Getting consultants to listen

cripps

morning everyone 👋,  I’ve got a problem!  Next week I’ve got an appointment with my consultants again about the awful pain I’m going through every day but the real problem is is getting them to  listen to me. Ever day my stomach is rolling around giving me the most awful pain I’ve ever come across, the pain doesn’t stop, all night and all day the discomfort of making my life miserable. I’ve spoken to my doctors and I’ve spoken to my consultants before but after a whole year of struggling with eating and every day life I’m no nearest to getting my problem sorted out. I just don’t know what else to do, i can’t get anyone to do anything about it, if anyone has any ideas on how to go about getting the consultants to listen to me then that would be cool, NC

rmriph

Hi I am no doctor but sounds like something like diverticulitis request  the consultant that you would like a ultrasound scan or mri scan because something is going on and is affecting you life.G/L

EmmaB

Hi @cripps

In my experience consultants tend to do nothing when they don't really know either what to do or what they are doing!  

The logical thing would be to check for any physical cause for your symptoms and then if no physical cause can be found to explore whether the symptoms are a physical manifestation of a psychological 'pain' - to be clear this isn't saying that the symptoms/pain aren't real but that they could have a psychological origin in which case you could benefit from specialist counselling... but they need to eliminate a physical cause first...

Perhaps you could go pretending you are knowledgeable e.g. "I was wondering doctor whether it could be diverticulitis or XX or YY?" or you could spell it out "I've had these symptoms for a year now, I'm struggling to eat and it is impacting on my life - what do you think it is?"  If they say there is no physical cause then ask them for a specialist counselling referral....

Good luck.

Emma

cripps

Thank you, i understand what you’re saying so if it comes to it I’m going to mention 1 or 2 things to them and see how we get on, not holding my breath on it. NC

cripps

I would like to say it’s psychological but when there’s sickness and blood involved then there’s something clearly wrong somewhere. It’s making me very tiered and weak .

Pippa_Alumni

Hi @cripps, I hope your appointment next week goes as well as possible.

This is only from my own personal experience, but I've found making a bullet point list of things you want to say/ things you want them to acknowledge can be really helpful. Perhaps even keeping a diary-like recording of your pain throughout the day could be useful!

cripps

Thank you I’ll start making a list from today and hand it to them to read when I see them. Sometimes i think it’s just me getting worried over nothing but i can’t do this day in day out anymore. NC 

EmmaB

@cripps

Pippa's list idea is a great one.  The other thing that springs to mind is - is there anyone you can take with you?  

I say this because I'm very confident in everyday life but when I go to consultant appointments about me I tend to just roll over and accept what the 'mighty' consultant says, I have no idea why I am like this and should analyse it some day...

So I find this all changes if I take my husband with me as he is more assertive and won't be fobbed off!

I hope you can think of someone who can help you 'fight' your corner...

Best wishes.

Emma  

cripps

Good idea but unfortunately there’s only me, I’ll just stand up for myself this time and not get fobbed off because I need this sorting out soon as. NC