Has anyone got a way of explaining to family that the doctors view of only looking at TSH is not necessarily the right one.

[Mia1057]

My husbands view is that doctor is the person who has been trained and is therefore right e en when you feel awful.

[VanessaB]

I told my husband say the car kept cutting out you took it to the garage but the mechanic kept saying there was nothing wrong would you believe him.Then you took it to another garage and they said it was the engine my only explanation that sometimes you know yourself better and there are doctors out there that test more than your Tsh good luck it's not easy some men are more understanding than others mine is just a bit old school x

[helvella Administrator]

Maybe point him at some of the Case Studies on the main Thyroid UK site?

This is one - there are lots of others:

thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/get_in...

Many include doctors failing to understand, failing to treat, mis-diagnosing, mis-treating,and so on.

Rod

[NBob]

I like VanessaB's car analogy.

You could add that there isnt a Haynes manual for this model (of disease), most mechanics think there is, but they use the wrong Haynes manual. They are trying to fix a petrol engine when looking at a Haynes manual for a diesel engine. Mechanics are afraid to use another repair manual because Ford, BMW and Fiat will go round to the mechanics garage and throw all his tools around if they find out about him.

[greygoose in reply to NBob]

Like! lol

[Hidden]

It's even harder trying to convince your employer the NHS is not fit for purpose in terms of treating/managing many (most) diseases.

[Mia1057]

Yes already done that with coeliac disease, Menieres disease and sarcoidosis. Now i have all sorts of problems arising out of my Hashimotos. I wish someone would start to join the dots especially when you have multiple autoimmune diseases and at some point many of the symptoms start to be the same. Is my brain fog, my thyroid problem, my sarcoidosis or my coeliac disease ditto for bone pain, exhaustion etc. I just feel like giving up this time.

[Hashoo]

Have you tried asking him what date doctors went from having partial knowledge to knowing everything? After all it wasn't that long ago that doctors went around from patient to patient covered in blood from all the previous patients they had, to show how successful they were.....we now know that that would have spread all sorts of diseases but it's not the only thing that doctors got wrong over the years and with so many doctors disputing treatment based on TSH alone, how long will it be till we're saying "I can't believe they used to do that" to our current doctors?

[Mia1057]

I actually just want to give up. I am fed up having diseases that leave you feeling like **** and yet outwardly you don't look that bad so people either think that you are a hypochondriac or not feeling as bad as you say. Even getting them to biopsy my nodules although both scans say they should has become a battle.

[Hidden in reply to Mia1057]

I am a nurse and have worked with hospital doctors and GP's for thirty years. Apart from the very few wonderful, marvelous and knowledgeable doctors, found through this site there are many many of them who don't know what they are doing and many of them who couldn't care less, many who are deliberately negligent, arrogant, sarcastic and egotistical and many who are just plain thick! Now I have said it! No one these days should just take what their doctor says as read, they get it wrong, a lot! I have seen it and heard it, worked with it and have the tee shirt. Now I have Hypothyroidism and have found out (through this site) WHY I have felt ill for thirty years even though I am being "treated properly" according to my doctors. I am always suspicious of whatever the doctor tells me. I always check, double check, research research research. I get the facts and I argue and I expect answers. It is not always pleasant, if you challenge them then you are a threat. With this particular disease they have got it REALLY wrong, I know it and so do many many people who relate their terrible tales on here. It will change but WE are changing it, not the doctors. That ought to tell your husband something, hopefully. To sum it up someone on here put it beautifully this way, doctors it seems are from a different planet, men are from Mars, women are from Venus and doctors are from Uranus!!!!!

[roslin in reply to Hidden]

you are so right, I am a physio and I always think that if you are too sick to be able to check and double check everything you've had it. Never leave it to a dr to make decisions for you and never think that they actually know all about your condition. Ask and get them to explain everything. It is your body. I have not questioned enough and I am paying the price

Roslinxx

[nightingale-56]

At long last my husband may believe me when I say our GP is useless. Last November he told me I had cancer (it was a salivary stone, which I knew as I had had it for the past 10 years). 3 Weeks ago he told my husband that he had Myeloma as a few blood tests werenot right. This is at least still being looked into. I took great delight in saying 'I told you'! Good job we have a lady GP at the practice who is a little more knowledgeable, although still not good with Thyroid.

[Parksie7]

One of the GPs at my surgery told me (admittedly in exasperation at my persistence over receiving B12 injection), that he was a GENERAL practitioner and he did not know all areas of current research on all possible diseases/conditions that patients came to him with. While he actually said it in anger(!), it has helped me to really recognise that I can research and go to the GPs with my thoughts etc.

I do the same with teachers at my son's school. I respect their learning, but I expect that my point of view will be taken into account and that they will recognise that I have an opinion to add.

L x

[Hidden in reply to Parksie7]

O roslin you are so right. I am in the position of having no children and will have no living relatives before much longer, no one to look out for me and make sure that I get the right treatment at home, in hospital, by my doctor or pehaps a nursing home god forbid as I would rather die than leave the quiet solitude of my own tranquil home. I AM terrified about the future, it plays on my mind a lot. I think that lonely elderly people should have advocates like some organizations have to support youths with problems, criminals (I heard of one yesterday that supports sex offenders) or persons who do not have the mental capacity. These people go with the person to court or wherever they need to be to make sure that they are aware of what is happening and can have an input in the proceedings relating to the welfare of said persons. We need that for our lonely unrepresented elderly who are so vulnerable. In fact this has got me thinking......

[ellarose1234 in reply to Parksie7]

Yes he is a general practitioner and his job is to get you to the person who is the expert on what he thinks your problem is. Trouble is they don't. They go by one useless blood test and that's it.