NeuroTalk Support Groups - My day as a laboratory animal

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Frog42 (Post 1085129)

A lot of doctors don't see us as people but as patients. I'm sure they feel they need to do this in order to stay at a professional distance but it's no fun when they treat us like items. Hang in there. :hug:

Yes, but would it hurt them to, at least, pretend to care while they're actually treating us? They are getting paid, after all.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Natalie8 (Post 1085038)

Sorry to hear you had such a terrible experience. It's always magnified by the incredible stress one feels waiting for a diagnosis. Here is an exercise that might help you feel better: sit down and write a letter to the doctor and /or practice outlining why they treated you so terribly and that you deserve better.

Once I wrote a letter of complaint to a doctor (long story -- she was new to the practice and told me in the hallway with people walking by that I might have tumors on my ovaries and would have to have surgery)--it was a measly little ovarian cyst. Whoops! I cc-ed every doctor in the practice on my complaint!

Sometimes putting it on paper can help discharge the anger, fear, and sadness. And on occasion I have been known to send these letters off! A couple of times I got apologies by phone call from the doctor or head of practice. That won't always happen but it might! It can make you feel better just to vent in writing! And you control the situation -- you never have to mail if you don't want to.

Thanks for the suggestion. I did do as you said and it did help. I will keep it for down the line because if I ever get better, it will be submitted to JAMA for publication. :winky:

Quote:

Originally Posted by ginnie (Post 1085153)

I am so sorry you were treated that way. You do have a right, just as you stated not to have that done by a resident. The treatment you received should be reported to the hospital or facility that did the LP. You also have a right to human treatment, which I don't believe you received. I hope that the LP will reveal something to help you, make it worth what you went through. I don't like being a lab rat either. I was given an infusion (Ketamine, yes it worked) but I was not told what it was, just an epidural which is different. So I do know about feeling like a lab rat or experiment. How about a gerbil on the medical wheel. These doctors someday will be patients themselves, that is what they forget. Let the tables be tuned and I bet compassion will enter into the picture again. I will keep you in my prayers. ginnie:hug::hug::hug::hug::hug::hug::hug:

We can only hope that something happens to open their eyes.:)

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hockey (Post 1085199)

Yes, but would it hurt them to, at least, pretend to care while they're actually treating us? They are getting paid, after all.

I don't think they are capable of even pretending. But thanks for responding to my pain.:hug:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Debbie D (Post 1085068)

I would go further and write the head of the facility about your experience. I would, however, leave out the PTSD and depression, and just stick to the experience and the horrible treatment you got afterwards. if they read that you have difficulty coping, they will for sure tune out the rest of the complaint...

Whether or not they will reply, you will feel empowered in just writing and letting the heads of what shoddy treatment you received...

Now I hope you can shift your perspective about what occurred and be proud of how you stuck up for yourself!! That was awesome, and I don't think I would have the gonads to do what you did!!

Thanks for your support. I have learned in life that complaining always comes back to bite me in the but. Too scared to find out right now.

Well to me part of a teaching hospital is teaching empathy and sympathy and all those others kinds of pathys. You handled yourself very well with insisting that the actual experienced person do the procedure. If they have a spinal tap team why don't they go the extra step and use flouroscopy to assist them n placing the needle. I have always felt it simplifies the procedure so much more and really cuts down on the chance of error. Yes, you write a letter and add all of our names to it. If a person walked into a hospital before open heart Surgery are they supposed to walk out also or are they offered a wheel chair.

:hug::hug::hug::hug::hug::hug:

Here's hoping you never have to go back to that terrible place again.:hug:

I'm so sorry you had to experience this. I think writing a complaint letter is a good idea. There are some key people in the hospital that you can cc the letter to. Make sure you get their names and put that on the letter.

As others have mentioned, stick with the facts of the procedure only and the fact that you were not given a wheel chair to leave. Unfortunately, when one puts PTSD or depression in a complaint letter many times it is not looked at objectively.

Unfortunately I do but hopefully I never have to see those doctors again. And, I would venture that they never want to see me either.