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Getting consultants to listen

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
Replies
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
www.emmawestcounselling.co.uk
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!
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
www.emmawestcounselling.co.uk