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just got upset with doctors receptionist

Posted , 5 users are following.

grandmaDylan
grandmaDylan

I finally got through to the doctors receptionist after ringing about 25 times! I asked if I could make an appointment to see the first gp I saw in the practice having seen 3 different doctors on the 3 occasions i've visited. I was told she could make me an appointment in april or try ringing on monday at 8am to see if there was an appointment available. The trouble with the 8am ringing is that obviously everyone else is doing the same and it takes til about 8.30 to get through by which time there's nothing left!!!!! Unfortunately I got got upset and was in tears with the receptionist who was very pleasant, she then said that she could get a doctor to ring me back today and see what they think. I just want my query regarding PMR to be taken seriously and not just brushed off as the doctor I saw this afternoon did. I don't want PMR, but if I do have it I want to try to lessen the horrible pain that I'm suffering with. If it's just that my fibromyalgia is getting worse theni will just have to live with it.

0 likes, 11 replies

11 Replies

  • EileenH
    EileenH grandmaDylan

    Posted

    Take the appointment in April for the moment. And try calling for an on-the-day appointment in the meantime. It won't matter so much when you know you will have that proper appointment to fall back on. 

    I know the feeling and it is appalling that it is so difficult to get an appointment to see a GP in the UK these days. I may take me half the morning but at least I always can see MY doctor on the same day.

    In the meantime - try the pregabalin if you haven't had it before. Then no-one can argue you haven't tried what was offered.

  • julian.
    julian. grandmaDylan

    Posted

    nothing wrong with getting upset at other people's ridiculous systems.

    Assertive is better, but hard when in pain.

    But either way a medical practice that can't do better than running an appointment lottery has a systemic problem.

  • tina-uk_cwall
    tina-uk_cwall grandmaDylan

    Posted

    Hello Deborah, you are quite right this not being able to book an appointment is ridiculous. When I was eventually diagnosed with PMR I immediately changed drs surgerys. Why? Well apart from the fact that my GP even with all my symptoms "did not know for the life of her have any idea what could be wrong with me" but I had to previously get my bloods done privately after I was told that the surgery was short staffed and their waiting list for routine blood tests was 6 weeks. But that aside, my old surgery also operated this ring up on the day system and like you I simply could never get through and that was having an automatic re dial  system function on my business phone. Anyway, another patient at the surgery told me to never bother with the phone method but to always get down to the surgery at about 8am and queue up for an appointment. So I did this and got an appointment every time. However, the last month of my symptoms ( I had symptoms for three months before I was diagnosed) the pain and stiffness was so severe that I simply couldn't get out of bed, and get washed and dressed and in the car and drive down to surgery by 8am. In the end my husband would get up and go down yo surgery and get an appointment for me and normally by the time he got back home I was just about ready for him to drive me back. 

    Yes of course you want to know if it's your existing fibromyalgia is getting worse or the onset of PMR. Deborah as I don't suffer from fibromyalgia this might sound stupid but is your existing pain getting worse or have you detected that there is along with your fibromyalgia pain a different type of pain. I say that because PMR pain is very specific and by establishing if you now have a new sort of pain, it may be easier to diagnose another condition, plus of course fibromyalgia pain does not respond to prednisolone whereas PMR pain does. Keep standing your ground and all the best, christina 

    • EileenH
      EileenH tina-uk_cwall

      Posted

      Strangely Christina there are a lot of overlaps - I discovered that 6 years ago when my PMR went wild. I spent 2 months on the internet every evening to try to work out what it was I had and after all that time it was still a toss up. The pain points in fibro can be replicated in PMR when you press on them and you can have tender muscles in PMR. The fatigue and stuff is similar.

      As I have said a load of times - I think a lot of young patients are labelled with fibro because of this conviction that if you are under 50 it can't be PMR and I do wonder if that contributes to the "nothing manages fibro" mantra. If you give them pregabalin and it doesn't work it doesn't seem to click it could be something else. 

      The standing outside bit doesn't always work either - they open the phone lines before they open the door!

      We were discussing this just now over dinner - we were OK because there was one partner you could always get an appointment with since noone wanted to see him. What you could do though was inveigle him into providing what you needed! He was a brilliant man, spoke umpteen languages - but should have been a pathologist where he didn't need to relate to a living patient! ;-)

  • david14272
    david14272 grandmaDylan

    Posted

    hello deborah. perhaps you could post abit more info as to if you have been tested for PMR/GCA, if  so any results etc will help  with any feed back people might have for you.Dave
  • grandmaDylan
    grandmaDylan

    Posted

    Well the doctor rang me and I explained what had gone on at my appointment this afternoon and that I had asked about being tested for PMR and the doctor not doing anything about it. He said that I should have a full range of blood tests as the main way to diagnose PMR Is if there are raised inflammatory markers . I explained that every blood test I have had in the last 12 or 14 years has shown raised inflammatory markers. Invariably the doctors have looked at the results and said "oh your blood results show inflammation" and then do nothing about it! Anyway he said he has authorised all the necessary blood tests so all I have to do now is get through to the surgery and arrange to have them done. What is GCR?
    • EileenH
      EileenH grandmaDylan

      Posted

      GCA (I assume that's what you meant?) is giant cell arteritis and is related to PMR but the risk is that when it affects arteries in the head it can interfere with blood flow to the optic nerve and lead to loss of vision which can be irreversible. The giant cells that cause the inflammation are in the artery walls and narrow the middle of the tube. About 1 in 6 patients who present with PMR go on to develop full blown GCA so we should always be aware of it - mostly they are the people for whom the first signs of GCA are the symptoms of PMR but you can develop GCA without those symptoms ever appearing.

      I'd disagree with your doctor - the blood tests that show inflammation can be raised for all sorts of reasons and it is only in combination with the relevant clinical symptoms that you make the diagnosis and after ruling out other things. But it sounds as if they have never looked, just assumed. Fibro doesn't usually show raised bloods so I'd say some doctors should have their ear clipped if that was their diagnosis! So what's new!

      I can't remember - have you said how old you are? Or rather, how old were you when this all started?

    • EileenH
      EileenH

      Posted

      Darn - meant to say that at least this has achieved a good result. It saves another doctor's appointment where they'd then say you needed bloods done before they could do anything. Hope this upward trend continues!
  • grandmaDylan
    grandmaDylan

    Posted

    I started with fatigue, dizziness and pain about13 years ago when I was 43. The doctor was great and sent me for all sorts of tests including a brain scan, I saw a neurologist as she was thinking MS she also considered lupus. Nothing came back positive although I had consistently raised inflammatory markers. We paid privately to see a consultant who obviously had no idea what was wrong and diagnosed basilar migraine! I couldn't walk unaided due to the dizziness, ic couldn't hold the phone to my ear for than a couple of minutes because of the pain and weakness in my arms. I literally traweled through the library in a desperate effort to find out what was wrong with me. I found a book about ME which described exactly how iwas feeling! I went to my gp who referred me to the only specialist in the north west who could diagnose ME which he duly did. Since then my symptoms has worsened. I have the tender points of fibromyalgia which I was dx with shortly after, complete exhaustion and pain in my hips, knees, shoulders, neck and lower back. At the moment I can't lift my left arm properly. I have night sweats and for the last few months little appetite. To make things more complicated I have an under active thyroid which isn't well controlled and can cause some of theses symptoms, osteoarthritis in my knees and type 2 diabetes! !!!! If I were a dog I'd be put down!!
    • EileenH
      EileenH grandmaDylan

      Posted

      Yes - I would be VERY intrigued to see what happens if they are willing to give you a trial of moderate dose pred. You would have been far too young for anyone to even consider PMR then. But I was very wobbly, don't think I could say dizzy, but one of the definites was being unable to hold a phone to my ear for more than a couple of minutes! The bicep pain was excruciating and it was definitely claudication.

      I had had the "herald" illness that often accompanies ME when I was 27 or so and that had been quite similar in terms of the fatigue and things but it eventually improved after about 4 years. The sweats were still there and my gynae in Germany tried me on HRT as they and returning fatigue were so bad. It worked quite well - I remained on  some form of HRT until one of the scares when I finally stopped. Less than a year later the PMR appeared.

      All these things can be associated with hypothalamus/pituitary/adrenal insufficiency and I would love to see more concentration on aspects of that. I have thought for a long time that it is a mix and what you experience and what works best depends on the predominant symptoms - does that make sense? Nothing however has worked for me as well as pred.

  • margaret22251
    margaret22251 grandmaDylan

    Posted

    Hi Deborah, i have this problem, but now we go down to the surgery at eight in the morning and nine times out of ten i get to see a doctor that day, it might be worth a try
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