What's the point. Appointment waste of time

hannahO_2

goffo wrote: »

And because her GP isn't very interested..

How uncanny, my GP too.

Oldernotwiser

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Unfortunately, not all doctors are of the kind, handholding type. Some are useless, but some are good at the treatment/medical side without the reassuring side.
.

And I know which sort I prefer!

sunnyone

Jojo_the_Tightfisted wrote: »

Reserved for high grade pain - terminal illnesses, mostly.



OP - try reading this http://www.nras.org.uk/help_for_you/publications/publication_detail.aspx?id=a0B8000000AUlPUEA1

Im not terminally ill and Ive been to a few pain specialists, Im currently undergoing treatment at the local hospital and a NHS paid for private pyscologist to help me to cope with the pain better.

I suppose it daft to ask if you asked for a referal more than once after reading you posts

My RA isnt by far my biggest problems but when you add in RA in the hands, elbows and neck alongside the osteo and trauma arthritis alongside the spinal/pelvic injuries from the HSRTA I am totally fluffed but I started to see pain clinicians a long time before I became this disabled and it did help me to stay on crutches after the crash.

MY granda saw a pain specialist that I hated and the idiot wanted to go from my granda taking paracetamol for his pain to amputation!

Nothing in between, just lob his leg off then the other when the first one healed in a man in his late '80s with chronic lung disease, a pace maker, diabetic and in general ill health.

Op this was your first appointment, wait and see what happens in the next appointment when the doc will have a much better picture of whats wrong with you, you did have blood tests didnt you along side the xrays? Maybe even told that you need a MRI scan on your hands/feet?

It sounds very much like my first appointment with my rhummy and shes very good, she prescribed DMARDs on my second appointment and thats the best longterm treatment for RA but they could have given you a shot today to help while they waited for the test results.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

No problem, Sunnyone

I have asked more than once. Took quite a few tries before I got to podiatry (who say plantar fasciitis is beyond their remit, all they do is cut toenails - actually told me to go to the GP and tell him that it is his job to deal with verucae - luckily, he laughed. Still didn't get it treated though - as nobody was funding it and the over the counter stuff didn't work. Had to go private.)

The PCT is pretty evil here. I used to deal with them when I worked in hospitals. They're the sort who refused IVF to people who had a child die on the grounds that they still had one alive/refuse to fund a transfer to a different area where a woman who was too ill for conventional anaesthesia and surgical procedure could have a different operation.

You also get summarily dumped off the physio waitlists if you don't call them within 5 days of a letter asking if you still want to be on the waiting list this month. The letters take 5 - 7 days to get to you, usually, judging by the dates on them.

Anyway, whinge over. The thread isn't about me. Basically, the referral criteria is rather strict where I am.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

goffo wrote: »

Please go and bother some other poster. You are becoming a pain in the a*se!!!

I am not 'trolling' and they are not tales - they are true facts!! Would you like me to post the Tribunal's Decision?

Personally, I would prefer it if you would say something that is of use to the OP.

And tribunal decisions only consist of a line or two saying whether the original decision is upheld or not. They don't give a statement of reasons unless you ask for one - and you wouldn't bother asking unless the appeal was unsuccessful.

Why not start your own thread?

SingleSue

I came out of my appointment feeling the same OP but then was surprised when the letter came from the consultant....although he didn't listen to me during the appointment, he had read my memory notes (which I just thrusted at him at the end of the appointment) and gone back to look at my medical notes and came up with a diagnosis of sorts.

Mind you, no follow up appointment and I haven't bothered going back to my GP since...it took me years to summon up the courage to admit things weren't right and I felt that it was a complete waste of energy to even bother as he made me feel a complete fraud, despite the letter afterwards.

I've even taken myself off my anti inflammatories (kept the amitriptylene as it helps my insomnia) because of how he made me feel, so now I am in pain, stiff as a blooming board, feel poo about myself, feel like my brain is telling me there is pain when there isn't and don't have the guts or strength to go back to the GP and say I am not happy.

Silly yes, but it does make you wonder if it is all worthwhile going through the motions of the appointments....

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Sue, you do know that not treating the inflammation in autoimmune disease can lead to it affecting your heart, don't you?

Please reconsider about having treatment - as soon as you get something that works, it's like a switch that transforms your life.

SingleSue

I didn't realise that no...but then I don't think I have an auto immune disease either.

The naproxene seemed to do the trick to be honest, yes I was still in pain if I overdid things but I could at least move but it did concern me where my heart appeared to pound and my blood pressure was higher when I went to the rheumi appointment. Not sure if it was just the stress of the appoinment though but in my weird and wonderful mind, it was a case of "Well if nothing wrong, then why take them".

I know it's stupid, I know it is irrational but I have a tendancy to get OCD about things and this is one of them.

Trialia

Sue, EDS isn't autoimmune, but you can get secondary rheumatoid arthritis from it and that is. Get checked out, please? *hug*

OP, what primary care trust are you under? I see a pain specialist in Trafford and he is very good - and FWIW, in regards to previous comments, I am not terminally ill - far from it. I have Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and secondary fibromyalgia. My pain specialist is very good at his job, and my rheumatologist (at Manchester Royal Infirmary) is excellent. I lucked out with this lot. I'd been waiting twenty years for a proper formal diagnosis of my joint problems until I saw this lady, and she pinned it right away.

cagneyfan

Got a copy of the letter from Rheumatologist today. Sure enough, he didn't listen, never read my notes, and if it wasn't for the fact that my hips hurt (no mention at all in his letter), I'd go to bed and stay there.

I stayed away from nhs for over 12 years as I lost faith, I hoped things would be different now. They are - they're worse.

I'm absolutely convinced that the bloody nhs are largely responsible for people becoming severely depressed. I mean, you wait months for an appointment, worry about getting everything across, do the right thing and take a list to help both parties. And what happens? Just when you think you can't feel any worse, you feel like there's no point.

I don't know about any one else, but for my examination I was told to remove my socks, shoes and tracky bottoms. I was left with a long shirt on which obviously covered my back, down past my hips - areas that are causing me pain. Surely I should've been given a proper, thorough examination (not that I was looking forward to it, dreading it in fact)

I feel like the only time I'll ever get any kind of decent examination is when I'm lying on a piggin morgue slab