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theoneRogue420 · 06-20-2007, 02:51 AM

Awww, Unrouley... what an awful day/days for you, so sorry

I have had a similar experience. I was at my aids dr. appt, he was also the one who treated my rsd, swore he knew a lot about it. I trusted him.

I went in for an appt, and was terribly down. I explained to him that my aids symptoms were getting very bad and I was sick to death of throwing up and having diarrhea. I was also having horrible headaches, more often and more severe leg cramps, confusion, problems getting the right words out, dizzy spells... all sorts of things weren't working right. He never ONCE said that any of these symptoms were from the rsd, not the aids! He thought I was exaggerating instead.

What he DID say was that I had too many t-cells to be experiencing these severe symptoms yet. I had 300 t-cells, not 250 like the standards say. But now that the genotype has been done, they force the meds at me when I hit 350. This strain is so virulent it scares them. But that day, he again decided my problems were emotional, and once again told me I needed an anti-depressant. (He knew darned good and well I wouldn't take those, but he always pushed them at me anyway).

I was in shock and didn't say anything. But I talked it over with Michael, and mulled it around in my head a lot. At my next appt. I came right out and told him he had hurt my feelings badly, I felt as if he thought I was a hypochondriac or a druggie seeking meds.

His response was "I better go get Michael. You are being over-sensitive". Lord, what a mistake that was, lmao. He brought Michael into the room, having told him who-knows-what as they came. Michael walked in, took one look at my face, and ripped into that Dr.! The dr. had managed to wedge himself into a corner, cowering behind the nurse, by the time Michael's tirade was over. I also left there with some more appropriate pain meds and muscle relaxers, lol.

I haven't seen the dr. since... we now see the PA and like her much better. She of course has to run everything by the dr., he does know exactly what is going on with us.... but I haven't had to deal with him since. He's never even been in the office on the days we go. Michael can be scary when ya **** him off, lol. Many moons ago, before he found God and the right path, he was a cocaine dealer in San Antonio. His story is much like mine... got hurt, couldn't work, couldn't get disability, had mouths to feed. You do what you have to do to take care of your kids.

So take heart, hon... these things CAN work themselves out. If there is any way to arrange it, I would suggest a sit-down with ALL pertinent staff. It would be a good thing to make them all face each other and have to say what they've said before... that YOU said this to this person, that YOU treated this one badly, etc. I'd imagine there'll be quite a lot of staffers exclaiming "I never said that!!" or "She never did that to me!". When they see how they've been used and back-stabbed by their co-workers, they'll be a lot madder at them, and a lot nicer to you.

I have always been amazed at how open and callous dr.s staffers can be. They seem to think they have the right to stand behind their desks/counters and talk really really badly about a patient, in front of all other patients in the waiting room. They think as they say no names, it's okay. No one ever seems to consider what things like that DO to the patients mentalhealth/psyche. We all wonder who they are talking about, and then worry that they do it when we leave too.

But we patients must take some of the blame as well. Do we ever speak up for ourselves? I do now, but I was 30 before I started. Now I tell dr.s if their staff are standing around gossiping about the patients, or bad-mouthing people. I have even heard staff talking smack about the dr. right in front of patients! I tell them how it makes the patients feel, and how unprofessional it makes him/her look to have staff doing this. It makes a HUGE difference if you tell them, it really does.... their brains are elsewhere, they don't even notice what the staff around them are talking about most of the time. But once you bring it to their attention, things change swiftly.

Here are a few spoons and a few soft Take care, and take control. Sometimes you have to force health care "professionals" to look at you as a human being, not a condition or a disease. Seriously, how much do these staff women really know about rsd/crps? Has the complete devastation it brings down upon our lives ever really been explained to them? If they don't know, they need to be educated. If they DID know, and still acted that callously, then they need to be fired.