Visit to rheumy today

Posted , 5 users are following.

Went to hospital today with my sleeves metaphorically rolled up ready to do battle :lol:

He was running an hour late and had students with him :roll: :roll:

One lady came storming out shouting what a rude man he was!!!!! Oh joy :roll: :roll:

I was the last to go in and was with him for some time....... I did let him know how unimpressed I was with his poor management of me with the fast reduction from 15mg to 10mg....did he apologise.... not :? .... after a long discussion on how things had been etc plus I owned up and told him about the Alendronic Acid business where I had thought I was having a heart attack on two subsequent weeks after taking it ( he told me I had done the right thing and stopped taking them!) he decided he was not happy at all with how things were going and requested I had a whole battery of bloods to screen for 'everything' and he requested an appt to be sent for me to have a CAT scan :roll: :roll: When I questioned this he explained he needed to be sure that there was not something underlying the PMR before he went on to tackle my 'discomfort'.

So I have to return in four weeks for the results of everything and have been told NOT to reduce any further and to stay on the 16mg until he sees me in a month.

Also had my DEXA scan today...... three wonderful hours in a hot hospistal with the sun shining outside...... exhausted when I got home and beyond eating at three in the afternoon, having missed lunch. Thankful for the latte in the hospital cafeteria prior to going to sit in his clinic :roll:

Off to climb into bed with my hot chocolate and a book and I presume lights out before too long...... :lol:

0 likes, 11 replies

11 Replies

  • Posted

    Night, night. Sleep tight, speak in the morning - you sound shattered :hug:

    Lizzie xx

  • Posted

    Shame you didn't have the presence of mind to ask him WHY this battery of tests wasn't done originally as PMR is a \"diagnosis of exclusion\" - which means all the other possible causes of such symptoms are supposed to be dealt with first since some of them are rather nastier and less favourable! What a twerp :wink: ! Let's be positive though - at least he felt something you had done was right so maybe he will learn (hope dies last!). Poor students being taught how to be rude to patients :roll:

    EileenH

  • Posted

    fiftiesgirl

    Just think you have made him 'think' and that is a good sign.

    When you get your results, check and see if he has included everything that is in the BSR Guidelines. Take a friend and a note book with you and write it all down.

    After all you are a person and entitled to the best on offer.

    4 weeks will fly by. Stay as well as possible.

  • Posted

    The only 'up' to my visit yesterday was I learned that he is retiring!!!!!!!!

    So I have to presusme that all the battery of tests, not done in December ( but this is the man who told me I had osteoarthritis and a back problem and sent me for an MRI :roll: then when all that was clear pulled 'PMR' out of a hat!! ) are being done now so his successsor doesn't look at my notes when I am next seen and think 'What an idiot'!! :lol: :lol: I personally think he is covering himself....

    Whatever, better late than never

  • Posted

    Is there no edit facility on this forum? Find I have typed quickly and either missed letters or put them in the wrong place etc and irritates me cannot mend it before being seen :?

    I suppose I should do the Preview before Submit!

  • Posted

    [quote:29a64597a5=\"fiftiesgirl\"]Is there no edit facility on this forum? Find I have typed quickly and either missed letters or put them in the wrong place etc and irritates me cannot mend it before being seen :?

    [/quote:29a64597a5]

    Me too! I am aways making typos.. :D Is very irritating that we can't edit.

    [quote:29a64597a5=\"fiftiesgirl\"]I suppose I should do the Preview before Submit![/quote:29a64597a5]

    I do..It makes no difference to me, I still make mistakes! :lol:

    Gilly.

  • Posted

    [b:237ba46386]Nuffing rong wiv my speeling :lol: Eye'm a tuch typeest don't ya no :!: :!:[/b:237ba46386]

    After reading your experience Fiftiesgirl I realize just how lucky I've been with my GP and Rhuemy. My Rhuemy treated me for PMR whilst doing loads of other tests. Her motto was 'if it looks like, tastes like, smells like - then it probably is' but let's not take any chances. Hope all goes really well for you.

    Lizzie xx

  • Posted

    Hi Fiftiesgirl

    Sorry to hear you are getting such bad \"Service\" and hope his replacement is an improvement

    The Rheumatologist I saw was a miserable so and so and the problem is when you are feeling so bad you dont or I certainly didnt react as I normally do to such rudeness !!

    I like Lizzie Ellen have a great Dr so luckily thats all Ive needed so far .................!

    Sunshines gone !!

    Lunch at a golf club today with people I used to work with so that should be good

    Mrs G

  • Posted

    Ah well - you know how there are ads below the posts? Today there was one with \"Upmarket addiction treatment centre, Perfect proffessional care (sic)\". Hmmmm!

    A lady over on the US site has just been told (by a rheumatologist) that she is far too young at 47 for PMR or GCA. People get it in their 70s, it's unheard of at 47 quoth he. Just as well he is a long way from here - I might be tempted to visit him (he was quite off with her for things that weren't her fault).

    So I looked (of course, you'd expect me to by now wouldn't you?). Took 2 mins to find an article in a journal of general practice called \"24 year old with PMR\" or something like that. Poor bloke was treated for heaven knows all what for 6 months until a doctor decided that if it \"looked like a duck, walked like a duck, quacked like a duck etc\" it was perhaps an idea to treat it that way. Lo and behold after 2 days of 50mg steroids he was back to running training after being unable to get out of bed. So it probably WAS a duck! Is this the youngest patient???? :roll: :lol: :wink:

    But it makes some of our tales look quite tame really!

    EileenH

  • Posted

    Fifties Girl, belated reponse ( see A Week to Forget )

    I know just how you feel, having been so disgusted with the Rheumy Dept. at my nearest hospital that I walked out. It was dirty, badly organised and the staff ( or those that I saw ) were surly. I remarked to my GP that I could not see that they had anything to offer that I was not already receiving from him and have never been back.

    What is it with these \" consultants \" that spend seven years dying for the day when they can be called \" Doctor \", only to begin striving to being \" Mr.\" again?

    Pity some of them don't read this forum. They would have to readjust their egos.

    I worked in several schools in a long career and the happiest and most effective were those where everyone mucked in. I don't ever remember feeling belittled when I put coal on the fire in an old village school with a pot-bellied stove or helped clear the tables at lunch time. We really were all in it together and learned from each other and respected each other and the children and they respected us by which I mean they had confidence in us. It was a good time.

    I have diabetic friends and family members and I am full of admiration at the way their treatment and care is organised. The nurses are marvellous and so well informed and their attitude is that they are there to help their patients.

    Hope the hot choc. was a comfort and the book was good. BettyE

  • Posted

    Strangely - or maybe not - some of the best chronic illness care provided in the NHS is by nurse practitioners. There are some who are as bad as some of the consultants we have come across but in general the nurses who run the diabetic follow-up are outstanding. My arrogant rheumy said I would be seeing the NP but I never did and was unable to contact her despite her promising to call me back. Which is why I started on my voyage through the medical articles and textbooks!

    I am lucky - I have a medical/scientific background and am used to reading and understanding English that is difficult for most people. I translate and my best friend teaches translation, both of us German/English, and she has asked how on earth I can translate the stuff her husband gave me to do - chemistry - as she doesn't understand even the first introductory sentence! :roll: :lol: I, on the other hand, just cannot fathom how you can teach something like that. It's a bit like art - if that doesn't sound daft. But it is such fun :lol:

    BettyE - you are so right. When I worked in the NHS we mostly mucked in and where there was more muck there was a much better feeling even if not too much brass! I worked at Barts in London for a while which was fantastic - in our lab we were all equal, even the head of the lab, commonly known as Uncle Pete :wink: , would take over a machine if it was necessary. The Prof took us to the pub every so often and one girl arrived at 6.30 and made up everyone's solutions and warmed up the machines so when we arrived at 9 we were set to go - the pay off was she left at 3 and we covered for her. She had morning childcare for her 5 year old before school but nothing affordable for the afternoon. No one ever suggested there was anything unfair. And if we arrived with a bad cold we were sent home so as not to infect everyone else. Now nothing like that could happen. It is such a shame - I'm not nostalgic for the \"old days\" but something has got lost along the line in the reorganisations and internal market stuff. I blame the Tesco managers myself :roll: - patients are not packets of cornflakes!

    Maybe it is like wearing your old clothes or shopping at a charity shop or accepting handouts - I have the confidence to know it makes no difference to the person I am but if your clothes and possessions are the things that you believe makes you who you are then it's a different matter.

    EileenH

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