Pred......overdose!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[karools16]

In a letter from my Respiratory Consultant, to my GP, the Consultant states the health problems I have, and medications and dosages.Whilst PMR is mentioned, there is no mention of GCA.I often find if any Medical person asks why I am taking steroids, before I get to GCA, they are already nodding their heads as if they understand COMPLETELY, what I am saying!

In this same letter, it is written that I am on ...wait for it... 500MG PRED, once a day!!!!!!!!!!!! Obviously, not even the Medical Secretary picked up on that.Don't get me started on all the spelling errors!

[piglette]

I am horrified by the errors in letters to and from doctors and also in my notes. A child of eleven could do better. I have seen letters saying I am on drugs I have not even heard of. I often think they have got the wrong person they are writing about. I suppose the only good news is that half of the medics do not even bother to read letters or notes, so they do not know about the errors!

[karools16 in reply to piglette]

Yes, I agree with you about you think they have got the wrong person. I also am apparently allergic to some medicines I have not been on, let alone allergic!

[SheffieldJane]

No wonder you are raging on that much steroid!

We just can't get the competent people around us.

[Pat9442]

I just loved the comment on my blood results when CRP was 122

"Consistent with RA/pmr"

[karools16 in reply to Pat9442]

Incredible!

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Oh dear - you'd better have a chat with kingharold11 -,between you, you have just dissed the entire NHS! 😉

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Nothing surprises me any more. And you know - the doctors are supposed to check those letters before signing them!!!

You do know that at one time (maybe still is) the dictated stuff was/is sent to the sub-continent for typing? Like the call centres that were so useless?

It would be funny if it didn't run the risk of a GP mis-managing a patient.

Here, the doctor you see types the report/letter onto the computer while you are with them and you immediately get a copy of your own or, if it is a complex report, you are told when you can pick it up/it will be sent by post if it is another hospital.

[piglette in reply to PMRpro]

An ex GP told me that when a GP receives a letter at my surgery it just goes into a general basket which is just checked by a GP on duty, supposedly. One secretary to an orthopaedic surgeon reckoned most of the letters she typed to GPs were never read and that the surgeon preferred to talk to the patient rather than get referral letters from GPs as they were often so incorrect. What I don't understand is that they cannot even copy information correctly. Like karool's 500mg of pred.

My xrays have been checked by radiologists in Malta and Australia. The latest one was in UK, but had come from Baghdad. Immigrants are obviously important in UK!

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to piglette]

Why Malta? It's only an hour different. Oz makes sense - they read scans overnight in the Uk - but their normal working day.

Without immigrants - wherever they come from - the NHS will finally collapse. In some hospitals 25% of staff are not from the UK.

[piglette in reply to PMRpro]

I assumed they were using the company in Malta because they were short of radiologists in UK. They did not do the analysis overnight either, more like over month!

[karools16 in reply to PMRpro]

My nearest hospital has an enormous foreign staff.All marvellous...keen to work, and master the language.. English.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to karools16]

Unlike a lot of the patients...

[karools16 in reply to PMRpro]

I am seeing this particular consultant, next month. Am wondering...hmmm, Shall I show him the letter, or tell him I have reduced from 500 to 3!! Cheeky!

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to karools16]

Oh I would - he couldn't then accuse you of being slow could he!!

[karools16 in reply to PMRpro]

Hee hee hee!

[christine2715 in reply to PMRpro]

Wow - my recent letter with a new medication sat on the rheumy desk for 10 days waiting for a signature then 4 days in my GP waiting for scanning then three days waiting for the prescription - snail pace!

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to christine2715]

Just as well it wasn't urgent then...

[Celtic PMRGCAuk volunteer]

I'm just glad I'm still compus mentis. Whilst in hospital recently, on the second day a nurse appeared with a little pot containing a pill. "What's that" ?says I. "Losartan 100mg for your blood pressure" she replies. Having had my tablets in hospital with me, l had already taken my morning dose of 50mg! As I said, so glad that I'm still compos mentis but fear for those patients who sadly are not!

[karools16 in reply to Celtic]

Ditto to that. Wonder how they fill the charts out?

[Celtic PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to karools16]

I dread to think karools!

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Celtic]

You've kept that quiet - I've been worried about you

[Celtic PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to PMRpro]

So sorry not to have been around, PMRpro. It's been a horrid few months with feeling really grotty with a multitude of infections and so many antibiotics and a serious reaction from one of those that resulted in me being ambulanced off to hospital and then being in isolation at home. A GP has a lot to answer for!! Hoping not to be left with any permanent problem but being monitored. So please worry not, I'm still here!

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Celtic]

I did assume someone would have told me if you weren't!

Do split on your GP - is it one of my hobby-horses??????

[polkadotcom in reply to Celtic]

I had noticed you were missing. Sorry you've been so poorly!

[Jackoh in reply to Celtic]

So sorry you haven't been well Celtic and still going through it by the sounds of it. Do hope that things get sorted out soon and your strength/ health will be renewed. Very best wishes Jackie x

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to Celtic]

Hi,

Sorry to hear that. Also thought you'd been quiet, until your lovely post about my birthday.

Do hope you're on road to recovery now.

[Hindags]

Ugh! What a hard time. Multiple infections and a serious reaction to an antibiotic.

Just reading what you've been through, from a newbie perspective, it's humbling to hear your strength coming through.

[Slosh]

Phew!!

[Celtic PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Oh, thank you, you're all so lovely with your kind wishes but I'm now just a little guilty, feeling that I have hi-jacked karools thread. Not fair to burden all you lovely people already struggling on here with the wiles of PMR/GCA with all the nitty gritty of my recent experience - it is a PMR/GCA forum after all. So will just say, I ended up with C.Diff, which, according to a Doctor in hospital, was a direct result of being left on an antibiotic with a known risk for too long!

[karools16 in reply to Celtic]

No hi-jacking here, Celtic. I left that behind in SA!! i WANTED TO ASK YOU WHETHER YOU HAD HAD c. dIFF, AS i WAS HOSPITALISED fEB. fULLY RECOVERED NOW, but that was also result of antibiotics.Are you fully recovered, as I was still ill, for ages, when discharged. I think we can be frogiven for 'digressing'at times.

[Celtic PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to karools16]

Bless you karools, but I'm so sorry to hear that you, too, have experienced C.Diff. On the other, I'm so pleased to hear that you have fully recovered - apparently that isn't necessarily so for some unfortunate C.Diff patients, so you've given me a big boost to hear about your experience and especially that you have fully recovered. I feel so much better, thank you,but, with no requests to do repeat specimens, I have more or less demanded that I am given the necessary bottles and forms to get tested and have proof that I am completely in the clear.

So glad that you've got your wits about you, too - 500mgs Pred, for goodness sake!

[karools16]

forgiven no frogs!

[Pieater67]

Ho dear what a lot of moaners we are,the NHS Staff are marvellous in my opinion,and you will be grateful for their expertise when you really really need them.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Pieater67]

It is extremely unlikely that an NHS member of staff typed it. It probably wouldn't have happened if it had been since they are subject to checks and controls that the private companies are not. And there I have a vague idea what I'm talking about, having been myself, married to and mother of various NHS members of staff.

[piglette in reply to Pieater67]

Sadly my family have been very let down by the NHS. Not the fault of the staff but the fault of the system.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to piglette]

When push came to shove the NHS has always turned up trumps for the family, saving a few lives on the way - but ongoing general care has been nothing short of appalling and the reason push came to shove. Once you'd feel was acceptable, twice bad luck - but 4 times?????

[piglette in reply to PMRpro]

My mother died in her 70s due to them giving her the wrong drug and a friend's mother died the same month when they put a feed tube into her lungs, also in her 70s.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to piglette]

Feed tube into lungs???? I hope they got hauled over many burning coals for that.

[piglette in reply to PMRpro]

Just the thought of it makes you shudder.

[Doralouise77]

One specialist in his consult note referred to me as being "morbidly obese"...I am 5 ft 2 in and weigh 110 lbs......

Cheers

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Doralouise77]

Specialist in what? A BMI of IRO 20 is nowhere near obese, never mind morbidly so! Even 30 doesn't get there. So who weighed you and wrote someone else's numbers on your notes?

[Doralouise77 in reply to PMRpro]

I wasn't even weighed lol.....I just put it down to his thinking of somebody else as he dictated his notes......overworked and all that....and maybe most of his patients were "morbidly obese" ....made me ask for all consult notes after that though....

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Doralouise77]

Not surprised!!!