I’ll start at the beginning…I was
born on, just kidding; I’ll cut right to the chase. It all started back in the
Spring of 2009. I rarely went to the doctor. Usually, I would only go if I was
bleeding out my eyes or had an infection that I knew I needed an antibiotic
for. I’ve never really trusted doctors in the past, I mean, let’s face
it…that’s why they call it “practicing” medicine. Who wants to be a guinea pig,
not me? Many times I would save up concerns and go in with a list maybe once a
year.
So…back to 2009. I went to a regular
GP because I had my list of concerns and it was about time I did something
about them. On my list was a sunspot on my back that had grown from the size of
a quarter to about the size of, well, my whole upper back. Next on the list was
a skin lesion that had me worried because I had had MRSA (Methicillin-resistant
Staphylococcus aureus) and
I wanted to make sure that it wasn’t rearing its painful, ugly head again.
Number three was migraines. I had been having headaches for some time and had
gone to different doctors in the past with no real conclusions. Lastly, I had
been having this weird pain on the left side of my chest and at times my left
arm would feel tingly and cold on the inside. I realized that none of these
issues were life threatening, however I still felt the need to see a doctor.
Mostly I went to see if I could get some relief and some answers from a person
with a new perspective (I had only seen this doctor once before for a sinus
infection).
I began with the first item on my
list, my ever-growing sunspot. The doctor’s response was “this is common
because of where we live, wash it with Selsun Blue and it should go away.”
Little background on the sunspot and Selsun Blue… My husband had had one of
these sunspots and his doctor (not the same one) had told him to spread Selsun
Blue on the spot, let it set for a bit and wash it off. It got rid of the spot
on my husband, so I figured I would try this remedy first. Well, the Selsun
Blue burned my skin and when I went to the Dermatologist (the one that dx me
with MRSA years back), she said I had to come back in two weeks so that my skin
had time to heal from the burn. She then tested the sunspot and prescribed some cream. Might I ask, how is one to put cream on a sunspot in the
middle of the back two times a day??? My hubby had to wake me at 5am, before he
left for work to put it on every morning. Needless to say, the cream did
nothing. Back to the GP. I told him that I had tried the Selsun Blue and it
burned me, and was there something else I could do? He told me that couldn’t
have happened, "Selsun Blue doesn’t burn skin." And so continued my lack of trust
in doctors (and this was just the tip of the iceberg).
I went on to my next issue. I
explained about my heart feeling funny and my arm tingling and feeling cold on
the inside. He actually felt my arm and said, “It doesn’t feel cold to me.” To which
inside my head I asked, “What part of inside do you NOT understand?” Then, his
next brilliant assessment was “You’re too young to have heart problems, next….”
I could already see what many years in medical school had done for this man,
apparently nothing.
I soldiered on. I explained to him
about the lesion on my leg and how I had been diagnosed with MRSA some years
back. Since it had taken a few weeks to get an appointment with this doctor, my
lesion had already started to heal. He asked if he could take a look at it and
told me there was nothing he could do with that because it had already started
to heal. Then, he asked me, “So when was it that you supposedly had MRSA?” Ok, so now he had basically called me a liar
for the second time, REALLY?!?! I was getting more and more frustrated by the
minute and beginning to wonder why I was really there. This guy had
successfully disregarded every concern I had brought up. Seriously, I thought
they taught a class in med school about bed side manner. Obviously, this guy
skipped class that day.
I thought to myself, ok, he hasn’t
helped me a bit, should I even mention the headaches? I figured since I had
wasted all this time, why not take the plunge? I explained about the headaches
and how I had seen various doctors over the years to no avail. I suggested that
it might be my sinuses. His response, “You and 75% of all the people that live
here have sinus problems.”
So let’s recap, shall we? I finally
went to the doctor and he literally discounted all of my concerns and didn’t
even have the decency to be nice about it. In fact, I distinctly remember this person (at
this point I’m not even willing to call him a doctor, ogre maybe, but not
doctor) telling me “What do you expect, you’ve been to other doctors and done
what they’ve told you, what makes you think I would tell you anything different?”
At this point I was so frustrated, I was in tears. Then, he had the nerve to
ask me, “Why are you crying?” To which I responded, slightly yelling, “I came
here with concerns that you took no care of, I’m crying because I thought by
coming to you, I could get a fresh perspective on these issues I have been
dealing with for years, I’m crying because I am frustrated!” He then looked at
me like I was mental, jotted something in his notes (probably a referral to the
nearest mental ward) and called the nurse in to take some blood. I never went
back to find out the results…that was almost four years ago and just the
beginning of my illness.
Needless to say, after the
appointment I sat in my vehicle crying into the phone while telling my husband
of my horrible experience.
Had to add this clip about going to the doctor. I can so relate...
Sometimes you just have to find the funny in situations, or you might just go crazy.
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