Re: Horrible Doctor Visit
From: anonymous (anonymous@obgyn.net)
Mon, 30 Oct 2000 11:16:41 -0600 (CST)
Tina,
I am so sorry to hear what happened to you. I am appalled by how she
treated you. You should write a letter to your state's medical board,
and your insurance company. There is a thing called "patients rights".
When a Doctor takes a oath it is to be compassionate and help people.
That little piece of paper on the wall does not make the "GOD".
Unfortunately many of them believe that they are. I too suspect that I
have PCOS. I am currently searching for a doctor. You seem to be a
very kind and gentle person. I am that way, but living with this
condition and insensitive doctors has made me tough. I won't let them
talk to me any kind of way, tell me that it is all in my head. I have
no problems with telling them off. I told one doctor that doctor's are
a dime a dozen and as far as I'm concerned he wasn't worth one cent!
That I didn't appreciate his attitude and the way he was talking to me
like I was some kind of kid. I have lived in this body for 38 years and
I KNOW HOW I FEEL. He has two choices, either believe me and help me or
get out of my way!
Hang in there. Are you in MD?
Tina
At Sun, 20 Aug 2000, Tina wrote:
>
>I recently self diagnosed PCOS. It was a wonderful and horrible eye
>openor. I went to a support meeting to see if this is really what I
>had. At the meeting a Reproductive Endocronologist (BAD spelling)
>spoke. I talked to him afterwards and he was amazed that I had not been
>diagnosed earlier, I have nearly EVERY medically known symptom. And
>most of those symptoms that people who have it tend to complain of.
>Anyway, he told me I needed to go to my medical doctor, talk to her and
>try to get a referral if I felt it was needed. So I made my
>appointment. Now I have moved to this area in the last couple of years,
>but I have gone to her for others things, ya know colds, flu, blah blah
>blah and she seemed pretty nice. Unfortunately what happened was not,
>and I was devestated. Thank god for this site. I know this is long,
>but I wanted to share for anyone else that may have this experience:
>
>When I got to the doctors office the nurse asked me what I came in for.
>I explained to him what I had found out and he was VERY nice. He asked
>for any sites that I may know of where he can do to look up this
>disease. I was excited, it seemed the visit may go well. After about
>15 minutes the doctor came in, I thought the nurse was looking up some
>information.. BOY was I wrong. She walks in, slams the door and says,
>what can I do for you. I started explaining the symptoms i have had for
>the last eight years or so, since I hit twenty. I told her about the
>severe weight gain, from 135 to nearly 300 in less than 2 years. And i
>listed the other symptoms. I also explained that my family has a high
>occurence of diabetes and heart disease, especially in the women. When
>I got to the point of explaining what doctors have tried in the past to
>help she suddenly jumped in. "So, you have PCOS, what do you want from
>me" I just kind of sat there for a second looking at her. She then
>started lecturing me on how "fat" people, especially women tend to look
>for an excuse for being fat. And that she has had PCOS for 20 years and
>is not fat, had children and never had the "side affects" everyone
>claims to have. She told me that I needed to WORK to loose the weight,
>a strict diet and excercise. "And I do not mean just a walk to the
>mailbox and back" When I questioned her on new medical treatments such
>as metphorin(?) she got very agitated. "You want me to write you a
>prescitpion?? is that what you want? Fine, your insurance will not pay
>for it but I will write it and you will waste your time". She kept
>saying that I needed to excercise, that I was not eating right. But
>never asked my how I felt, what was I eating, what had I tried. When
>asked why I gained it so fast when put birth control, then gained more
>when taken off she said "If I had the answer to all of these questions I
>would be rich and doctors would be out of business" I tried to ask
>several other questions with nearly the same effect. She then said "All
>I can tell you is that you are going to die, you will get heart disease,
>and have a heart attack, your legs will have poor circulation and will
>probably have to be amputated from the weight, since you have not even
>had a period in four years you will probably get cancer, so if the heart
>disease does not kill you the cancer will". By this point she had me in
>tears, I tried to calm and recompose but she would not stop. Finally I
>got up and turned to the wall to try to recompose myself, I was so
>ashamed for breaking down in from of her. When I kept trying to ask
>things she got up, stated that we were getting nowhere and she had
>already wasted 30 minutes with me, left the room and came back with a
>name of a specialist, then told me to call her assistant for the
>referral she does not want to talk to me anymore.
>
>When I left I was in tears. I nearly wrecked my car just trying to get
>home, I felt so worthless. She made me feel like everything was MY
>fault and if I was not so FAT I would feel better. She told me ALL I
>had to do was exercise and it would ALL go away. Luckily I have a
>supportive family and had done a lot of research, which showed that
>excercise alone will not work. I know this is long, thank you for
>reading. It is hard to put how I felt into words. I am now trying to
>get my insurance company to change my primary care provider and writing
>a letter to the Dr. including articles about the disease. I feel sorry
>for any of her other patients that come to her suffering from this. I
>am trying to keep hope, but people like her make it hard.
>
>--
>Tina M. Robertson
>
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