SIMPLE ARITHMETIC

[piglette]

I saw my rheumie yesterday and it seems I have been losing weight since I last saw her. She then tried to calculate the loss and came up with an incorrect figure. She sort of panicked, so I told her the correct one. I made a joke that I did Maths A level, perhaps I should have said I was taught arithmetic as primary school. It is quite concerning as numbers are so important in medicine. This is the third time I have had similar experiences.

My CRP rocketed to 132, the GP read it out to me from the screen as 123. Luckily I was actually able to lean forward and read it.

With another GP I had my blood test results and was talking to her on the phone and she said my CRP had gone down, I pointed out it had gone up, she then said "Oh only be a little bit" I said "it is over 60%" her reply was "Well if you want to look at it like that".

In my case it did not really matter but they could have had some nasty effects in other cases. It really does seem worth checking that they are talking sense.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Mmmm! You do wonder!

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Bl**%^ calculators!!!!! They aren't taught to estimate the order of magnitude of the result they get to be sure it makes sense. They can't do mental arithmetic. And apparently can't read - or was your 132/123 doctor of Germanic linguistic persuasions?

It wouldn't be so bad - but drug doses are somewhat critical...

[piglette in reply to PMRpro]

I find it frightening. No the 132/123 doctor was of the great Indian continent persuasion.

[wobblypat]

I didn't have problems with. Medical staff reading my results, but it reminded me of a funny incident I had with the immunologist.

He was noting my blood readings, then suddenly noticed my BP had taken a sudden nosedive some 6 months ago, so asked me if I had had any problems.

He looked very worried, so I asked him the date of the reading. It was in April, two days after I had shoulder replacement surgery. He was so concerned about my blood readings, he forgot to check the rest of my notes!

[piglette]

That is another of my gripes. I saw my rheumie a year ago and had twelve blood tests. I asked my GP about them at Christmas and she could not look at them as the rheumie had not opened the files which were protected until she looked at them.

My brother got a letter from the council week about the planning permission that had been put in for a disabled bathroom. The only thing was it was requested seventeen years ago for the previous owner who had MS. Looks like councils cannot read dates.

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to piglette]

Hi,

Don't know why you're surprised - that sounds pretty quick to me! Or maybe it's because I live in deepest darkest Dorset, with a council to match 🤦🏻‍♀️

[piglette in reply to DorsetLady]

This was deepest, darkest Dorset!

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer in reply to piglette]

No surprise there then!

[LizzieGuinn]

Can you divulge which rheumie you saw, Piglette, so those of us also in Dorset know who to watch like a hawk! My next appointment is in just over a couple of weeks......

[piglette in reply to LizzieGuinn]

It is all right, this lady is from Frimley Heath, it is my brother who lives in Dorset with the prehistoric council.

[Jackoh]

Again unfortunately none of this comes as a surprise! I was never too brilliant at maths but have been able to help my GP out on a couple of occasions!

[altywhite]

That's a bit worrying!! I've strted to ask for a print out of my results which the surgery are

[altywhite]

Ooops!! Pressed the wrong key!! Again!! As I started to say......the surgery are quite happy to print out my results for me. I do like a bit of paper!!! Sad to say!

[piglette in reply to altywhite]

I totally agree, I always get print outs, although they are not very keen on printing off referral letters which are also usually full of errors.

[Ciar]

That is kind of scary! I had a doctor 3 years ago who had trouble figuring out medicine doses on several occasions. Once she tried to give me a dose 10x too strong. Another example of us needing to manage our own health!

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Ciar]

A doctor of middle-eastern extraction working in Germany and doing locum on-call work in the UK gave a patient 10x too much morphine - he claimed it was because the drugs used in the UK, his homeland and Germany differed in strength. I'm sure the amounts are on the labels. The patient died.

[piglette in reply to PMRpro]

That is so sad. My next door neighbour was telling me yesterday that his brother had been diagnosed with a three inch aneurysm so the consultant decided to leave it for the time being. It transpired that it had actually been checked by an underling and it was seven inches. I do hope that whoever messed it up was made to realise.

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to piglette]

Even 3 inches is well in the range for intervention - 5.5cm, just over 2 inches.

[piglette in reply to PMRpro]

7 inches definitely is. It was really lucky that the consultant actually checked on the underling's measurement. One really begins to wonder, probably the incompetent individual was never told of the error.

[HeronNS in reply to Ciar]

Not a mistake but intentional: when I had the broken leg the doctor at the hospital tried to give me a prescription for 50 (yes, fifty) oxycontin. After he left the room I took one look at it and said, I'm not having that in the house. Took an hour for them to find another doctor who wrote out one for 20 tylenol 3, which took me, with help from hubby, a whole year to use up. No wonder there's a problem with opioids here!

[CT-5012]

Many years ago I got a repeat prescription for plaquenil only to find it was for a drug used for treating malaria, one dose only, mine was for three times a day! I had queried this with him his reply was ******* for which he apologised. Said two doses could be fatal. 😫