Hi everyone, well I have just had the week from hell. Started off last Monday with a really upsetting nuero vist. My nuero is considered one of the top 3 in Ireland a brilliant diagnostician but should never be allowed near patients. I will say that after being misdiagnosed for over 10 years he had all my tests completed and a diagnosis in five months so for that I am very grateful.
My vist was a disaster I cannot lif my legs when they are outstretched while I am in a sitting position, but I can if I am lying flat or sitting on the edge of a bed with my legs dangling. According to my nuero this is impossible the flexor muscle either works or it doesn’t. According to him its anxiety that is stopping this movement when I question this he started shouting at me and said he is rarely wrong and the fact I got upset proves that I am suffering from anxiety.
i feel that maybe I have an impingement in my lower back, but this was rubbished and I left with a prescription for anti depressants that I didn’t want. I cried for two days with anger and upset, he treated me appallingly and I let him.
fast forward two days and on Friday I had awful chest pain, it felt like a nail was been driven from my back through to my chest with pain radiating up my shoulder and up into my jaw. I took all the usual melds and more and nothing touched it. The pain was so bad I thought I was dying. Saturday morning my husband insisted on bringing me to a&e as he was extremely worried so I went, I was seen to straight away and admitted shortly afterwards. All tests came back clear and my heart is perfect, it is either a problem with my upper back or the Ms hug according to the cardiologist who was lovely, he ran lots of tests even after he realised it wasn’t my heart.
He said he was running extra tests just to reassure me in case the pain came back that it was not heart related. That way I could deal with the pain and not panic. While I was there he asked me was I under any stress, I didn’t tell him about the episode on Monday as I knew I would get upset again and would be considered anxious by another doctor.
i don’t know we’re to go with the nuero, I am angry at the way I was treated, he made it sound like I was faking a symptom. I have never sat down under my illness or played the sick card. I am a mother of 5 children one with special needs, I work full time, I am self employed so I wasn’t looking for a sick cert, I do not want attention for my illness but this is how he made me feel. I am also so annoyed with myself for allowing anyone to make me feel this bad.
advice anyone please?
ann x
Hi Ann,
I am still new to all of this MS stuff, was diagnosed(?) about a year ago. So no advise to give, but sending a hug your way. Sorry you were treated so badly-when you were in so much pain. xxx
Hi Ann,
sorry to hear of the way you were treated by your neuro, thats just unacceptable. Hope your chest pain is easing up, had the ‘hug’ a lot myself and its not pleasant.
I think with regards the neuro there are two possible plans, 1) take the anti-depressants for a few months and when you see him at least you could say, ive tried your approach, it hasn’t helped- what do we try next? Or 2) speak to your gp about the way you were treated/ignored. Might be worth making a formal complaint to PALS or similar. I don’t know if there is a possibility of seeing a different neuro?
However you move forward i hope you are listened to and treated compassionately. Ive had a lot of doctors ‘tell’ me things are all in my head…they were wrong! You know your own body better than even the best trained dr in the world, sadly we have to prove it sometimes, but no one should ever shout at you.
Take care
ssdd xx
Some poor woman is probably married to the brute. Beyond being grateful that the woman isn’t you, I don’t know what to suggest!
There might be those who say you should complain, but I’m not one of them - you are having a stressy enough time as it is, and a person cannot fight on all fronts. One thing’s for sure: you will not be the only patient (or colleague, I expect) who has been flabbergasted by his rudeness. You know his form now, so at least you will be prepared in future to let his nonsense be water off a duck’s back.
Please don’t let him upset you. Some people are just natural bulls in china shops.
Alison
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Hi Ann
I’m so sorry that you have been treated in this way, this sort of thing should never happen!
I had an horrendous appointment with an orthopaedic consultant when I injured my hip so I have an idea how you feel, except I was lucky that it was the end of my treatment so I didn’t have to see him again. I was very upset and thought about making a complaint about him but decided it would only upset my more. I sometimes times wish I had, especially as the physiotherapists implied that wasn’t the first time he’d upset someone. In your case it’s a bit different as presumably you will have to see him again or is there some one else you can see? Do you have an MS nurse? If so, perhaps you could talk to her/him about it as im sure they would understand, you can guarantee that you wouldn’t be the first that he has upset!
I’m afraid that as soon as people know that you have a child with special needs they automatically assume that you suffer from stress and anxiety, l speak from experience!
As far as the chest pains are concerned, my husband has been through the same thing twice and he doesn’t have MS! He almost constantly has chest pain at some level though, thankfully not as bad as you describe. Twice when he has gone to his GP about it he has been sent to A&E where he has been admitted. Both times they have done loads of tests and not found anything. The second time one of his blood tests showed up slight damage to the heart, the same as when someone has had a mild heart attack and he was transferred to another hospital for an angiograme (?). They couldn’t find anything but said he must have had inflation of his heart but didn’t know why. He still has the chest pain and after years of all sorts of investigation he has decided not to keep going to the GP about it as he doesn’t want spend another ten days in hospital just to be told there’s nothing wrong!
You must have been very frightened by the chest pain, it sounds just like a heart attack. I sure that your chest pain/hug has been made worse by the upset caused by the horrible experience at the neurologist’s! You sound like a very busy woman but I hope that you have the time to look take care of yourself.
Hope you are feeling a bit better soon.
Teddie xx
I wish the medical profession as a whole would learn the difference between:
There’s nothing wrong with you.
AND
We haven’t been able to FIND anything wrong with you.
Seems like appalling arrogance to me for doctors etc. to say there’s nothing wrong just because they couldn’t find anything. It’s why people’s problems go undiagnosed for years, isn’t it : / That neurologist sounds completely appalling.
Hi, thanks for all your replies I will take on board what you have said, and give myself some time to decide what to do next.
ann xx
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