Bloody doctors!!!!!!!
I'm very annoyed. Very, very fuckin' annoyed.
I changed doctors recently (a new GP surgery), I've been meaning to for about 2 years. Mainly because I was with the university health service when I was a student (all 9 years) and am no longer eligible being a grown up now. Also because my previous GP was useless, I went to her on many occasions (i.e. at least once a year for 9 years) with headaches, migraines, joint problems, fainting and heavy periods. She pretty much told me to piss off and live with it......"take some paracetamol". Last time I went to see her, I had slipped down my stairs at home and done something to my coccyx. It was extremely painful to sit down or lie on my back. I explained what had happened and what the pain was like...................She gave me an excercise sheet for lower back pain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The stupidity of this floored me.....Lower Fucking Back Pain. Not even remotely similar to coccyx problems. She also told me that I couldn't have x-rays taken to see if I had damaged anything because it might damage my ovaries.
Now I had just finished an MSc in Medical physics and clinical engineering and had done an entire clinical module on x-ray safety and exposure. I knew for a fact that she was talking utter bollocks. I thought maybe becaue it was a student health service, she just couldn't be arsed with anything less than a life-threatening condition.
So, anyway, I eventually got around to registering with a new doctors and made an appointment to see the GP. I helpfully made a list of symptoms which were bothering me:
Dizzy spells and vertigo - associated nausea
Feeling cold all the time
Migraines - increased from 3 a year to 3 or 4 a month
Foggy brain - poor memory, lack of concentration, lack of motivation
Extremely heavy period - also irregular
Lethargy and tiredness - falling asleep at work
insomnia
pins and needles in arms
Weight gain with associated loss of appetite (I worked out I eat an average of 1500 calories a day, below the recommended fat and sugar levels and I do at least 30 minutes of gentle excercise a day. Yet I weigh 13 stone (182 pounds or 82.5 Kg), 1 stone of which I have put on over the last year. Being only 5'5'' this puts my supposed BMI in the obese range, fabulous.
The new Gp seemd to listen and asked if there were any thyroid problems in the family?!
'Hurrah' I though....he seems to actually be listening to me.
He arrange for blood tests and gave me some medication for my migraines.
I went to see him this morning regarding the blood tests. Here's what he said:
"All the tests were normal. You don't have an underactive thyroid gland. Nothing to worry about, Most people who complain of tiredness find that it generally settles down over time"
You know I'm fairly certain my syptom list was more than just "tiredness". Why can't doctors write these things down. I get that the're busy and have a lot of patients, so just maybe writing down what your patient tells you might be useful in helping to diagnose them.
One good thing was he actually showed my the test results, so I know that my thyroid function test consisted of TSH levels only. Now this was 1.7mU/L, Which is within the normal range.
"Within the normal range". How does he know whats normal for me. I get that it's the standard test or whatever, but it only tested for thyroid stimulating hormone, this dosn't tell you what the levels of various thyroid hormones are in the blood. I know it might be something else entirely, but I would like more than a cursory test to rule things out. I would also like it to be addressed that I still have all these symtoms.
I was so pissed off I left before I punched him.
I'm planning to go back in a month and specify a different GP, I think I'll do that every month until someone is actually helpful and addresses the fact that I feel like shit the mojority of the time
I changed doctors recently (a new GP surgery), I've been meaning to for about 2 years. Mainly because I was with the university health service when I was a student (all 9 years) and am no longer eligible being a grown up now. Also because my previous GP was useless, I went to her on many occasions (i.e. at least once a year for 9 years) with headaches, migraines, joint problems, fainting and heavy periods. She pretty much told me to piss off and live with it......"take some paracetamol". Last time I went to see her, I had slipped down my stairs at home and done something to my coccyx. It was extremely painful to sit down or lie on my back. I explained what had happened and what the pain was like...................She gave me an excercise sheet for lower back pain!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The stupidity of this floored me.....Lower Fucking Back Pain. Not even remotely similar to coccyx problems. She also told me that I couldn't have x-rays taken to see if I had damaged anything because it might damage my ovaries.
Now I had just finished an MSc in Medical physics and clinical engineering and had done an entire clinical module on x-ray safety and exposure. I knew for a fact that she was talking utter bollocks. I thought maybe becaue it was a student health service, she just couldn't be arsed with anything less than a life-threatening condition.
So, anyway, I eventually got around to registering with a new doctors and made an appointment to see the GP. I helpfully made a list of symptoms which were bothering me:
Dizzy spells and vertigo - associated nausea
Feeling cold all the time
Migraines - increased from 3 a year to 3 or 4 a month
Foggy brain - poor memory, lack of concentration, lack of motivation
Extremely heavy period - also irregular
Lethargy and tiredness - falling asleep at work
insomnia
pins and needles in arms
Weight gain with associated loss of appetite (I worked out I eat an average of 1500 calories a day, below the recommended fat and sugar levels and I do at least 30 minutes of gentle excercise a day. Yet I weigh 13 stone (182 pounds or 82.5 Kg), 1 stone of which I have put on over the last year. Being only 5'5'' this puts my supposed BMI in the obese range, fabulous.
The new Gp seemd to listen and asked if there were any thyroid problems in the family?!
'Hurrah' I though....he seems to actually be listening to me.
He arrange for blood tests and gave me some medication for my migraines.
I went to see him this morning regarding the blood tests. Here's what he said:
"All the tests were normal. You don't have an underactive thyroid gland. Nothing to worry about, Most people who complain of tiredness find that it generally settles down over time"
You know I'm fairly certain my syptom list was more than just "tiredness". Why can't doctors write these things down. I get that the're busy and have a lot of patients, so just maybe writing down what your patient tells you might be useful in helping to diagnose them.
One good thing was he actually showed my the test results, so I know that my thyroid function test consisted of TSH levels only. Now this was 1.7mU/L, Which is within the normal range.
"Within the normal range". How does he know whats normal for me. I get that it's the standard test or whatever, but it only tested for thyroid stimulating hormone, this dosn't tell you what the levels of various thyroid hormones are in the blood. I know it might be something else entirely, but I would like more than a cursory test to rule things out. I would also like it to be addressed that I still have all these symtoms.
I was so pissed off I left before I punched him.
I'm planning to go back in a month and specify a different GP, I think I'll do that every month until someone is actually helpful and addresses the fact that I feel like shit the mojority of the time