I want to give an update on my health (which is not getting a jot better with the return of chest pains but particularly my (non)relationship with my doctor.
I have already related how the junior doctor was going to send me to the cardiologist but by the new year the position had flipped.
Obviously, my former GP who won’t see me because I didn’t show enough ‘respect’ because I pushed back had had a few words with his junior. The new story was that he talked to the cardiologist who allegedly told him (without seeing, let alone examining me) that there was “no problem with the heart”.
I still have not had a reply to TWO letters (one an email, the other a hand-delivered letter) asking him (somewhat sarcastically, I must say) if it is not heart then what he thought might be happening.
I have since found that there is a TWO YEAR waiting list to see a cardiologist at Auckland Hospital. That provided the answer I needed.
Yesterday something else came up.
In my consultation in January I mentioned some discomfort in my oesophagus on eating, more as a way of emphasising that my chest pains had nothing to do with that.
The doctor decided to just ignore my hot and inflamed feet and legs as well as to do nothing about my heart.
Instead latched on to my other problem.
But I never asked him for help with that.
He said that he was referring me for a gastroscopy; when I said that I was not going to have such an intrusive procedure he mentioned the possibility of of using a barium tracer with an MRI.
As we left his office he said when they ring to make sure that I ask for a consultation. I was not in a position to latch on to the importance of what he was saying and scarcely paid any attention until yesterday when I got a call from the hospital to fit me in for an appointment for a gastroscopy.
When the situation was explained to them they said that I would have to go back to my GP for a referral.
All this when none of this was ever asked for.
In my more naive moments, despite 12 years of experience, I imagine that doctors are there to help their patients.
But if we accept that stress is a major cause of disease I have to come to the conclusion that the doctors I have been forced to “consult” with are a major CAUSE of my ill health.
As a postscript, last night my chest pains came back with a vengeance and I experienced brief chest pains while discussing this.
I think I will be ringing my Chinese herbalist for an appointment.
Thanks for reposting
Just go to EMERGENCY! Or is that also not an option?