My worst doctor story...

[IreneF]

There are jerks everywhere. But you should get a tilt-table test.

 

[Hip]

I told her my story and asked her to check out my constant tachycardia and the possibility of severe OI and POTS (I didn't say anything about CFS, just described my symptoms).

How did you describe your symptoms to your doctor?

 

[Tito]

Report that bully to her professional organisation. She'll see that you do not give up in the middle of the task...

 

[alex3619]

The philosopher Sir Karl Popper pointed out that Freudian theory was nonscience, which later got amended to pseudoscience, because no matter the evidence it affirmed the hypothetical conclusion. Modern psychobabble is no different. Either they are right, or you are wrong and therefore they are right.

I am just waiting for a doctor to try to do this with me. The days when this is acceptable and defensible behaviour are done. Of course I could find myself in all sorts of trouble for fighting the psychosystem.

The best response for most though is to find a better doctor. Not all doctors are this mired in arrogance, ignorance and prejudice.

 

[DanME]

Thank you so much for all your sympathy. I already distanced myself from this horrible experience.

@SDSue I ve got an appointment for a Tilt Table Test at the University Hospital, where I live. I called them beforehand and asked, if they have any experience with POTS and OI, but the secretary was not sure. I guess, they haven't. Usually they use Tilt Table only for Syncope testing. But I found another Hospital nearby, which specialises in Autonomic Disorders. I ll try to get an appointment there.

@Gingergrrl I totally agree. Ironically I have a degree in psychology and studied medicine, before ME/CFS struck me down. Her behaviour was heavily inconsistent. In both possibilities, OI and depression, she did the worst, she could do. You could clearly see, she is not trained to diagnose mental disorders or to do therapy. But I know firsthand, if you are not interested in psychiatry as a med student, you will only take basic (and false) assumptions from med school.

It is pretty hard to find a doctor in Germany, who takes ME/CFS seriously. In Berlin at the Immunology Department they do, they offer good testing and do good research, but offer no treatment options. I tried several doctors, who claim, they are ME specialist. But I was always disappointed. Either they were quacks, who tried to sell me supplements or they didn't see the full picture. They had always only one theory in mind, what ME is and were certain about it.

@Hip I usually don't mention CFS, most doctors will immediately shut down, if they hear the term. They think, you have depression or burnout and like to self diagnose or worse you are just crazy. So I described my severe exhaustion, my OI symptoms, my tachycardia, my dizziness, my nausea, my ataxia etc.

@alex3619 I am a big fan of Karl Popper and have read some of his books. I totally agree with you, Freudian theory and Psychoanalyses conflicts with his central theorem of falsification. Though a lot of science today does not falsify, but instead uses positive empiricism, at the core of modern science lies always the possibility of falsification. With Freud this is not the case. (But I must say, Freud invented psychiatry and gave psychology a hug push forward, though a lot of his theorems are false).

 

[SDSue]

@DanielBR so glad to hear you're able to track down a better site for your test. Keep us posted when you get some answers.

 

[Dreambirdie]

@DanielBR FInding a truly intelligent doctor, unfortunately, is like trying to find that missing Malaysian jet. We know they are out there... somewhere.... but it might take years to actually pin down where.

I hope that you eventually get what you need from a more qualified professional.

 

[Gingergrrl]

@Gingergrrl I totally agree. Ironically I have a degree in psychology and studied medicine, before ME/CFS struck me down. Her behaviour was heavily inconsistent. In both possibilities, OI and depression, she did the worst, she could do. You could clearly see, she is not trained to diagnose mental disorders or to do therapy. But I know firsthand, if you are not interested in psychiatry as a med student, you will only take basic (and false) assumptions from med school.

@DanielBR My masters was in clinical social work and I practiced for 16 yrs before becoming disabled from CFS. I totally agree with you re: your Dr that as a cardiologist, she is not trained to be assessing patients for depression or mental illness anymore than I am trained to be assessing patients for cardiac issues.

I cannot understand why she would risk her career to dismiss someone so quickly before having tested and ruled out for cardiac issues. There are people with "Silent heart attacks" that only show up on testing who do not even have any symptoms. There are also serious arrythmia's that can only be caught when someone wears a holter monitor or Zio Patch type monitor for days or weeks for continuous monitoring.

Medical students in the U.S. receive little to zero training on ME/CFS, POTS, or any of this stuff. There is also still a major stigma toward mental health issues and God forbid if someone should have both, they are treated by doctors as if they are no longer a human being deserving respect. You have to be your own advocate and I am glad you will be getting the TTT elsewhere.

 

[misskatniss]

Oh, I didn´t know this, I am sorry for you, Daniel. It´s like a big mockery. And what the heck would a life crisis (I do NOT agree with her, just sayin´) have to do with POTS??? I am a psychologist, and I never heard that before. She is not a psychologist. Why is it so hard for people to say: I do not know what´s wrong because your test results are good, but I still believe you that there is something (physically) wrong?

 

[taniaaust1]

Oh, I didn´t know this, I am sorry for you, Daniel. It´s like a big mockery. And what the heck would a life crisis (I do NOT agree with her, just sayin´) have to do with POTS??? I am a psychologist, and I never heard that before. She is not a psychologist. Why is it so hard for people to say: I do not know what´s wrong because your test results are good, but I still believe you that there is something (physically) wrong?

Cause many doctors have such huge egos that they cant admit there is something wrong but they just do not know what it is.

 

[taniaaust1]

Sorry this happened to you daniel. I agree with what the others said and that cardiologists are some of the worst Ive come across. Unfortunately they do not tend to know about POTS either. I think I have PTSD now over the terrible treatment of people towards me, always best to seek out another doctor as you've done if you come across this all too common attitude towards ME/CFS people out there.

 

[Wildcat]

.
Finding a better doctor is all very well in theory - they are out there. But in Britian, even if you do find a better doctor, the previous doctors have got in there first by what they have written in one's medical records.... that can utterly sabotage any possible new realistic doctor/patient relationship with any new doctor.
.

 

[misskatniss]

You are so right wildcat. "So where have you been before, let´s take look, ehhhm, mental institution, well..." All said by then.

 

[MeSci]

.
Finding a better doctor is all very well in theory - they are out there. But in Britian, even if you do find a better doctor, the previous doctors have got in there first by what they have written in one's medical records.... that can utterly sabotage any possible new realistic doctor/patient relationship with any new doctor.
.

That's very true. They will always believe a fellow-doctor over a patient.

I learned a hard lesson during my first episode of near-life-threatening hyponatraemia, which was NOT to phone my GP before calling an ambulance, because he had decided over the phone that my serious condition was simply a panic attack - something of which I have no actual history. He did not even see me. The result was that I was not taken seriously by the paramedics, whom I called out eventually in desperation when the doctor failed to come out or even say whether he would or not. They phoned him, he said panic attack, and from then on they refused to believe my protestations. They went away leaving me alone, very ill, very frightened and barely able to stand, lift the phone or even speak.

The next time I phoned 999 (the UK emergency number) without calling the GP. This time I got to hospital and the real cause was eventually identified, but not before an A&E doctor rejected my suggestion that it was hyponatraemia and sent me home again, only for me to become acutely ill again on the way home and having to be rushed back.

 

[A.B.]

That's very true. They will always believe a fellow-doctor over a patient.

A good example how psychological and psychosomatic explanations for illness inflict unnecessary suffering and harm.

 

[Sidereal]

Oh, I didn´t know this, I am sorry for you, Daniel. It´s like a big mockery. And what the heck would a life crisis (I do NOT agree with her, just sayin´) have to do with POTS??? I am a psychologist, and I never heard that before. She is not a psychologist. Why is it so hard for people to say: I do not know what´s wrong because your test results are good, but I still believe you that there is something (physically) wrong?

So true. Several randomers I consulted along the way before my diagnosis--doctors who knew absolutely nothing about psychiatry apart from what they learned in their one psych rotation in med school 20 years ago and from pharma reps/brochures--had the audacity to suggest my severe POTS symptoms were due to anxiety. One particular time stands out for me. I presented to my former dingleberry GP with a BP of 80/60, sitting HR of 127 and an oxygen saturation of 90%. I felt like I was going to die at any moment. She calmly wrote all that down in my chart and then asked me if I wanted a psychology consult to which I replied, "I AM a psychologist! If a psychiatric condition that causes such symptoms existed, I would bloody know about it." Unbelievable.

Cardiologists, neurologists and endocrinologists, in my experience, are particularly guilty of this armchair psychiatry, diagnosing patients whose problems they don't understand as depression, anxiety, somatisation etc.

 

[misskatniss]

... and I BET they don´t even know the DSM or ICD-10 criteria for each of these, actually!!

 

[PennyIA]

.
Finding a better doctor is all very well in theory - they are out there. But in Britian, even if you do find a better doctor, the previous doctors have got in there first by what they have written in one's medical records.... that can utterly sabotage any possible new realistic doctor/patient relationship with any new doctor.
.

That can happen in the US as well. I went to the ER over ten times in a 16 month period for pain that radiated from my back through to my chest. The first time they found plueresy. AND every other time they sent me home *maybe* with pain killers because obviously I just had plueresy again.

The next-to-last doctor went, huh... maybe it's something else. He asked me when was the last time my gall bladder had been checked. NO ONE had looked at it even though it's fairly common to have problems with it as a middle-aged woman. AND it's common to have referred pain for upper back to chest. It was so bad that they decided I needed to have surgery within two weeks. I went home and tried to reach my doctor to get surgery scheduled. I went back 24 hours later and that doctor found that I was NOT going to be able to wait two weeks for surgery as my liver enzymes were off the charts and I had developed pancreatitis.

There were 13 different ER doctors in a row that simply looked at what was on my charts and didn't run any further tests.

 

[Little Bluestem]

There were 13 different ER doctors in a row that simply looked at what was on my charts and didn't run any further tests.

 

[MeSci]

Couldn't put it better myself.