# Frustrated with doctors!!!!



## 21857 (Aug 15, 2006)

Hey everyone!!On friday I had to take yet another day off work, after a bad episode, and I went to the doctors and FINALLY found one that understands how horrible IBS is!!I have seen several doctors since having been diagnosed with IBS, and they all have been really unhelpful, basically saying there is nothing you can really do for IBS, except change your diet and taking imoduim, and when I have asked for a specialist referal, they have said it will be a waste of my time and money!!! I havent found imoduim to help much, it makes me constipated or just makes me have bad pains and then come out as D anyway. So I have been so frustrated. I even saw a doctor who straight out said to me, 'I dont know anything about IBS'. Finally I found a good doctor who understands how hard it is to deal with IBS most the time, he was shocked by what the other doctors had said and straight away gave me a referal to a specialist!!He even said there are new meds especially for IBS D (does anyone know anything about these????) I am not saying doctors dont do a great job cos most of them do, but has anyone had really frustrating experiences with their doctors?


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## 14448 (Jun 14, 2006)

Zoe, congratulations on finding a good doc!







Wish I could find one. I've seen at least 8 different GPs over the last few years and all of them have said the same thing: that IBS is a v.common, minor condition that just has to be put up with. They imply that I'm making a big fuss about nothing, and won't prescribe stuff unless I do my own research and bring them the name of the drug! I even had to do this to get Buscopan, a mild, widely-used antispasmodic. I've never been offered tests, only blood tests which I had to fight to get, and only after 6 years of suffering. It should be a rule that IBS is only diagnosed when other things like IBD and crohns are ruled out. GPs attitudes really make me angry. They are so dismissive about IBS, yet it must be one of the most painful, distressing and exhausting medical conditions there is.


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## masterplan (Aug 6, 2006)

I have to say that, up until my last visit, my doctor was useless. I think you just have to find a way to make them understand what it's doing to you. I can't remember exactly what it was that I said, but my doctor's manner and apparent level of concern changed instantly.This may be a stupid idea: But perhaps consider writing down some notes on how it makes you feel and showing them to your doctor?


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## 21857 (Aug 15, 2006)

Dont doctors ever get sick to?!?!?!It seems like they are so out of touch with the whole idea of being sick huh? Maybe if they read our posts on these bulletins they would get the idea!! Hope u both find an understanding doctor soon!!


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## 20343 (Sep 18, 2006)

I am right there with you guys! I have had five dr. appointments just this month and they all look at me like i'm insane. they make me feel like i'm just trying to look "perfect" because i have a lot of swelling in my stomach from the ibs. i have yet to find a good dr. who understands.


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## 21857 (Aug 15, 2006)

I think the problem may be that doctors arent told enough about it, like they seem to know only really basic knowledge of ibs!!Thats why i am really looking forward to my nexy gastroentrologist appointment!! haha, how sad is my life?


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## 14448 (Jun 14, 2006)

I have a GP appointment tomorrow. I never know which tactic is best- if I go in armed with the name of the drug I want, she looks at me like I'm an annoying person who researches on the net then prescribes it for myself. Yet last time, when I just told her my symptoms, the first thing she said was 'What do you hope to get out of this visit?' !I'd feel so much better if she just took an _interest_in helping me, instead of shrugging me off like I'm a hypochondriac.Doctors need to be made aware of the fact that IBS is a severly painful, life-wreaking, infuriating chronic illness, not just mild digestive discomfort like they imply. It's funny how no GPs seem to have it themselves!


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## masterplan (Aug 6, 2006)

I think you should try to focus on what IBS is doing to your life, then elaborate on the exact symptoms and what you've read about medication. I think that's the key to this. It's easy to tell people you have IBS but until they really think about it they don't understand what it does to you.


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## 14488 (Oct 26, 2006)

Frustrated, ha! Understatement. I have a degenerative disc disease in my back. I'm 21 and it I started to complain about back spasms when I was 15. They didn't do MRI's till I was 20. For the last 4 years I have been suffering with abdominal pain so bad that I lie on the bathroom floor for hours just sweating until I have D. I have had every test run and not once have they mentioned IBS. My cousin is a nurse and she has it. She is the one who told me that I have all the symptoms. I just got back from my GP and she just shrugged it off and asked how I was sleeping. I'm not I told her. So she will give me sleeping pills but not even try to find out if I have IBS. No one lives near Orlando Fl do they because I need a new doctor yet again.


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## 16528 (Nov 28, 2006)

Hun! I know just how you feel!I have been trying to get diagnosed since i was 13 and got diagnosed when I was 18. Even when im 22 and go to the doctors now he just goes "uh huh...uh hum hmmm" and thats about it.


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## 19899 (Nov 29, 2006)

funny to hear this because i had the exact same issues for years. seven generals and five gastro's later all i had gotten out of all those visits was 'you have IBS. deal with it. please pay the nurse on your way out'. even the specialists had nothing for me.so i changed my diet, changed my lifestyle, still had the problems and went back. got the same lines. but finally i found a generalist who was actually interested in helping me figure it out after four years. we sat down and went over a diet, organized problem foods, he put me on celexa starting at small doses and moving up slowly, and got me in touch with a bunch of nutritionists and other people to help me out.moral of the story? just keep at it. there are doctors out there willing to help you if you can find a good one. it's a frustrating process though, so many doctors who really don't seem to care, but once you find a good one who really is interested in helping you solve the problem it helps a lot making headway against all the problems and symptoms.


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## Guest (Dec 1, 2006)

I posted this in the general forum, but this thread is so dead on I had to post it here too!This morning I had my first specialist appointment (which I've been waiting for 3 months for) and it was so stressful that I've felt like #### for the rest of the day. The doctor was a total a**hole. I don't know where people get off treating others like that.It started off badly, when I had to wait almost 40 mins to see the guy, even though there was nobody else in with him. Repeatedly during my recount of my history and condition, he kept stopping he asked me to repeat things I had said and asked me to clarify things, and asked me questions I didn't understand. When I couldn't give him the answers he wanted, he lectured me several times on how I wasn't using the right words, and how I wasn't being clear enough. But it wasn't just that, it was the WAY he talked to me, treating me like a child, and an idiot, like I was intentionally trying to not tell him everything about my problems.He did this several times, and would berate me and then just stare at me, waiting for me to say whatever it was that he was waiting for, and then lecturing me some more. Then towards the end, he started lecturing me about how he was trying to improve my quality of life, and that I needed to understand that is what he is doing, and basically acting like I was somehow trying to stop him from doing his job right.Then at the end, when he recommended I get a colonoscopy, I asked him a couple questions about the procedure, and what risks there are, as well as what it might tell him. Boy, that really set him off! He sure didn't want me asking any questions. And then he said he wanted to do some blood tests, and when I suggested that I might have very recent results on many tests (I'm seemingly always having blood tests done) if he wanted them, so I wouldn't have to have the same tests done, he got it in his head that I was refusing to have any blood tests done.ARGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!I am never going back there. Between him, and his extremely rude receptionist, I don't know how they stay in business. It was aweful, and I left the building in tears.Why are these people in this line of work if they are going to be so rude to their patients?! Seriously.And now I feel ill from the stress and having to take gravol to make it home because the whole thing made me feel so terrible. And my day is ruined, and I have to spend the evening by myself at home instead of at a meeting downtown with my boyfriend and some other computery types.Blah.It's so discouraging isn't it!


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## 21716 (Dec 7, 2006)

hello i live nr bude in cornwall and the doctors there is the only one for miles and my gp just got replaced by a 20 something fresh out of medschool, he just sits there with his feet on the desk on the phone for about 10 minutes out of the 15 i was there. I was soo pissed off, i had to wait a week to get the apointment and take an afternoon off college just for a referal letter to a specialist i already know because he treats my sister (collitus), i understand doctor problems dam them


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## 16574 (Dec 31, 2006)

Hi everyone,Im new to this site but not new to IBS. I feel like Im a science experiment to my doctors. Im sick of getting tests done, and my blood taken, and put on medications that dont work. Im sick of it. Im on Dicyclomine which is a intestional relaxer, they put me on antidepresants, they tell me to change my diet (which of course does nothing, heck they put me on birth control thinking hormons may make a difference. I always tell them, It does not matter if I eat healthy or unhealthy or even eat at all I will get sick. Ive tried hearbal supplements, thats a joke to me. Ive lost like 10 pounds in like 2 months. Sorry, I just needed to vent to others that feel my pain and frustration.


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## 15189 (Sep 9, 2006)

seeing as how im going to be a doctor and i have IBS-D, you can all come to me for advice!lol(not that i know anything yet!)


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## 22831 (Jan 1, 2007)

From my past experiences with doctors you pretty much have to go in and put on an act. If you think something other then IBS is what you have then throw in a few fake symptons in order to force your doctor to do further testing. It's BS that a doctor would tell you that nothing is wrong and it's only IBS before doing the full range of tests first.


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## 13594 (May 14, 2006)

> quote:Originally posted by PeaceMF:seeing as how im going to be a doctor and i have IBS-D, you can all come to me for advice!lol(not that i know anything yet!)


Well by the time your a Doctor; Ill be a Pharmacist. We could make a good team lol







.On the general point; you do seem to have to go armed with info when you see your doc to get anything done. Many IBS sufferers would be in a worse state if they didn't get advice from groups like this. Which is why sometimes you need to practically milk a prescription out of the Doc. I frequently have to push to get the meds I know I need.You should hear hospital pharmacists; they will openly speak their mind about some of the docs no matter how profane their answer is. Comes from years of stopping bad docs harming or killing patients through bad prescribing.Hopefully we will get a generation of new docs soon who are more dedicated to the patients and not the pay check.


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## Nikki (Jul 11, 2000)

And I'll be a nurse!


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## 15748 (Jun 27, 2006)

Ohhhh!!! Iâ€™m not the only one who finds those rotten apples!!! I donâ€™t feel so alone anymore lol. Wow ok in August of 2005 I started to have major GI issues. August I was hospitalized only once for continuous vomiting, and started seeing my first GI doc. He said â€œyou have gastroparesisâ€ so on the reglan I went! (Reglan very bad drug for prolonged use but he didnâ€™t have a better idea â€“ the safer drug isnâ€™t USDA approved) in September I did ok, November wasnâ€™t so hot because he wanted to do a few barium studies of my small intestine â€“ well it got STUCK! No fun and very painful so back into the hospital I went. The doc apologized, and by December I could not eat any solids â€“ on the bad days only tea and water and on the good days I could lick chips but I could not eat solid food. Ok so when this all started I was 147 pounds â€“ a bit on the unhealthy side (said the docs) and now I was 137. No biggie 10 pounds. At the end of December the doc was at his wits end and ordered a capsule endoscope done, but kept me near the hospital just in case the pill got stuck and I had to be rushed into surgery. In retrospect I canâ€™t help think that I am so lucky because I could feel it get stuck a few times and wow scary thought. The films from it showed irritation and swelling but no ulceration â€“ he was at a loss so in January he said that I needed an exploratory because he had no idea what was wrong and that I had to find my own surgeon. Well whoâ€™s going to listen to a 20 yr old girl claiming she needs an exploratory â€“ no one did. Finally I got an appointment with a surgeon at a clinic, who said he would not cut me open because I was so young and he was sure that it was probably something simple and there was no need to scar a young person. By now it was February and I had been hospitalized 3 more times with severe pain and I was desperate because I was so very hungry and I hurt a lot â€“ down to 130. Therefore he sent me off to a bariatric doctor who apparently has seen it all. He saw me and said the same thing. Surgery is way to drastic â€“ I told him I wasnâ€™t getting better and I needed this dealt with now â€“ not wait a while and then see where I end up. He smiled and said I was too gun ho for surgery, the GIâ€™s needed to find out what was wrong first. He sent me to another GI doc. This doc came in and said â€œsweetie I have the answer to all your problems! The medication your on (mobic â€“ I take it once a month) is causing all this and some one should have figured this out earlier â€“ seeesh if you take mobic once a day all the time of course this is going to happen!â€ Sighs another idiot â€“ figured out that I donâ€™t take it all the time and said â€œwell you need FIBER! I even give my own family fiber. Fiber will definitely help you.â€ Bad idea. Fiber balled inside and got stuck â€“ back into the Emergency room. I gave up and didnâ€™t see him again. March I was twice hospitalized with a blockage where I met my fourth GI doc. He said he could solve everything, just let him run some tests take some X rays. Well my intestine untwisted and I had an upper endoscope done, everything was normal he sent me home with his office number and said to call him immediately the next day â€“ he wanted to see me right way. Yay!! Were finally getting some where right? I called and the next appointment they had for me was a month from that day. I explained the situation to the sectary and she said he never allows ppl to move appointments. By now I was 120 and sicker than ever. I kept calling kept asking if there were any cancellations and finally there was one! I went in where he sat me down and proceeded to tell me that I was fine! And my weight loss was good. I had too much anyways and I should be happy that now I look slim. I left his office in shock. Total shock. April was the crÃ¨me de la crÃ¨me. After a pb&j first real food in the longest time â€“ less than 3 hrs later I was sicker than a dog and I went to see the doc cuz I thought I had a stomach bug â€“ wrong I had a huge bulge and a very ridged abdominal wall. Straight to the ER I went â€“ they concluded it was a twisted intestine. I saw 2 surgeons â€“ both who continuously checked on me for my 5 day stay - even after my intestine had untwisted. They both said something was very wrong â€“ that I needed to have surgery especially after the history they read on me. They were just waiting for the new GI guy (4th one now) to give the go ahead. This GI guy said no no sheâ€™s too young for that lets wait and see. Oh boy I thought â€“ Iâ€™ve heard this one before. The 4th GI doc was really nice though but I didnâ€™t expect anything from him. The GI doc told me to eat ordered me a huge dinner steak â€“ desert stuff I hadnâ€™t seen for so long. I refused to eat â€“ I asked him if he thought I was crazy why we couldnâ€™t just do the surgery. He replied he would give the green light after an attack was triggered and to eat. So I ate some odds and ends â€“ felt horrible terrible in fact but no attack strong enough for him to warrant the operation. I was discharged and sent home. Amazingly enough this doc knew the fist and the third GI guys I saw â€“ he worked with them, this time when I called the office to make an appointment they fit me in â€“ apparently he allows his schedule to be re-arranged. By this time I was 106 pounds- the GI flat out told me he didnâ€™t know what was wrong, and that I did need to see a surgeon, this time he called the surgeons office and had an emergency appointment scheduled. The surgeon asked me a few questions, how this all started and such. After listening, he told me that he had a young daughter about my age and that he wouldnâ€™t want to cut me open. He proceeded to tell me though my quality of life wasnâ€™t good and that it needed to be done. He wanted to know what was going on first because he had a feeling it was not going to be an â€˜easyâ€™ surgery. We made an appointment for another consultation when the test results were back. He called the GI docs office and asked them to run a few tests and in return they questioned him about running them. To which he started yelling that they had waited too long to find a solution and if they couldnâ€™t step up to the plate then he would send me some where else that could. (the door was open when he made this phone call and wow he was very mad) So I went into the GI office to get the scripâ€™s all the while the 4th GI kept saying I donâ€™t know why he would run these they arenâ€™t the cause. Tests results come back and I have an 84% chance of having Crohnâ€™s Disease. The GI doc still stands by â€œI donâ€™t present the usual symptomsâ€ but treats me anyways. I felt better after the 5 day of being on pentasa! And here I am now. I have been through the ringer with those docs and wow â€“ its no fun but Iâ€™ve found you canâ€™t let them push you around and you need to research on everything. Sadly I donâ€™t trust docs anymore so I research things and take the print outs in and say WHY lol and the 4th GI doc always humor me. Itâ€™s sad that no one listens â€“ the GI doc I see now still tends to tune me out at times. Currently I have to find a new doc because well the GI doc that Iâ€™ve seen for so long (the 4th one) has made me feel extremely uncomfortable, and I donâ€™t feel ok going back to him. Sighs just when you think youâ€™ve found a keeper!Good luck!Moine Wow that was long!!! So sorry lol


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## 18438 (Dec 14, 2006)

I dont understand doctors who are so rude and inconsiderate, did they really go to school for like 10 years just for the money or did they lose their sense of compassion somewhere along the way? It makes no sense to me. Ive also had my fair share of stupid doctors, from the one who told me having the stomach flu for 2-3 weeks was alright, even though I couldnt eat anything at all (I thought I was going to die! I could barely keep down water the first week)to the last who immediatly jumped to giving me SSRIs without taking a family history (bipolar runs in my family, and even though I dont have it, yeesh, imagine if I did and didnt know it). Then there is the doctor who filled in while my normal GP was on maternity..she was dumb as a doornail.. I had a bartholins abcess and even though I had seen her once before about it she asked if it was in my neck! (for those who dont know its in a little bit more of a tender area if you know what I mean... hehe)Thankfully though the last few doctors Ive seen for the IBS have been ok though quick to prescribe me medication, and not so quick to tell me any other info! but at least they are sympathetic.*hugs* for you all who have had to deal with jerk doctors, and just remember you dont have to put up with them! If they are being rude to you in your appt I wouldnt hesitate one bit to let them know it.


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