water instead!! I don’t even know what he was on about really and I just went back to the actual issue at hand but I was pretty furious.
Luckily he was just standing in whilst one of the doctors is away and I imagine he’ll be retired very soon.
When he has a B12 deficiency he can feel free to take salt water instead of B12, personally I’ll stick to the NICE guidelines 😡
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LauraJane2
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Unfortunately the science is lagging behind the reality of the need for more frequent B12 injections for many PA patients. I do hope more research is happening on this. Unfortunately many like the chap you encountered remain in blissful ignorance of this reality. I would treat his comments as you would the noise of a squawking duck, since they're of about the same relevance/importance.
Oh my word LauraJane2!😮😡 That is indeed one of the rudest, most dismissive, condescending comments I have ever heard a doctor said. I am so sorry that happened to you. Oh my gosh, I would be thinking of all kinds of responses to that salty water comment, Like EXCUSE ME?! But they never come to you when you need them. It takes you so by surprise you just don't know what to say. I wish more doctors had loved ones with PA/B12d, that would wake them up. Don't let this idiot deflate you. Like someone just told me, you know your body, don't let them put doubt in you. You've been feeling badly and you thought you would share it with this new guy because you want him to know a little about his patient. That is so reasonable. I think any of us would do that. Besides you never know what one doctor might miraculously know that could help you. Clearly he was not that guy! And at this point I don't think that doctor exists. I just went through a similar thing and it didn't go well either. But others told me to just believe in my body and myself. I'm glad the B12 is helping you though. Were you thinking you need more? I hear people on here write letters explaining and asking for more frequent injections sometimes it works. Maybe you could try that? With some other doctor of course. Good luck LauraJane2
Luckily my usual dr is very understanding and I can access injections pretty easily, I’m currently on once a month and happy with that. I have heard others’ awful experiences on this forum and always felt very lucky but I can’t imagine what it would be like if I had to deal with this guy every time.
It’s exactly as you say, I have come up with all kinds of responses that I should have said after leaving the surgery, but at the time I was just flabbergasted.
I'm really glad that you have a decent doctor who will return eventually. And that is really great that you only have to have one injection a month. It's a terrible thing to have to deal with somebody like that doctor. I'm glad you don't have to do that on a regular basis. Good luck with everything.
Some are scary how ignorant and lacking in compassion they are!
There was a link posted at some point to an article written by a Dr who said very similar things. You weren't in South Essex or that sort of area by any chance, were you? Unfortunately I guess there are hundreds of them across the country!
I’ve had one of those. Actually laughed and told me he’s not going to give me a script for B12 and motioned to the door. I can only hope they suffer this too at some stage.
So sorry you were made you feel that way LauraJane2 unfortunately a lot of us come out of doctors appointments feeling like it was a complete waste of time and energy I hope you find your next visit to a GP is to one who is of more help and understanding
I once made the mistake of seeing another doctor while my own GP was on holiday. This was about a worryingly increasing heart arrhythmia, so I thought it best not to wait.
When he found out that I was self injecting with B12 every other day, he wasn't rude. Just highly agitated and distracted. I could not even begin to reason with him, and he couldn't wait to get rid of me.
So it was no surprise when I got a letter from him, saying that he had had a practice meeting where it had been decided to stop my NHS injections - unless I stopped the self injecting completely.
This doctor had never met me before, had not discussed my treatment with me or my usual GP, and had had my NHS injections cancelled without her knowledge while she was absent.
By this stage, I knew full well that one injection every 2 months would only mean deteriorating again, and was not willing to do that. I did not even reply.
I saw my usual GP, who went through my 24-hr heart monitor results with me. I had had 4,000 episodes of "ventricular ectopics": not considered to be serious enough to see a cardiologist, and a few months later it just went away without me having to take the treatment offered.
I told her what had happened with the other doctor, and she said that primary care for me (the regular monitoring of folate, ferritin, vitamin D and thyroid and the search for answers from secondary care) was not going to stop - and that B12 would not be tested as there was no point. To carry on, as nothing had changed apart from the one NHS injection every 2 months......
So I stopped wasting my energy being furious with the panicking newbie ! Your doctor, quite aside from being appalingly rude, has no such excuse for his ignorance.
I saw a G.P. before my diagnosis, who patted my hand and said 'There's no way that you have P.A. my dear with a serum B12 of 250, its all in your head' Needless to say, I saw the Doctor who owned the practice, who said much the same, but I refused to leave the room until she ordered an IF and parietal cell test. Both came back positive and I made sure that I never saw the first G.P. again! When doctors stopped looking at symptoms and started seeing test results as gospel, the NHS started to take a nose dive, in my opinion.
Oh hang in there - you know what helps. So many of us have similar experiences with GP's. I certainly had to fight to get what I need and experienced many dismissive comments from GP's. Once over-ruled by a consultant I got the injections I badly needed - but I had to bring in big guns on my side to penetrate their attitude.
I had the same experience early on. I was so very upset because at that time I was bed ridden and worried I wouldn’t get better and would loose my career. I was going to storm out and refuse to pay.
However instead because I had armed myself with I do I decided to get my run for my money out of him. Now I don’t recommend this as it’s risky, bu I backed him into the corner verbally each time.
Well, so you know how much is in the bloodstream but how much did I absorb I to the cells? Or how much store do I have in my liver? He couldn’t answer. He never admitted to being wrong but in the end he mentioned I asked good questions. Hm… was that just an admission.
I walked away from that clinic and never went back. I was and still am fortunate to have this forum as support and to have a doc who is willing to do anything for me.
I feel your pain and glad that we all have this space to vent where people understand.
I’m so sorry you had to go through that. It’s not fun at all.
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Dr stopped my b12 injections
Any advice appreciated as losing faith in my Dr! 
