Mary Shomon on her thyroid website thyroid.about.com wrote an article asking for people to write in with the comments that their doctors have made, that infuriated them the most.
I have had a few moments of my own when suffering with thyroid problems. One that easily comes to mind was when I was complaining about how my weight had gone up by about 5kg (which is a lot on a 5 foot nothing frame), whilst I was still eating very little and exercising at least two hours every day.
Alongside a myriad of other symptoms, I knew this was a sign that I was hypothyroid – but my doctor assured me that I must have been too thin before and maybe I should just get used to my new weight as that was obviously where I was meant to be!! Needless to say I wasn’t too impressed…
You can read what other patients have had to say and have a laugh at the pure ignorance of many doctors out there, although it isn’t really a laughing matter at all…
Here’s Leslie, whose horrible menstrual cramps were so bad that she describes them as “some strange monthly endurance tests.” (Having suffered this symptom and being in such immense pain at times that pethidine didn’t even relieve it – I can empathise with this one – Leisa)
Says Leslie:
“This doctor looked at me, told me she would not prescribe any pain medicine for cramps. She went on to tell me that lots of women have cramps, so it’s normal. The pain you feel is ALL IN YOUR HEAD and if you wanted to, you could control the pain with a positive attitude. Right then and there… a future patient advocate was born. I asked, if my cramps are all in my head, why do I have pain right here (pointing to my uterus) and bleed so heavily? She repeated, lots of women have endured pain worse than yours for millions of years. Gee, that’s reassuring…So when someone tells me that I’ve brought something on myself, psychologically, I look at all points of view: am I really crazy or are these childbirth-like cramps as bad as I think they are?”
Leisa
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