ChrisD
Senior Member
- Messages
- 475
- Location
- East Sussex
We are so often used to turning away from Doctor's appointments with national health services (NHS/NIH) and feeling dejected, frustrated, unheard and let down by an often arrogant or rude doctor who can only suggest psychological services or exercise due to useless guidelines...
BUT, every now and then you might come across a doctor who is a bit more clued up or atleast much more sympathetic and I thought that it could be great for any of us to share those stories in this thread to create some positivity.
I was inspired to write this because yesterday I had a good GP appointment with a locum at my local surgery and previously to that I saw another locum who was also good (I feel like things are changing a bit) - previously to this I have seen about 12 other NHS GPs who have mostly been condescending and non-cooperative with my plans to investigate my ill health.
1) So firstly my appointment a few months ago with the previous locum, I was lucky to meet a functional medicine practitioner working under the NHS who was very sympathetic and understood ME as an immune dysfunction/autoimmune type condition. She actually praised me for all the research I had done, and the protocols I already had in place such as a High fat diet, using probiotics, Myhill's protocol, pacing and my plans to try LDN (which she said she would be interested to prescribe but couldn't because hands are tied by NICE guidelines). Nothing really came of this appointment except for a referral to a Rheumatologist which was already in the pipeline, but I walked away feeling really happy and that all my hard work was appreciated (I had typed up and printed a health report for us to read together).
2) Yesterday, I saw a different locum as a follow-up and also because I recently had started to experience some uncomfortable neurological symptoms. Again, I felt listened to, understood and cared for. He took on board all my new symptoms, combined with existing and decided that a referral to the neurologist should be on the cards, which feels like a big accomplishment.
He also heard my request to repeat Lyme testing, although not the Western blot that I wanted, he wants to run the ELISA twice in case of false negatives - it feels like he was working hard with the resources he has available. Added to this, he was happy to run a full Thyroid panel - not just basic and also wanted to test me for Syphillis (even though I doubt I have that) as he recognised that an infection was probably causing my latest neuro symptoms.
I felt like I was at least making a small amount of progress with him and the surgery were also happy to organise phlebotomy for me to run my own private lyme and viral labs (Armin labs) with them.
I appreciate that I have probably been quite lucky to stumble upon a couple of understanding, more clued up modern GPs but could it be that the tide is turning? Does anyone else have any good experiences?
BUT, every now and then you might come across a doctor who is a bit more clued up or atleast much more sympathetic and I thought that it could be great for any of us to share those stories in this thread to create some positivity.
I was inspired to write this because yesterday I had a good GP appointment with a locum at my local surgery and previously to that I saw another locum who was also good (I feel like things are changing a bit) - previously to this I have seen about 12 other NHS GPs who have mostly been condescending and non-cooperative with my plans to investigate my ill health.
1) So firstly my appointment a few months ago with the previous locum, I was lucky to meet a functional medicine practitioner working under the NHS who was very sympathetic and understood ME as an immune dysfunction/autoimmune type condition. She actually praised me for all the research I had done, and the protocols I already had in place such as a High fat diet, using probiotics, Myhill's protocol, pacing and my plans to try LDN (which she said she would be interested to prescribe but couldn't because hands are tied by NICE guidelines). Nothing really came of this appointment except for a referral to a Rheumatologist which was already in the pipeline, but I walked away feeling really happy and that all my hard work was appreciated (I had typed up and printed a health report for us to read together).
2) Yesterday, I saw a different locum as a follow-up and also because I recently had started to experience some uncomfortable neurological symptoms. Again, I felt listened to, understood and cared for. He took on board all my new symptoms, combined with existing and decided that a referral to the neurologist should be on the cards, which feels like a big accomplishment.
He also heard my request to repeat Lyme testing, although not the Western blot that I wanted, he wants to run the ELISA twice in case of false negatives - it feels like he was working hard with the resources he has available. Added to this, he was happy to run a full Thyroid panel - not just basic and also wanted to test me for Syphillis (even though I doubt I have that) as he recognised that an infection was probably causing my latest neuro symptoms.
I felt like I was at least making a small amount of progress with him and the surgery were also happy to organise phlebotomy for me to run my own private lyme and viral labs (Armin labs) with them.
I appreciate that I have probably been quite lucky to stumble upon a couple of understanding, more clued up modern GPs but could it be that the tide is turning? Does anyone else have any good experiences?