Has anyone on here had anaemia?

[ajd05]

Ok - if you think there is something seriously wrong with you then call an ambulance or get to A&E.

 

I sincerely hope they do give you a blood test tomorrow, and I sincerely hope they come back negative, to put your mind at ease. However I dont agree that GPs should be forced/bullied/emotionally blackmailed to do these investigations in order to appease patients. That's just my opinion, and yes it may be biased as I work in the NHS.

 

I wouldn't call an ambulance as it's probably not important enough for that, i don't know if A&E would do anything for me, they would probably tell me to see my GP, i could ring NHS Direct and see what they say maybe?

[AGB1]

If you're not seriously ill then I'd wager that NHS direct would simply say go to your GP tomorrow.

 

If you do complain, you might consider putting in a written complaint to the practice manager before you approach the GMC...

[Titian]

I think sometimes that you are best trusting your instincts about your health and yes, sometimes doctors do need a poke.

I very rarely see the doctor and only if I really think there is something very wrong.

Some years ago I spent 4 years going to my doctor and saying something was wrong. Each time I was given gaviscon and sent home. One doctor even put his hand on my knee and said "look, I'm spending a little more time with you as I am going to get your diagnosis totally correct. You have heartburn and yes it can be very painful (I was passing out with pain and turning a very unattractive shade of grey). Take these tablets and come back and see me in 2 weeks and if I have been wrong I will eat my hat."

 

A week later (I didn't take his tablets BTW) I was rushed into hospital for emergency surgery. Needless to say gaviscon would never have helped and it wasn't heartburn.

One doctor told me, later, that next time I feel that ill I should tell whoever I see that I think I may be dying as I obviously didn't communicate well enough how I was feeling.

[medusa]

Chronic fatigue syndrome or post viral fatigue syndrome aren't exactly a walk in the park either I'm afraid to say ajd05. Unfortunately they don't show up on blood tests and are usually only diagnosed by excluding lots of other things.

 

The vast majority of people who go to their GP with your symptoms are run down after a virus and their body just needs time to get over it. You would be doing yourself no harm whatsoever by taking either a general tonic or a multivitamin with iron and making sure that you eat properly- that is irrelevant of whether you're male or female, whether you're ill or well.

 

I went to my GP with a lump under my arm 12 years ago. In the overwhelmingly large majority of cases a young, healthy woman presenting with a lump under their arm would actually have a cyst, an abscess, a small tissue infection, inflamed lymph nodes or some other trivial problem (a hassle, but not really dangerous).

 

GPs are trained to spot the trivial and deal with it themselves and to spot the serious and get it referred on to a specialist for them to deal with as soon as possible. Any GP who achieves this is doing their job very effectively.

 

My GP spotted that my lump didn't seem 'right' for any of the above trivial problems and referred me as an emergency to a surgeon to investigate what was going on. The surgeon agreed that it didn't seem 'right' and arranged for a CT scan the next day. At the time, I knew someone who had been waiting for a CT scan for 4 months to check out their neck problem and I was embarrassed about being bumped up the list so quickly, but when the results came back both my GP and the surgeon were right to have spotted that things weren't right because it was a tumour, and a dangerous one that included the nerves to my arm at that.

 

Right now, you've diagnosed yourself without any proof and have already decided that your GP is being negligent. How about giving your GP a fighting chance by being proactive, writing a list of symptoms and taking them with you so that your GP can be fully informed? You may have hinted at a blood test but you haven't actually asked for one or asked for an explanation of why s/he doesn't feel that it is appropriate for you to have one.

 

Every one of your symptoms can be caused by anxiety- in fact virtually every symptom on earth can be caused by anxiety. You do seem awfully anxious about this, more anxious than the average person. If you suffer from anxiety then every time you read anything about how you feel you're likely to be making the symptoms worse. I've been there, to the point that I no longer read the side effects leaflet with the drugs that I'm prescribed, because if I read the sheet then I can guarantee getting most of them.

 

Your GP has spent years training to help people and it's their main aim of remaining a doctor. Please give them a chance to do what they're trained for, rather than diagnosing yourself and deciding that they're wrong.

[AGB1]

Good point Titan.

 

The doctor-patient relationship is a 2-way process...if the patient doesnt tell you what's wrong then it's difficult to come to the correct diagnosis.

 

I always harp on about how GPs spend an average of 8 minutes with each patient. Anyone can see that this isnt long enough to get a full history, and make a diagnosis. So GPs work on symptom pattern recognition - the symptoms that best fit a diagnosis like pieces of a jigsaw.

Symptoms like 'my arms feel like they're about to drop off' are difficult to place with a diagnosis...it's up to the GP here to ask around these symptoms, something that sounds like hasnt happened here.

 

The majority of complaints against doctors are caused by a lack of communication skills. There's a big push at medical schools now to really instill these skills, in order to be better doctors later in life.

[ajd05]

I think sometimes that you are best trusting your instincts about your health and yes, sometimes doctors do need a poke.

I very rarely see the doctor and only if I really think there is something very wrong.

Some years ago I spent 4 years going to my doctor and saying something was wrong. Each time I was given gaviscon and sent home. One doctor even put his hand on my knee and said "look, I'm spending a little more time with you as I am going to get your diagnosis totally correct. You have heartburn and yes it can be very painful (I was passing out with pain and turning a very unattractive shade of grey). Take these tablets and come back and see me in 2 weeks and if I have been wrong I will eat my hat."

 

A week later (I didn't take his tablets BTW) I was rushed into hospital for emergency surgery. Needless to say gaviscon would never have helped and it wasn't heartburn.

One doctor told me, later, that next time I feel that ill I should tell whoever I see that I think I may be dying as I obviously didn't communicate well enough how I was feeling.

 

 

Thanks for that post, that's exactly what i am on about, i trust my instincts and i feel that doctors are not doing enough and the only thing i can do is to keep going back and bugging them to do something for me and maybe eventually they will.

[ajd05]

Good point Titan.

 

The doctor-patient relationship is a 2-way process...if the patient doesnt tell you what's wrong then it's difficult to come to the correct diagnosis.

 

I always harp on about how GPs spend an average of 8 minutes with each patient. Anyone can see that this isnt long enough to get a full history, and make a diagnosis. So GPs work on symptom pattern recognition - the symptoms that best fit a diagnosis like pieces of a jigsaw.

Symptoms like 'my arms feel like they're about to drop off' are difficult to place with a diagnosis...it's up to the GP here to ask around these symptoms, something that sounds like hasnt happened here.

 

The majority of complaints against doctors are caused by a lack of communication skills. There's a big push at medical schools now to really instill these skills, in order to be better doctors later in life.

 

The average GP spends 8 minutes with each patient, really? the other day a GP spent literally less than a minute with me and when i came out my partner was shocked to see me out so quickly and i was rather bemused.

[Titian]

Try writing down all your symptoms and giving them to the doctor. That way you will not run the risk of trying to reel them off at hyper speed in some sort of panic, which could make you appear hysterical. Remain calm and collected and tell them unemotionally what is wrong, then politely ask for a blood test, if it isn't suggested already.

[ajd05]

Try writing down all your symptoms and giving them to the doctor. That way you will not run the risk of trying to reel them off at hyper speed in some sort of panic, which could make you appear hysterical. Remain calm and collected and tell them unemotionally what is wrong, then politely ask for a blood test, if it isn't suggested already.

 

I was thinking about writing my symptoms down the other day for my visit to the doctor's but i thought it would probably be a stupid idea to hand the doctor a piece of paper with my symptoms listed but it would be easier i do admit.

[ajd05]

I said in your other post that I think your state of mind is probably making you feel worse - constantly worrying about it is going to do you no favours at all.

 

I also said that you aren't a case for A&E and I stand by that.

 

I would not recommend bugging your GP, because with the best will in the world any GP who has seen you 10 times in a month will begin to be sceptical of anything you tell them.

 

You really do need to try to stop obsessing about this.

 

With all due respect and i respect your post but i feel very ill and if i am seeing GP's and nothing is being done i think you would be very frustrated as well, especially when the symptoms are becoming worse and yet because i am not getting anywhere with the doctor's i am dreading my appointment tomorrow knowing it will probably be the same outcome.