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Posted 4/26/2009 11:46 PM (GMT 0)
So i went to the girlie dr the other week, one i hadn't seen before, and she came in and started asking me the questions and all that good stuff.  Well i told her about my ileo and she looked at me so sad and said,

"Oh that must be so difficult for you, and so hard to deal with"

And i said, "no it's reallly rather convient"
and i told her about having UC and she said
"i guess compared to living like that it's not that bad.  But it still must be so hard to have to live like with that" 

And i said "no it's still rather convienent, much easier than going the old fashioned way"

She just looked amazed that i would think that way.  the whole time she is looking at me like i just watched someone kill my puppy and she feels so sorry for me, like an ileo is a death sentence or something.

It amazed me that someone would think of it like that, and a dr none the less, didn't know enough to realize that they weren't horrible and awful.

I think that's part of the reason people are so scared to have surgery because of reactins like that to bags.

I think that somehow there needs to be more information given to people, esp medical professionals, so that misconeptions like that don't run rampant and scare people who could get their lives back by having surgery.

Just a little mini rant, lol

Posted 4/27/2009 12:17 AM (GMT 0)
AMEN!!!!!
Posted 4/27/2009 12:34 AM (GMT 0)
I'll second that!!

I also feel this way when I hear "Your too young to have a permenent ostomy, surely something can be done." 

Posted 4/27/2009 1:08 AM (GMT 0)
I agree Summer.  I know exactly what you mean. When I had my ileostomy I would get "the look" all the time when someone found out I had it.  Like...OOOOHHHH...and they would sort of treat me with kid gloves and say the same things your doctor did.  I always replied that Nope!   It was much better than dealing with the constipation all the time, and I was so very grateful to have my little stoma!  I felt very blessed that it gave me my health back and for that I was and ever will be so very very grateful!!.......Cheryl

Posted 4/27/2009 2:08 AM (GMT 0)
OH!! I cannot believe how many health care professionals just don't understand or even know anything about ostomies!!! It makes me crazy!!! And it's across the board--doctors, nurses, aids, etc!!! There are so many of us ostomates yet I'm always treated like an oddity.
Posted 4/27/2009 2:24 AM (GMT 0)
when i went to the dentist the hygeneist (sp?) had no idea about them either, she however didnt act like the dr did, she was interested, i think she was jealous, lol.

I just think its pathetic that drs, i mean i know thats not a girlie drs specialty, but that she knew so little to think of it as a hindrance or handicap.

And i really think that makes it so much harder onpeople trying to make the decison for surgery because their drs (even the GI's) dont know enough about the people who actually living with them, all they know is what is in their books.
Posted 4/27/2009 2:33 AM (GMT 0)
I guess I'm lucky in that I've never really gotten 'the look' except, funnily enough, when I was in the USA attending an ostomy meeting with a friend I was visiting. They had companies at the meeting that day showing off their products and it was actually two women from a pharmacy supply company that were going 'oh you poor thing' when I told them I'd had my ileostomy since I was 10 years old! You'd think that since they actually supply ostomy products they would have known better! They couldn't (or wouldn't) believe that I didn't mind my ostomy at all and am extremely greatful for the life it's given back to me.

Ladyhawk, I hear you with the 'you're too young to have an ostomy' thing. People don't understand that you're never too young and that a lot of people have them since birth. I just ask them 'how old should I be?' lol
Posted 4/27/2009 3:25 AM (GMT 0)
I had such a good experience with my new gyn doctor last month. Since I was new he had the get to know you meeting in his office before the ugh treatment. After a few minutes into the meeting I told him that I had an ileostomy. He was sooo kind, telling me stories from his own family--his wife and an uncle who had one and no one in the family knew about it until he passed at 90. He sincerely said that he would have never know I had one when I walked into the office. Geee that made me feel okay. Doctors of all people should be sensitive to our feelings.
Posted 4/27/2009 5:29 AM (GMT 0)
I'd send a letter to the AMA.  Sorry to sound kurt, but doctors like that are in the wrong profession, and  attitudes like that can make an ostomate  feel like they aren't whole.  Feel free to give us the name of the doctor. I'd be happy to write a letter myself.  My blood is boiling right now!!!

Oh, and BTW....I'd find a new doctor!

Posted 4/27/2009 2:34 PM (GMT 0)
Well let me clarify, she wasn't being mean, she thought she was being sympathetic towards me.
It was just so amazing to me that a dr would not know the reality behind an ostomy!!!
Other than that she is actually a very nice dr and she is very knowledagble about the girlie part of doctoring, lol.
I was upset more over the fact that she didnt know anyhitng about them, then about her saying anything to me. Sorry for the confusion.
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