Last week, I blogged about a strangely titled blog post, "Fat, mad, middle aged, menopausal women," that showed up on the British web site, Onmedica.com. It turns out that the author Joanne Shaw, who chronicled how hard it is for some thyroid patients to get the actual blood test results from their physicians, was on the side of patients. Her blog post's title was repeating what patients told her they were called by doctors -- though her post never made that clear. What is frightening, however, is the absolutely horrendous commentary from various NHS doctors that this post has generated.
For example, Dan Brett, a GP in Bristol, blogger for Onmedica, and team doctor for a rugby team, says to "tell the goitre girls to find a new hobby" because, according to Brett, managing thyroid disease is a breeze. "It's very simple - keep taking the tablets - if you do, you will have a normal blood test once a year - no GP consulatation [sic] required - end of story!"
Another doctor, Sadequr Rahman, says that patients only need to know whether their lab tests are normal or abnormal. Providing anything else "would be a huge waste of time." He also declares that when thyroid patients have symptoms, "most of the time, the cause is purely lack of exercise, poor diet, and dissatisfaction with home/work/family life. Attempting to treat these with a tablet is mostly a waste of time." Rahman also refers to thyroid patients struggling to lose weight as the "'I'm fat but it's my glands' brigade."
Can you believe it? I can. Because the failure of some NHS doctors to properly diagnose, treat and manage thyroid patients is just the tip of the iceberg of a system plagued with scandals and problems. An expose' currently running in the Guardian charts the rapid decline and unexpected death of a patient over six weeks, due to appalling lack of care at an NHS ward. The Economist in 2007 asked Can Gordon fix the National Health Service? The New England Journal of Medicine has an interesting article from 2006, The Troubled Transformation of Britain's National Health Service that looks at some of the recent concerns about the NHS as well.
As for the doctors who are expressing their contempt for thyroid patients at the OnMedica blog, patients are, understandably, frustrated. They've been sharing their thoughts at my Thyroid UK Forum, and in the the "Comments" area of my original post.
One response in particular is very interesting, as it comes from a thyroid patient who is a former practitioner:
I was particularly interested in this issue as a) I have an undiagnosed condition which has all the hallmarks of, I have only just read, Hashimoto's Encephalopathy type I (thus I'm researching thyroid) and b) I live in the area covered by Bristol Primary Care Trust - the PCT is responsible for health care and, most importantly, funding GPs, there is a PCT in every area.TALK BACK!!To write everything I have learnt in the last 4 years of struggle with my condition would need a book. But someone needs to blow the lid off the sheer incompetence, callousness, discrimination, cover-ups and lies perpetrated and/or engendered by this PCT and, I suspect most others.
I have been directly verbally abused by one or two GPs, ignored, mind-messed (read the f word here), refused treatment and tests, ganged up against by a cadre of good old bully boy medics, actual clinically evidenced results of disease tests have been dismissed/ignored, diagnosed with all sorts of erroneous conditions, and essentially just left to my own devices.
If my own devices include seeking second opinions or seeking private opinion then PCT staff automatically see this as 'proof' of psychosomatic behaviour. Any complaints are seen as troublemaking, being an awkward patient. Even straightforward, intelligent, informed questions are seen as a threat that could get you bumped from a doctor's surgery.
Essentially, there is no accountability - doctors in the UK are Gods, albeit as far as we patients are concerned of the tin variety and only in their own minds! Essentially, there is definitely a sexist bias here (unfortunately nature endowed me with two X chromosomes).
The irony of this is that before I got ill, I was on the other side of the equation (I have lost my practice, income, employees have lost jobs etc due to rank incompetence, ignorance, sexism, negligence from the NHS) . Now I don't tell medics that I used to be a consultant: they are far more interested in that than they are in my mysterious disease - which tells me a lot: 'are you one of us…?'
I won't list here the number of cases in my immediate vicinity where NHS patients of this PCT have been dealt with in such a way as to bring about death or serious disability.
But please be aware that the financially and ethically bankrupt NHS functions in practice like a monolithic Stalinesque arm of state control. No doubt there are many individuals within it who mean well, but if they don't toe the party line then they're soon ousted. There are just as many Dan Bretts around who do toe the line and aggressively act as prop forwards (a rugby position for US and other foreign readers) whose job it is to attack patients' claims of illness and refuse access to their goals: timely tests and treatment.
I've had more reasonable GPs tell me honestly that there is no chance of getting further tests because they might show up disease that needs expensive treatment. E.g. my current GP, a young woman just begining her career, is sticking her neck out and begging Bristol PCT for funding for a treatment that our American friends take for granted on a daily basis. Her application has to go before endless Soviet-style committees staffed by bureaucrats not clinicians. This young woman will only go so far though - her career could be affected if she shouts too loud.
As I said, there's a book in this! Several books… movies to be made, campaigns to be won. The major problem is that we all collude and persist in this fantasy that the NHS is an exemplar of social medicine, a world-leading healthcare provider. It isn't anymore. Like the British Empire, us Brits are having a hard time realising that it's gone and that what we are now is basically a 2nd or 3rd rate power (unless you're one of the elites) with increasingly 3rd world public services and a rising poverty index to match. The NHS will never come good again until it is completely dismantled and its increasing culture of corruption and casual negligence throughly dissipated.
What do you think about UK doctors attacking thyroid patients? Share your thoughts here in the comments, or at the UK forum.
Photo: clipart.com
This is the future for the U.S. The single payer system which people think will serve them well is going to be medicine by manipulation. You will get the thyroid tests they tell you to get and nothing else. You will be tagged non compliant and hysterical asking for more. Then you will be given an Rx for Prozac to control you. The drug of choice will be Synthroid because the government will buy it in bulk once they are involved. Actually, this verbal abuse of patients is already going on here, only most people don’t know it. Doctors don’t feel comfortable making fun of their patients publicly yet, but they will when they know it won’t matter. They do it at dinner parties, in coffee bars and to family members. The public would be shocked to know what doctors say and how much they laugh at them.
I think it’s irresponsible and ridiculous. And I thought the doctors I’ve seen were bad, but definitely mild compared to this. I was on YouTube the other day and seen a video of a young man with thyroid disease. He has been fighting the NHS and now has had to get help outside of the NHS. He said that he had been dismissed and no one wanted to treat for the symptoms. Just like a lot of docs here, they treat just on TSH. You can find this young man here http://thyroidguy.blogspot.com/ he has his youtube bar at the top and discusses his struggles.
This happens not only in UK and USA, but other countries as well… Think they are mostly following the same “research” and guidelines, making the wrong diagnoses, giving the wrong medicins, sticking to the lab test results that suits them. -the cheapest and easiest way.
There are a lot of evidence that prove that treatment with natural thyroid (pigs thyroid)works, which actually was the “drug” used with positive results when hypothyroidism was firstly diagnosed over a hundred years ago.
Unfortunately, this kind of evidence is ignored and hushed down, and most health care practitioners never hear about it. They go by the book–
Treatment of hypothyroidism will keep on failing, until the general opinion has changed, and the successful specialists on hypothyroidism and the patients are listened to. Unfortunatley economy play a big role in this mess, in addition to psycho and ignorant doctors who can’t think for themselves. Patients should have the obtion to be treated with natural thyroid, or pure T3, or other than T4/thyroxine, withouot a “permission” from the lab tests.
Have you ever thought that Britney Spears could be hypothyroid?? I’m sure about, she has all the symptoms, not only the “mental”, but also things like hair loss, hair loss on the outer eyebrows, slow reflexes etc.
I am an American and have lived in the UK for 8 years. I can NOT telll you how HORRIBLE the care is here! ANYONE who says that national health care is the way to go for America has NO idea of the filth and lack of care that would ensue!
My GP, an Indian import, has told me that the fact that I have had no thyroid gland for 27 years due to cancer should have NO effect on my health or weight, that all I have to do is exercise more and eat less – that it’s just down to balancing the calories you take in versus the calories you burn. I told him that he OBVIOUSLY has NO experience dealing with endocrine issues!
He blew me off and I continue to deal with ignorant, egotistical doctors who have no concern for their patients.
I go to the gym whenever I can, it’s my recreation, and I eat a very healthy diet. My healthy English husband says he can’t understand why I’m not thin because I don’t eat that much and I should be a lot thinner, but there you go.
I am currently the result of a ‘world class health care system’ which is ‘the envy of the entire world’ as I’ve heard the NHS and government leaders describe it. I laugh in scorn every time I hear that description because I have seen firsthand the lack of care and filth in the hospitals and doctor’s offices!
Pam
We already have that system in place. The “Stalinistic arm of bureaucratic control” is already in the hands of the insurance companies whose paper pushers determine the quality of your health care.
I have turned to Alternative Medicine for almost every one of my health needs, including Graves Disease, which was cured with a radical change in diet and NAET.
Those emperors with MDs have no clothes…and they know it.
I just had a horrible experience for the past 12 months. My HMO changed their brand of thyroid medicine twice this year and I went from .150 to .112 dosage. The first change was with a brand that was very potent, so I was hyper for 4 months. Then I was brought down to 112 at the same time the brand was changed again (they knew!). When I started to realize the dose was too low, I told my doctor. I explained the whole bioavailability issue with different brands and she totally dismissed me. She blamed my trouble with sleeping, memory loss, and finally severe depression on everything but the pill I was on. I couldn’t believe her lack of understanding of the science behind it. You don’t change variables like that. It’s not scientific. So I had to stay on the low dose for 6 months until the tests came back to show my hypothyroid state. I had to resist taking extra pills even though I knew it would help, even as my life fell apart. why is it that there’s a delayed response? and why couldn’t my doctor just try a little experiment, like I suggested, of putting me back up to a higher dose on the new brand fopr six weeks, just to see if that changed variable was the cause. She wouldn’t do it. My assumption is she didn’t like me, the patient, telling me how to do her job. So she made me suffer. And then when she relented and finally increased my dose, she had the gall of insulting me by saying she doubted that the “small change” had anything to do with my symptoms. Is it any wonder we’re angry? I’m 51 and have been on thyroid replacement for 25 years. I know my body and I know this disease and its effect on me. Why can’t some doctors respect this?
FINALLY!!! An intelligent writer on the issue of thyroid and Doctor insubordination. I’m watching everyday will always be ready to participate in the first Documentary and protest form on “Thyroid Disease” patient abuse RANK INCOMPETENCE.
This is why I hate doctors. I can tell they think I’m ignorant, and rather than educate me, they just channel me, send me on my way, without explaining anything. I don’t trust doctors, I’ve had a few come very close to killing some members of my family (they are only alive today because of the vigalence of other members of my family).I hate doctor’s raging egos and inability to listen, lack of communication skills, and I hate that they appear to be trying to prove how smart they are, rather than try to actually solve your problems. Yes, there is something wrong with our medical system, I believe it stems from the schools, not necisarily the government regulation. I actually don’t go to doctors if I can help it, I self medicate and try homeopathic medication before anything else, I don’t want to give doctors money, if I can help it.
This is to Pam…no one ever understands us. I do believe my thyroid issues contributed to my divorce because i was irritable, depressed, etc., and i knew something was wrong. took 4 yrs to diagnose and who knows, it might have started earlier. when i tried to tell my ex something was wrong he’d just say i was a hypochondriac. my current husband always says to me, when i say that i’m tired, gee, that’s a surprise. i told him just because i don’t LOOK sick, doesn’t mean there’s nothing going on inside me. i know how i feel. so is it any wonder why doctors are such arses in regards to thyroid. no one wants to bother enough, whether family, friends, doctors, to learn and understand.
as for me, i deal w kaiser. like most hmo’s they want to see you in 10 mins and move onto the next because they have a quota of patients to meet. therefore, you are not getting proper time and attention. i hate the doctors who look at me like i’m a hypochondriac, too. every time i discuss a symptom they give me that look. i’m so fed up. when will thyroid patients be truly heard?
teresa-they have a medical degree & we don’t, least that’s what they think. i think sometimes we are just as informed, if not more informed, as they in regards to thyroid disease. and yeah, who knows our bodies better than we do? i’ve kind of given up a bit here. i am contemplating armour as i can’t get regulated on synthetics…i’m sure that’ll go over well w kaiser.
Socialized medicine gotta love it. This is what the USA is heading for.
I’m an American Hashi’s patient living in Japan. I had to comment, because I hate to see “socialized medicine” get blamed for this kind of incompetence, callousness, and abuse of power.
First off, in Japan we pay around a couple hundred dollars a month (depending on income) into the national health insurance plan, then we pay 20-30% of the our medical bills. That may sound like a lot, but I have been stunned to come out of an appointment and have the receptionist say, “Five dollars, please.”
Until a few years ago, Hashi’s had a “special disease” status in this part of the country (due to a lot of natural iodine in the diet), which means I could not be charged more than $9 per month total for thyroid treatments and meds. Since I only visit the hospital every three months, that meant an average $3 per month. That program was cut, so now I pay an average of $15-20 per month to treat my thyroid, including meds, blood tests, etc.
Americans think a national health plan means you are stuck in hospital waiting rooms for hours on end. Wrong. I am usually in and out of the hospital in under an hour, including the time it takes to get my meds from a pharmacy located in the same building or next door to the hospital. I can choose to be treated at the hospital of my choice, by any doctor I like. The staff are helpful and compassionate, and the facilities are spotlessly clean.
My experience with doctors has been mixed. After years of psychiatric treatment, thanks to this website I realized I might have a thyroid problem. I went to a specialist and got a positive diagnosis and was treated with the Japanese version of Synthroid, which did not help me. The doctor did not want to hear it. He did nothing but belittle me and ultimately “fired” me. He was the old-school type who wants his patients to just shut up and smile. “Thank you so much, doctor, for normalizing my lab values, even though I still feel like ______.”
After that, while visiting friends on the opposite end of the country, I tried another thyroid specialist, a Dr. Tajiri. He has a website on which he translates into Japanese all the latest info from overseas (much of it coming from this website), plus he translates entire books on thyroid disease and makes them available for download. All in his limited free time. He was wonderful. He met with me for over an hour, assured me that I was not crazy, and he recommended the Japanese version of Armour, even before I had the chance to ask for it. After three months, my 20-year depression was nearly gone. He touched base with me by e-mail for a couple of years after that, even though distance made it unlikely that he would ever see me again.
Since then, I’ve stuck with GPs, and they have mostly been great. They really listen, and even if they are not totally convinced themselves, they will help me try different treatments, as long as they are sure no harm can be done. Apart from that first horrible specialist, I would say my relationship with my physicians has been one of partnership. I am mostly very satisfied.
So once again, please do not blame arrogance and incompetence on “socialized medicine.” Americans are doing themselves a huge disservice by doing so. It all depends on the implementation.
At any rate, you must not allow ANY system that limits which hospitals and doctors you can visit, because no matter where you live, there are going to be competent, compassionate physicians, and there are going to be arrogant blowhard quacks, and don’t you deserve a choice?
My first reaction was to jump in and voice the frustration that I have shared with the other writers. I was told that the only safe choice for me was radioiodine, after which I was forced to wait months before starting replacement (in the form of Synthroid, of course). I then struggled for over a year on the synthetic hormone, afraid that I’d never feel like myself again.
Rather than just voice my frustration with the system that worked against my efforts to make myself well again, I’d like to try to see the other side.
We, here, are the minority. That’s why we’re dubbed hypochondriacs and worse. Many people with hypothyroidism take Synthroid, Levoxyl (name the synthetic) – and they feel fine! I know someone who is thrilled with her Synthroid.
It seems that synthetic levothyroxine is effective for many patients. However, it seems equally obvious and true that it is not effective in a minority of patients.
Doctors see all of these patients. Most patients are satisfied with synthetic hormone replacement. Doctors see normal lab values matched with normal patients.
Then one of us walks through the door. Our lab values look the same as the other 10 thyroid patients they treated this week, but we are complaining about the way we feel. For some reason, doctors have been conditioned into suspecting the patient before suspecting the treatment.
Why would the treatment work for some people but not others? Well, actually it happens all the time with all sorts of treatments for all sorts of ailments. The problem is that no one has asked that question sincerely.
Why does levothyroxine relieve symptoms of hypothyroidism in some, but not all patients…even though it normalizes TSH in those patients?
We’d all be better off (patients and doctors, alike) if someone would research that question. We might learn things we never even suspected about hypothyroidism.
One barrier is that of course we, here, are frustrated, angry, afraid…depressed, stressed, anxious. We feel like no one is listening, and so we start to shout to be heard. We read every thyroid newsletter in our inboxes (don’t get me wrong; keep them coming). We research. We blog. We hope to make a difference, but we’re preaching to the choir.
From the doctors’ perspective, we are the fringe, and our shouts start to sound irrational, and that is easy to ignore.
I don’t know the answer. I am just starting to see the problem more clearly. I can only hope that for the sake of future generations, someone dedicates some research to actually treating thyroid disease, rather than just treating abnormal TSH.
(For now – for the record – I am satisfied with my doctor and the way I feel on Armour. My memory is back; I can keep up with conversations; I can find the energy to exercise; I enjoy the company of friends. Good luck to all the other thyroid sufferers out there.)
Thanks to the ‘former practioner’ for writing in and giving us the insider info on what we all suspect and now know happens in the minds of many docs in the NHS.
Closing rank and consigning patients to the ‘psychosomatizing’ dustbin is a lot easier than owning up to the fact one isn’t ‘God’ and that there are many things that one doesn’t in fact know.
Rahman and Brett could do with some retraining to say the least.
It’s a government experiment: the residents of the UK get sick from poor medical care and the government watches from their Big Brother (er, should I say Big British) cameras!
I thoroughly agree with the response from the thyroid patient who was a former practitioner,I am a retired state registered nurse now living in France for the last 17 years.In 2005 I developed multiple nodules and a retrosternal goiter which prevented me from swallowing properly and being unable to breath properly when laid down as it caused me to feel faint.
My then GP was an american with a brain the size of a walnut as he claimed there was nothing wrong with me for many weeks as i gre progressively worse and the goitre increased in size,noted many times by my hairdresser and our garage mechanic,who knew what it was!
After a long and stressful struggle the same GP sent me to a pretty useless private consultant who would not prescribe any thyroxine to take down the goitre but pushed me on to a general surgeon.He insisted and put me through a horrendous gastroscopy and the tube used was forced down my swollen throat,my husband meanwhile was locked out of the room.After this I was made to wait 6 weeks for an operation to remove the thyroid as they said it might be cancer,this,without having undergone any of the standard thyroid cancer tests.Meanwhile the goitre grew and I eventually ontained some nutri-thyroid from Nutri Imports via the advice of Dr Barry Durrant-Peatfield,who has helped numerous thyroid sufferes in the UK and elswhere.
Following the op.I was immediately told it was not cancer and put on 100ug of Levothyroxine.Once home and during the next 18 months I was repeatedly given reduced amounts of thyroxine by a second GP who blatently admitted he didnt understand andocrinology.I was without a thyroid gland,but my tests showed my tsh was zero,as it always had been right through my illness this being due to a high chemical toxicty in my system.Eventually I ordered Armour,I need to take a very high dose to compensate for the toxic levels in my body.I have yet to find a practitioner who really understands and isnt about to kill me.My present GP is a woman,a homeopath and acupuncturist along with the usual qualifications and is very understanding and as yet has not interfered with my self medication of Armour.It is not licensed in Franceso she cannot prescribe it but she realises and gives me credit for using it safely and sensibly,but to conclude ,it is not just Britain that gives out lousy treatment,it is the same in France and also in Italy I am led to believe.
I thought the Irish Health system was bad untilIsaw the U.K. System – which I thought was bad until I saw the U.S. system.
The larger body of consultants here tend to have the same arrogant egotistical attitude – with some exceptions. MY gp (actually the company GP) recognised my thyroid problem after numerous family doctors has me on so many antibiotics that I must have rattled and were puzzled over my “weak immune system”.
However, finally under private healthcare I had the good fortune to find a registrar who was genuinely interested in thyroid medecine and had, (as my partner calls it) grown a set of b**ls. He wasn’t afraid to stick his neck out, diagnosed my poor conversion mechansim, recognise that T3 was not stable enough to put me on and give me a try with 400mg of thyroxine. YES, that IS 400mg – whch changed to 400/500 alternate in Summer. Thanks to his “radical” i.e. normal approach to thyroid medicine that I feel better today than I did at 19.
Personally, I think the US is just as bad as the UK on the thyroid issue. It is thanks to Mary and a few independent doctors that we have more choices here. I use the Kaiser Permanente HMO in Southern California and have been kicked out of two endocrinologists’ offices and threatened, just for asking for additonal tests other than the TSH. My GP, who is terrific and willing to prescribe armour, doesn’t know of another endo in the Kaiser system with an open mind, so I see a doctor outside of the system and pay out of pocket. Honestly, I self prescribe according to information I have gleaned from the internet and according to my FreeT3 abd FreeT4 scores, as well as how I feel.
I was diagnoised with hypothyroidism is 1993. I went to a regular family Dr, and I was told by her, “you just ned to get serious about your eating!” I didnt have the nerve to tell her I was already bulimic. I then went to a diet Dr. and he took my blood and BINGO there it was! Hypothyroidism I was put on 150 micograms and I lost 15 pounds the first month. I can’t take the generic, no matter what anyone says, their may be just a slight difference, but just that slight difference makes a big difference in me. I can feel it. It is a matter of life or death for me. TRICARE and I went round and round for years. I always paid for Brand until one day on the DRUG LIST that the Syracuse VA will not substitute SYNTHROID!!!!!!! I have always paid for brand. I think the governament owes me some money! DEbbie Hibbs
To the lady who had her thyroid tablets changed the doctor or pharmacist should have the strength of the medicine check every so often even if your on the same brand.
I guess a sample should be sent to a lab, if the docs not talking to you, you best tell the pharmacist..
I had very high TSH test from Red Apple Clinic
it was way off scale. The hospital blood test was only a high normal.. Yet the docs prefer their blood tests. They usually rubbish the saliva; whereas they really should be looking at salvia, blood and urine. Cause its not just the thyroid; but the liver and the kidney function they need to be looking at…
Even multi-endocrine problems. Some alternative practitioner prescribe a small amount of steroid to help support the adrenal
glands…. As most endocrinologists and other consultants don`t come with a *star* rating as to what they might know.
I am trying to get another endocrine problem officially label for; but despite 3x`s 24 hour urines and a text book explanation, each doctor refuses to take that into consideration. They ignore that test even though it was done in a NHS hospital in preference too testing me; for Cushing`s then telling me, I have not got that.. Then they don`t want to treat me for the original condition.. I did get some treatment through a private GP for a few years; still the NHS took no notice… I caught Lyme disease a few years ago.. As I previously came off the treatment my immune systems low: I had a few weeks supply left in my cupboard and started taking them again it improved my immune system.. But my GP has refused to prescribe or read the NHS report nor a private lab test I had done in July 08.. I`ve been to a consultant, who as I handed my results say she knows nothing about steroid problems. Even though the hospital has a steroid lab..
Its the same as for the Lyme Disease Southampton do tests; but there is no consultant attached to the hospital. Any other hospital within the NHS does not really have an expert on the subject either.
So called Lyme Doctors have been told off, for not doing a clinical picture (as what`s happening with the thyroid) With the emphasis on blood tests alone, rather than clinical evidence. There`s over 200 types of Lyme Disease and Southampton only test for sheep or occasionally bird.
The doctors seem to be caught up in the propergander.. With the government on one side telling them not to rock the boat.
We, they the government decide how to manipulate the information..
Too much fat in your blood vessels:
Too much salt in your diet.
Neither of these has anything in most people eating too much.. Its largely to do with genetics, and deficiencies especially magnesium, calcium.. Putting fats and salt out of solution.
Most doctors know little about nutrition even the way drugs work..
The biochemist knows more than the doctor.
But the biochemist is told not to say anything.
Some doctors now think they can use electromagnetic healing; even though it was band by the FDA.. Any drug or chemical can be made electronically, its all hidden behind the mobile phone controversy.
Would you like to be healed with a mobile phone without your permission?
Many homeopaths now use this technology and some GP`s. Misold as low level radiation .
http://www.aquatechnology.net/vibrational.html
Tell the PCT and the Healthcare Commission your doctors giving you inappropriate treatment
without your permission. The system does not take the seriousness into hand.
The doctors close rank and lie to their colleagues:
In 2000 the BMA had a vote of no confedence in the GMC being run by mason doctors.
Dr Shipman was said to be as a result of the mason culture.
This is in part why doctors don`t learn.
As in the masons the lower ranks are not allowed to contradict the Master doctor or
Mason….. Even if he`s wrong they will get punished.
I`ve been punished several times they even used the police on me; which is a typical mason
tick… They have no respect for those outside the mason group, we are all cannon foder.
They can not change things till they reach the top.. Once they are at the top
they may not wish to change anything..
With up to 80% male doctors, senior police, local government and the MoD all
beloning to their gentlemen’s clubs.. Where does it leave the rest of us?
We are nothing!
I wonder if there is any real help for most of us out there. They try to stop us even if we are informed helping ourselves. The nanny
state takes over; the ill informed doctor is still left in charge, back up by the system that takes more note of the uninformed doctor than the informed patient.
http://www.legalaffairs.org/issues/May-June-2003/story_mencimer_mayjun03.msp
I have Hasimotos thyroiditis and it is a horrible disease. I finally have it under control after getting irradiated with 5 radioactive iodine doses. I ended up with carcinoma of the thyroid ( cancer) and had to have my entire thyroid removed. Now I take daily doses of synthroid and feel and look great. I have blood tests done every 6 months to monitor dosage. I have a competent PA ( Physicians assist) and cannot complain. I live in Washington State USA currently.
Hope all you sufferers argue loudly and keep demanding services. Have your significant others advocate for you that is best if you are experiencing all the horrible sideeffects of the disease.
my husband was diagnosed last year with H.E it has been a year of hell. Thankgod we live in canada he has gotten the best of care.
Although I had almost every single symptom and a family history of Hypothyroidism my doctors wouldn’t treat me until I reached ‘10′ on their stupid scale. I put on 3 stone, had symptoms too numerous to mention and thought I was going crazy! On the 2nd September 2008, I final reached this goal, then and only them did she Say “You will be glad to know we can treat you now” I was angry, disgusted and seething but took my T4 gladly at first, they made me very ill I took them for seven months, until I’d really had enough of all the debilitating symptoms.
Still gaining weight and very few if any symptoms less, I obtained Armour off the internet, what wonderful stuff!
I can feel me coming back. How very strange that the honoured endocrinologist said I would have a placebo effect. I never felt well not even for one day on the other stuff. It’s great but my useless doctors all 5 of them say they will not test my bloods if I continue on this dangerous route, only things dangerous I can see are staying on synthetic rubbish that does nothing but make you feel worse and off course most dangerous of all having such unhelpful doctors.
I have more energy and I am even starting to slowly lose a few pounds. But I am still worried about all the people out there that still think they are just doomed.
I have so many questions. I am truly mystified at why Doctors seem to delight in kicking patients while they’re down!
Hello everyone,
Thank you so much for your comments and this wonderful article!
I am a French national working and living in the UK (ten years), about to get married to a lovely British man.
I registered at a practise only four years ago when i started to experience many symptoms consistent with hypothyroidism (running in my family).
I have been shocked by the sheer LACK of competence, credibility and empathy of the NHS staff. What a JOKE to call the NHS a top health care! Coming from a country where medical staff treat you humanely and with such care makes my experience with the NHS such a horrendous one.
I, before, always trusted the decision of my gp and other specialists. That is completely gone. To such an extent that I have decided not to give birth to my children in an NHS hospital/or be followed by a NHS gp.
I have had to be very assertive and ask/write letters just to get a copy of my tests, including blood tests, which is -in France for instance- a given.
I do understand why people are so frustrated and getting angry.
COMPLAIN (writing letters, as they are hard to ignore, to your practise, MPs, Society for Endocrinology,…), ASK for your tests to be sent or given to you and EDUCATE YOURSELF to challenge medical practise.
I have been told by a trusted source that the informed patient (many hours spent on the archives of the BMJ, anyone?!) is on the rise. GPs are not GODS!
Thank you for this web and to all the contributers. I know I am not alone and that I am perfectly sane!
Elsa