nobody breathe..

[erastes]

I’m at Dad’s and connected to the net. God knows how long it will last.

Doctors was an entire waste of time – as usual. I sat there, he said “how are you.” This seems either an entirely redundant question to me (as surely if anyone, HE should know) or something that I could spend an hour answering, but as I only have ten minutes I say “fine.”  He then turns to his PC and looks at my notes. heaven forfend he couldn’t look at them before I arrive and give an impression of knowing what he was doing.  “Oh yes, you came for an ECG yesterday.”

Me: Yes

Him: *phones reception* can I have Erastes’ ECG results please.

Because obviously it’s impossible to have the records of your expected patients to hand in advance. This kind of behaviour would get you sacked in business.

ECG turns up. Doctor opens and stares at them for a minute.

Then he turns to me and says; (wait for it, it’ll blow you away)

YOU HAVE AN IRREGULAR HEARTBEAT.

Well, bugger me. How much is this man paid? it’s taken him SIX weeks to confirm something I TOLD HIM in the first place.

HEAD FUCKING DESK. There are just… no words.

Comments

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

I think the worst thing about doctors is the way they clearly don't believe a word you say.

Did he eventually work his way up to anything you didn't know already?

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Nope. He then said that I was under the specialist in the hospital - strangely enough I knew this, and that I should be getting results from my heart scan - also something I knew. He tried to take my blood pressure but said the sleeve wasn't working. Yes he's that incompetent he can't even take my blood pressure. The minute my eyes are better I'm transferring to someone else.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

also - how are you?

[aunty_marion]

They always try to take my blood pressure with a) the automatic machine (which pumps the cuff up higher than is EVER comfortable) and b) the standard-sized sleeve - which DOESN'T FIT because I have large arms. And far too many medical 'professionals' these days seem to have no idea how to use the manual one with a stethoscope...

However, one tip I picked up (from Moorfields Eye Hospital, strangely!) is that they can get an adequate reading using the standard cuff on the FOREARM.

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

Oh that is really bad! That makes mine seem like a model of efficiency. I have had one or two really good doctors in the past, but a lot of them are worse than not going at all.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

The locum that I had to start with used a wrist cuff and that was fabulous, no pain. This thing he used this morning was the old fashioned blow up sleeve and never even got tight.

[alex-beecroft.livejournal.com]

A bit better today, thanks! I badmouthed my doctor yesterday, but she did at least give me some antibiotics. At the time I thought it was a case of 'I don't know what's going on, so I'll throw some antibiotics at it' but they actually do seem to have improved things. So maybe I did her an injustice.

[lexin.livejournal.com]

they can get an adequate reading using the standard cuff on the FOREARM.

That's worth knowing, because the standard cuffs don't fit me. Like you, I've got big arms.

[erastes.livejournal.com]

Yes, they did that in hospital - and the next nurse who came along kept having hte cuff burst off my fat upper arms and I pointed out that she could do it on the forearm as long as she put the pulse point on the inside of the elbow. She tried this and it worked. she got paid for that. Ididn't

[lee-rowan.livejournal.com]

Is there any sort of oversight committee that would deal with this, or is it just how the system works? It's good that you can switch to a different doc--in some parts of Ontario you can't, because there's a shortage (and Harper is, like most conservatives, cutting funding to essential human services in order to cut deals with his oil billionaire friends). But my sister in the US has had similar problems with a doc she got stuck with when her regular MD moved away.

As a friend said who used to work for a doctor--very few physicians graduated at the top of their class. I hope you get a better one soon!

[iulia_linnea.livejournal.com]

Well, crap. Your doctors sound like mine. *hugs* Switching sounds like a fine idea. Good luck!

[stevie-carroll.livejournal.com]

YOU HAVE AN IRREGULAR HEARTBEAT.

Ah, but what sort of irregularity? It's been years since I read an ECG, but even I can remember that lovely phrase 'regular irregularity'. Which is probably called something else now, but I'd at least expect him to scan the ECG and be able to say what he can't see. Look! there are even pretty pictures online to help him (that was the first one that came up in Google, so it's not exactly difficult to find them).

Sorry, but I used to love having results that I could point at and say 'well, according to the lab/machine that goes ping/Kevin at the referral practice little Fluffy doesn't have the X wrong, but might well have Y, so let's try the suggested treatment for Y/whatever Kevin said in his fax'.

We pay for the NHS. Why can't we have better GPs? And bang his head on a desk, not your own. Far more satisfying.

[tiggothy.livejournal.com]

Sounds like the time I went to the doctor's "emergency" Saturday clinic as a teenager, and ended up seeing a young locum doctor.

Me (standing with my weight on my left leg): "I injured my knee playing rounders last night and can't put any weight on it"
Him: "Ok. Stand on one leg."
Me: "I am"
Him: "No, put your weight on your bad leg"
Me: *does so*
*falls over*
Him: "Yes, you've injured your knee. Have some paracetamol"
Me & my mum: *walk out, disgusted*
Dad's response when we got home: "Well that was a bloody waste of time. Here, have an ibuprofen, it's better than paracetamol"