I had possibly the worst GP appointment today in my life. His English was not good, combined with a lisp, it was virtually impossible to understand his questions. I finally sussed out that "blith" was blood. I had the results back from some blood work at a hospital (took 50 days to get the results) which showed my red blood cell count and distribution width was waaaayyy off, really high - nothing said although the GP had had the results. He immediately blamed the HRT (been on it nearly 20 years) and then swopped to "need statins" which he kept repeating. I just said No, with no explaination, no point as he was not listening.
In the end I just said I wanted a blood test for B12, Folate and any other vits he could stick down. He said they had been tested in 2015 so no need! He took no notice of me saying I no longer took any blood pressure pills as I had reacted badly to all I had tried. He did not take my blood pressure.
In the end I just said I would see another doctor. He booked a blood test but goodness knows what for!
They all look at the TSH and alter our meds, but seem to ignore other tests. I just wonder why they bother doing them if no one checks?
I have calmed down now, cuddled a calf and had a glass of something red. Thanks for listening!
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serenfach
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Even after such a trying time with this "chump", you've retained your sense of humour...and that deserves acknowledgement and applause xx...and thank you, you made me laugh with your answer above xx
oh no, this sounds dire and 50 days for results is nuts, and 7 year old bloods are valid wtf ??? Glad you had a calf on hand for cuddles that sounds very wholesome. Have you got the energy to raise concerns with the practice manager? I’d be formulating a snottagram email.
He is being paid for that patient experience? He showed up at work that day but had nothing good to offer. If the universe can provide it, he needs to have a learning experience about what it is like to be his own patient!
Forty years ago we had a wonderful GP who was kind and caring, supporting us through many events with great consideration. The only issue was that it was extremely difficult to comprehend what he was saying! Fast forward to recent years, the same problem has reared its head several times. I have had to accompany my partner on occasion simply for "interpretation" purposes, as, having spent the majority of my career with foreign students, I have developed an "ear" for accents. When you are discussing complicated medical concerns with a consultant, clarity is all-important. As I have actually taught on English courses for doctors studying for language qualifications which would enable them to work in the UK and in other English-speaking situations, I am somewhat dismayed that the general picture regarding communicative skills has not improved.
Does anyone teaching these Doctors/nurses etc from different cultures, that in our culture it is expected that we treat each other politely? Patient speaking to Dr and Dr speaking to us ...... both of us with consideration for the other? I saw a training programme for GP's once, where these differences in what is considered a "normal way to respond" in one culture is not the same in ours...... I do hope this is continuing to be reinforced?
It seems there are a ‘Many Splendour’ number of offerings from GPs or even doctors in general. Somehow none of them helpful and in fact deeply damaging to our health. I was following a thread yesterday where my mind was acting faster than I could keep up with and so could not reply. Today seeing this thread, it is related. The lack of respect for patients by these expensively educated and trained twats is at a level quite incomprehensible. If they are complete twats they act like who you just saw yesterday, that alone is very troubling. However it’s the ones who do understand their limitations but for reasons of their own (because in the end the reasons really are their own) who disgust me more. They see any number of hypothyroid patients every day and they feel ok about peddling the same old Sh1t. There are two things I find difficult to overcome when dealing with them: my ingrained inbuilt respect for their ‘job’ and my ingrained ‘trust’ in them. We expect them to do good but we are let down. I find they respect neither their job nor our trust - time and time again. I am particularly disgusted at the moment. I won’t discuss it here as I am awaiting more blood results. However I feel as if I have been beaten down just as far as I can be. I am only just beginning to comprehend the length and breadth of the many ways in which I have been let down. I wonder if there are any people involved in medicine for whom it is a vocation? I think it goes as far back as our education system. Only those with good memories for facts are accepted to medical degrees. There is a difference (in my view) between fact recall and actual intelligence. It seems natural curiosity (I would have thought was vital for the job) and communication skills are absent. Maybe it’s all those facts; there is no room for anything else.
Facts are one thing arTisapple...but they are not the whole story.
Empathy is equally as important.....
I know there are pressures on the NHS. I know there are pressures in the wider world. Yet we can all still treat each other as we would wish to be treated.
I'm sorry you're having a hard time...count yourself hugged. xx
I believe when the majority of doctors make the decision to become doctors, they see it as a vocation. By the time they come out at the other end of their education they have become clones of the very hierarchical system. They have been broken down and rebuilt like members of a cult or an elite military branch. And while during their education they are on the very bottom of the hierarchy, once they are doctors, they finally have a whole group that is below them called patients, which they can treat the same way they were treated during their education as doctors. Arrogance, gaslighting, humiliation, dismissal, you name it, are all "appropriate" means to convey power. Combine that with the time constraint and the outcome can only be predicted as disastrous. So, useful communication is already badly impaired. Add to that a lack of language skills and it definitely becomes a total waste of taxpayers' money and everybody's time.
I wish I could be as clear thinking and succinct as you buddy99. I agree with what you say wholeheartedly. You caught me at ‘cult’ and ‘military’! Exactly.
It helps that I have two friends who are doctors and a nephew as well as a colleague's son who are being trained to be doctors, to get a bit of a glimpse of what is going on. The mistreatment by doctors rendered me very angry and bitter towards them. Understanding that they are also victims of the system has helped me to take the edge of my what I can only call hatred for them and to focus on what I need to do to help myself as best I can independently of doctors' behaviour. I'm still learning and probably will till the end of my days. This forum has been amazing for me. As long as there are others on the same journey, willing to share their experiences and knowledge, it does not matter as much what doctors do or don't do. Looking after myself is a shift of power from them to me, at least to a certain extent. They can still lie to and about me. There is little I can do about that.
Yes I think I am still at the stage of choking myself off from being outright rude. Normally I am a person who suffers fools gladly. However like you, recognition of “the shift of power” is taking place.
well said buddy99 . mentally "shifting the power" , and taking back a degree of control, is very healing ..... even if its just shifting our own attitude from "they are in charge of what i must take" .... to ... "it's my thyroid hormone replacement . i am the one in charge of making my own decisions about what dose i want to try next .. the Doctor is just who i get the tablets from . we will be having a discussion , but ultimately i will decide, what i want from them and i'll use my knowledge to try to get it by fair means or foul , and if they really get in my way .. i'll find another way "
We all are very angry initially (once we realise what's been going on ) .. and we probably need to be for a while .. but it becomes more productive (and much easier) to deal with them once you decide you're in control of proceedings , not them.
i'm not angry anymore , but i must admit , i now think of all GP's and Endo's as 'gate keepers /button pushers who are pushed for time' ... unless they prove otherwise by saying something thoughtful that shows they might be remotely up to date in their knowledge and attitudes to thyroid disease ( i'm still waiting for that bit to happen )
Tatty, part of the problem for thyroid patients at the very least, is "brain fog".
When we feel ill, it's not simply our body that's not well, our minds are fogged, and thinking clearly is difficult, if not nigh on impossible?
One GP, unhappy with my blood test results for thyroid hormones wanted me to reduce my dose. When I said I'd felt very ill when I'd agreed to do that, as she had asked before, she queried what ill meant. Now, how do we describe "ill" to a Dr? Unwell? Not myself? Possibly seriously ill with blood cancer?... , and when I asked her if I got any say in the matter, once new blood test results came back, was told NO.
Covid appeared and GP's disappeared...no blood test for me. My Mind was clear enough for me to ensure I do not book an appointment with her ever again.
And since being back on the brand of levothyroxine that suits me, my body and my mind...my thinking is becoming much clearer again.....
I can see how someone in the midst of this fogginess is at an immediate disadvantage. When we can't think clearly, it's probably close to say we can't explain properly either.
We live in our body. We are the ones who experience how our body feels and reacts.. Clear thinking helps us see who needs to be in control of our body, and what happens to it.
Drs need to relearn how to listen to their patients, and be open to asking open questions, not simply relying on any given "facts" .
agreed . brain full of porridge' makes anything very challenging . When i first came here i had to read the same sentence over and over again , 3 words at a time . and then i'd forget the beginning. and have to start again. And as for explaining anything to anyone .. sometimes i was incapable of explaining that the teapot was on top of the cupboard.
I used to expect Doctors to be able to fix me , and took it for granted that they were in charge . that i could 'ask ' for things , and they could say 'no'.
My attitude is a process of evolution .. not a starting point ... but over a few yrs you do realise how much more than the GP you understand about your condition .. and how constrained their guidelines are , how their viewpoint , understanding and curiosity is limited by what they were taught, and why their views are set in stone by what they think they 'know' about it .. at which point it becomes apparent to me at least , that there's not much point trying to explain to a GP how i feel... or anything at all really.
doesn't matter how eloquently we can explain how we are .. it won't affect whether they believe it's a thyroid problem or a 'must be something else' problem .
so i don't waste my breath .. i spend my energy figuring out how to funnel them down the ramp that gives me what i think i need .
Where thyroid is concerned, i've evolved into someone who believes "if you want something done properly .. figure out how to do it yourself"
If i need a Paramedic for anything , or break my leg then sure, i'll put myself in their hands , cos i know sod all about critical care ... but the everyday job of trying to keep myself as well as possible with a thyroid problem is now safer in my hands than the GP's.
Beautifully expressed..... your brain is clear, and so are you.
I'm on "your page" with regards to what happens to me and my thyroid issues from now on in. I really needed that whopping bang on the back of my head to knock some sense into me, for me to realise what has been going on, and get myself as well as possible. Positive help from GP's will be welcomed....
Your a patient person after 5 mins of not being able to understand him I would have filed a complaint and left … seriously ridiculous my mother has a doctor that talks like he has a mouth full of marbles and to make it more difficult he talks to you with his back facing you… my Mom is 83 so she doesn’t even care she says he’s not too bad Im still alive “sigh”.
I have a blood test on Tuesday and if it is not for a range of vits etc, I will complain. The problem is I have forgotten his name. He is not listed on the practice website, and another GP in the practice name appeared on the prescription. I am not sure that is legal, but I suppose if he was a temp/locum, the practice would not bother.
I hope I get the friendly nurse, we get on well, mainly as years back she said she had missed breakfast, so I nipped to town and got her a couple of croissants! I will have a gentle chat with her about the probems...
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xx...and thank you, you made me laugh with your answer above xx
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