Why Your Doctor Thinks I'm Crazy: Part 2

Currently he is treated by a family practitioner, who keeps much better tabs on his progress and actually cares about clinical symptoms as well as lab values. He is now 17, is 6'1" tall, normal weight, and is doing reasonably well in school.

Thanks for listening. Please tell people to have their CHILDREN tested! I seriously doubt he is the lone child with a non-functioning thyroid.

Nancy
[br FOUNDATIONS FULL OF DOCTORS

I'm not willing to sit by and let foundations full of doctors be the voice of thyroid disease in this country. They aren't the sick ones who will deal with this disease for the rest of their lives. They're the ones making jokes about the people whom they are suppose to be helping. Since when does "do no harm" not include emotional harm?

Dryad

THEY SHOULD LEAVE THE COMEDY TO THE COMEDIANS

I have been to the doctor you are describing. Who ignores my list of complaints, offered a million alternatives it could be and then refused to treat any of them. Your TSH is normal, it was over 3, see you next year. It was at that point that I got out of that unhealthy relationship. Thanks to your website I was able to find a doctor who listens to me and treats me as a patient. (my TSH is lower than he would but I feel great there so he leaves it there). I can't believe in this day and age that the doctors, who are supposedly specialists, would actually say things like that. They should leave the comedy to the comedians and the specializing to people who actually make their patients feel special by helping them.

I AM PROUD TO BE A PETIT PAPIER PATIENT

Mary mentions that doctors have a name for women patients who show up with notes, "petit papier" women (French for "little papers"). I have heard the term before. I wonder if they have a similar pet name for men who show up informed or with written questions? Oh, probably they call them "assertive and focused." Right.

I am proud to be a "petit papier" patient (I have a 3 ring binder that goes with me to the doc's office) but I suffer for it every time I arrive at a doctor's office prepared to discuss my situation.

Recently, the first words out of my brand new internist's mouth were not "hello, how are you feeling?" or "hello, I'm Doctor X" but rather "Oh, don't tell me that's your medical history."

I put the binder on the floor; and, as it turned out much of the info the doctor asked for during the consult, including reports on MRIs, CT scans, etc., was IN that binder. We didn't have to go searching for it or wait for someone to mail it, it was right there for his review. He didn't thank me for that bit of organization that made his consult run so smoothly.

You know what I wanted to do with that binder on my way out, don't you?

I often wonder why a physician would prefer an unprepared patient who stumbles through a laundry list of symptoms and then bursts into tears of frustration at a physician's inept questions? Maybe because the treatment for such a person is *simple* and doesn't require much thought ... an antidepressant, and a pat on the back if the doc is feeling remotely compassionate (usually it's just the scrip).

Dottye

THEY CALL US CRAZY?

RIGHT ON, MARY! YOU GO, SISTER!

If they call us crazy, it's only because they would rather discredit us than consider the option that maybe, MAYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYBE, we, the normal citizen, the un-doctors, the truly ill and wanting to feel better - MIGHT have important information in our own health care.

Kymba

A SAD COMMENTARY

...It is a sad commentary on the medical profession that they would joke about such a debilitating disease, and the patients who are trying to understand what's going on in their bodies and trying to improve their health by learning about their illness. It's disgraceful that a doctor would take that attitude.

Karentha

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