doctor, doctor, givin’ you the boot!

I went to a new person yesterday to try and establish a new PCP for me and to resolve the issues with my throat. It couldn’t have gone worse! She was a CNP and had a HUGE chip on her shoulder about anyone with any opinions for themselves. She came in with attitude and I left because I couldn’t stand her attitude! I even reported her to the hospital system she works for. Top it all off, she’s new to the system here so maybe giving her a "fair" evaluation will help guide them whether or not to retain her.

I have Rheumatoid Arthritis and know there are tons of other conditions related to and secondary to RA. I also am a 7 yr survivor of breast cancer and know other issues can occur because of the treatments I received. I know all those things and I’m an intelligent and well educated person. When someone in the medical profession asks me "Are you a medical professional?" when I express myself in their office, my hackles go up! It’s only happened twice and from my former MIL but in all cases, I discontinued listening to them. In my book, a good medical person listens to the patient, does a real exam before leaping to any conclusions and then continues to ask more questions before even ordering tests or prescribing medicine. The person I saw yesterday did none of those things!!!!

She came in and had already formed some opinions about me before she started her questions. When I tried to add to her comments or make additional comments about my symptoms, she stared me down and would ask me, "Do you want me to help you?!" She was very confrontational and tried to tell me I needed to shut up and just answer her questions. I told her my concerns about my medical condition as related to my RA and cancer treatment and she summarily dismissed them both! When I tried to give more details about how I was feeling, had been for months, and all the missed diagnosis from other doctors, I got shot down by her again and again. She told me that I sounded like a difficult patient and she wouldn’t be able to help me if I kept being so difficult! Eventually, after about the 4th time she said that I told her I really didn’t want HER to help me and I walked out. I was fuming all the way home trying to pick apart the conversation and see if I could find where I faltered and I really couldn’t find where I did anything wrong. I expressed my thoughts and opinions and concerns but wasn’t trying to be challenging. In the end I decided to call the hospital system and complain about how I was treated. I hope that helps them see who they hired!

It’s crazy but I’ve run into my share of doctors who really don’t listen. Last year, when all this started with my throat, I saw a doctor who made absurd leaps of diagnosis and ordered even more absurd blood work with it. He actually ordered a tests for Parvo since I have dogs and Mono even though I’ve already had it and the chances of having it again are slim to none. Parvo can’t be transmitted from dogs to humans so talk about stupid!!! He really didn’t listen to me and instead leapt to stupid conclusions! I ended up seeing someone else in the same clinic less than a week later who basically laughed at the tests he ran, gave me a thorough exam and prescribed antibiotics since that was "the least she could do" and if that didn’t work we’d try something else. The meds worked, I felt better, at least for awhile, and life moved forward. The problem is, I can’t see her again since she isn’t taking new patients.

A few months later I woke up really dizzy one Sunday morning and Hubby took me to Urgent care and I got a fantastic dr who diagnosed an inner ear infection and prescribed antibiotics. My throat had started bugging me again before that but the antibiotics seemed to make everything better so I left well enough alone. 2 weeks later I was still dizzy so went back to urgent care and saw a twit of a PA that told me it was vertigo and gave me a sheet on exercises to cure it! She didn’t even look in my ears!!!! Then she used the line, "If you were my mother, I’d advise you to see a ENT". I left furious! How dare that little twerp infer anything about my age and then not really examine me!!! I did call around for appts with ENTs and found most had a waiting list of 2 months! YIKES! I finally found one that I could see in 2 weeks so I went to see him.

The disaster that is this saga continued. He looked in my ears, healthy by then, and up my nose and was fascinated by my deviated septum, and pronounced I had some drainage and prescribed Omnaris and to see him in 4 weeks. I got a massive headache, one of the side effects, from the nasal spray after 3 days so stopped using it for about a week. I tried the spray again, the same headache happened again so I stopped using it altogether. I wasn’t really experiencing that much nasal distress anyway so thought maybe he’d take a different approach when I saw him. My throat was bugging me again so I kept my appt with him. I went through the triage with the nurse when I checked in and she said that more than likely he would want to "scope" my nose and sinuses!!! I kept thinking, "it’s not my nose!" and the thought of a scope made me gag so I left. The nurse ran out after me and said they could use numbing spray and I told her I was gagging and ready to vomit just from the thought of it and told her I was leaving. I had chronic sinus problems when I was younger and kind of grew out of some of it as I got older. I have had sinus infections and drainage junk in the past and this wasn’t anything like that. The main problem seems to be my throat. I have a sore throat, much lower than just the back of my throat, and I have real difficulty swallowing, especially dryer things like bread and meat.

Yesterday Hubby advised that maybe I call my oncologist and see what she thinks. Half of my throat and thyroid were irradiated when I was receiving radiation treatments. I heard, much after the fact, I could have requested a special lead drape for just my neck to prevent such things. The triage nurse called me and we talked for awhile about what was going on and she said she really wanted to talk to my dr about this and see what she wants to do. She called me back awhile later and said my dr was ordering a CT scan! I told her my concern with that is I’m allergic to the imaging dye. She suggested they pre medicate but that last time they tried that, I got sick from those meds too! She was going to see if it could be done without the dye or use a different dye but scheduling is due to call me soon to get this ball rolling! Such a simple thing and yet, all of the previous doctors didn’t even try this one. Thing is, if it’s my thyroid, it didn’t show up in previous blood work and I’m sure I’m due for more of that too. All it would have taken really is a simple ultrasound of my neck and throat, not necessarily a full blown CT scan, and blood work and the answers probably would have been obvious! ARGH!!!! I hope this gives us the answers, finally.

I’ll be waiting by the phone today….

J