Doctors

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IMPORTANT NOTE: This forum is not for queries that would otherwise be addressed to a doctor. If you have a question about your condition or treatment please consult your renal unit or doctor. We do not have any editorial or medical resources to answer individual queries.

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msdiva
Posts: 38
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2004 2:07 pm
Location: New Jersey

Doctors

Post by msdiva »

Im so mad right now, i went to see my internal medicine doctor yesterday 4/29/04 and his manner is one to be desired. I ended up blessing him out for his rude behavior. Then it just goes to show you doctors arent always worth the piece of paper their degree is printed on. After being diagnosed with having "Dietabetes" for the last three years and taking medication for it religiously for two years he says to me its a possibility that i dont even have the diesease. Which is good news to me, but now im wondering if the medication i've been taking for so long is not what caused my kidney to start to fail? I often wondered if im such a dietabetic why i had such problems with my "sugar" being to low all the time. So on a whim a year ago i stopped taking the meds just to see if my "sugar" would still be okay. Well guess what?, it was just fine for a whole year....normal. So my appointment was yesterday like i was saying and he was looking over my chart saying how well controlled my "sugar" was and i should continue taking my medication. I busted his little bubble and said That should be easy since i dont take meds for "sugar" anymore and havent for a year. He got mad at me saying" I lied" to him about what medications i've been taking. I told him that he should get a clue about his patients; if he would have taken notice, he would have seen that i have a problem with my "sugar" being to low not to high, and that he was a dummy and treated his patients like crap and should find hisself some bedside manner. Then he looked at me and said "well if its not "sugar" that is making your kidneys fail, then what is". I looked at him and said its been three years and if you dont know that or havent taken the steps to make sure my diagnosis was accruate then that says something about the kind of doctor he is. In his same breath he wants to see me in "4" weeks, i looked at him like he had six heads and each one was moving at the same time. It will be a long time in blue hell before i go back to that doc. Now i got a NEPH appointment coming up 7 May 04, and im going to see what this "cat" got to say, but to be honest yawl, im not having too much confidence in these docs right now, i dont trust them with my health, i know we have to put our lives in thier hands and trust their judgement, and im finding that really hard to do. Its already hard for me to keep going to all these appointments as is, but for "ole boy" to have a attitude with me was the wrong anwser and now he wants me to see this NEPH he's sending me to, im already ready to pounce and see what "knowledge" this joker is going to be spewing. I know im just mad right now. but damn, sometimes these doctors only care about the bottom line and not thier patients. Im just sick of it all to be honest.....Sorry for the long post.
johnsor
Posts: 69
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2004 4:03 pm
Location: Northern ILLINOIS

Post by johnsor »

I think you have hit the nail on the head with some of these docs...a few can really shake your confidence at times, and it can be for a variety of reasons. I sometimes wonder how they can keep track of an individual when they have so many patients.
I do have a suggestion you may or may not want to consider. Even if you are right about your situation, you may want to be discreet about what you tell a doc...especially when you admit to not being compliant to taking a certain drug regimen. I would tell the doc I had a reaction to the drug and stopped taking it before I would tell him he is out in left field even if it were true. Here's why. If it turns out you do need a transplant, one of the criterion a tx center uses to determine eligibility is.. are you compliant about taking drugs? In other words, they may ask your previous docs if you have problems with compliance when taking drugs. If they find out you have been noncompliant at times, chances are you will get "cross examined" by the docs before they approve you. One reason is the insurance companies demand compliance and the second reason is the tx centers have tx longevity goals which affects the ranking of their institution across the country / world. I know of a tx center that, at least in the past, monitored the drug stores their patients used after tx. If a patient went into rejection, they would contact the patient's drug store to determine if the patient had been compliant. I would suggest you continue to push back against wrong decisions, just manage how you do it so you are not implicated as being a "rogue" patient. The best to you.
amanda in CA
Posts: 1806
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2004 5:14 pm
Location: Georgia, USA

Johnsor's reply

Post by amanda in CA »

Hum, I would be extremely unimpressed if I found out a transplant unit were checking on me in that manner as Johnsor said - seems like a breach of privacy to me, and surely must be unconstitutional in some way or other? Not being a US citizen I wouldn't know if the latter is true, but put it like this I would still be pretty P******. Amanda
Cheryl in CT
Posts: 412
Joined: Wed Apr 21, 2004 10:17 pm
Location: Connecticut, USA

hi, Marie...

Post by Cheryl in CT »

Dear Marie -

What a royal pain! I have had some of the best and some of the WORST doctors in my life, and I'll tell you, the bad ones really made it hard for me to trust the good ones! I had doctors say things to me that were so incredibly inappropriate that had I been an employee, I could have SUED - yet I never said a word, since they were DOCTORS.... Hurumph - those days are ((thankfully) over!

I went from my late teens into my FORTIES knowing that I was "spilling protein", yet not once during all those years did I have a single doc who told me that it could be a problem! As far as I knew, it was "just the way I was".... (At 49, I am now a year and a half post-transplant - proof in & of itself that it WAS a problem...)

My best effort at advice for you right now is DON'T TAKE ANY of that ****! If you see this new neph & don't feel comfortable with him/her, look elsewhere! When you're dealing with renal issues, it's going to be a rather long road, and you really do have to find a doc to whom you can relate.... If the new doc you see on Friday doesn't make you feel comfortable, please don't "settle". Honest to Pete, there ARE good docs out there - it just may take a bit to find the right one for YOU.

For personal reasons, I simply couldn't deal with "the best nephrologist in CT" so I asked "okay, so who is the SECOND best?", and I went to see him.... I have a rapport with him now that extends to dinner party invitations - I would trust him with my life (which indeed I have!) and I credit him with taking the steps that have SAVED my life.

In short, my feeling is that you simply can't give up - it's your LIFE you're talking about here. Go ahead and "interview" the new neph - as if you were going to hire him/her (which in essence is what you're doing) - and if you don't get the right "vibe", try someone else. As I said, it's YOUR LIFE you're talking about here, and there's no better advocate for you right now than you, yourself. Go ahead & trust your gut feelings!

I wish you all the best of everything in what you're facing right now, and just keep in mind that you CAN do it (and no one else can...) Really, I DO know how hard all of this is... Please feel free to send me a personal message if you'd like to chat...

I'm thinking about you & hoping that Friday's appointment brings you closer to getting some help with all that's happening with you.

all the very best,
Cheryl
Rachel in NY
Posts: 650
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2004 1:11 pm
Location: NY, USA,

My opinion...

Post by Rachel in NY »

Hiya,

Been there, done that. Dr.'s are not what they used to be in the olden days. You read about the "doc" in a hick town that would make house calls, know each patient by name, deliver a baby, and deal with every medical scenario.

Like Cheryl said, don't just settle for a dr. bc you went to him once or if he comes highly recommended. "interview" dr.'s as necessary until you find one that YOU feel comfortable with. Someone that you can ask questions too - and not feel stupid. I'm currently on my 4th hospital, 4th set of dr.'s - but for now thank goodness I'm finally "comfortable" (maybe too comfortable :roll: ) and we have found a team I feel confident in giving me proper care. You have to feel confident in the dr. that is treating you ~ and know he's there for you when you need him.

When you find the right dr. ~ you'll KNOW it. You'll feel it. You'll see it right away. And then you can look back and feel good at the decision you made to "Look for the right one". Its not easy, but its worth it. Its for YOU.

Good luck, and I hope this one is the right one.

~Rachel
msdiva
Posts: 38
Joined: Fri Apr 23, 2004 2:07 pm
Location: New Jersey

Doctors

Post by msdiva »

Well guys, Im taking all of yawls advice and going to go in to ths NEPH witn guns blazing, im ready to take charge of my health and give him a interview. Thanks for all your help. I'll post 2marrow after my apmt. Until then...........
Pam
Posts: 866
Joined: Sat Apr 24, 2004 8:13 pm
Location: Springfield, Illinois, USA

Post by Pam »

[color=red][/color] I am so with you on the "doctor" problem! :x I have had so much trouble with various docs and now my transplant surgeon acts as if he cares less about my health one way or the other. I am usually the last one before lunch and it seems as if he is hurried to get there...I tell him about any problems and he says things like, "Well, you have always had that, haven't you?" or "I don't think THAT is the problem."
I now go to another neph who really seems to care but still have to see this tx surgeon every 6 mos. or so, so I put up with him. :roll: I think you were well within your rights as a patient to tell him what you did and I hope you have gotten a new doc! :P It is awful that we must put up with this kind of doctor behavior when we are ill, but that is a sad fact. The best thing you can do is find a new doctor-there are more good ones than bad although it doesn't seem so. :wink:
Take care of yourself!
-Pam
32 yr cadaver transplant recipient, now on peritoneal dialysis with the help of Audrey, my Homechoice machine... as of 4/3/09
Romans 8:28
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