Horrible doctors

I was wondering if any of you have some stories about awful doctors. The first doctor I went to was nice at first I told him about my bathroom issues and he said I think you just have IBS but I'm worried because you are waking up in middle of the night, I think we should do a colonoscopy to be on the safe side, I said alright, he said it is probably dietary and nothing. So I had a scope and he said when I was in recovery, It isn't good. I said what is it he said Ulcerative Colitis, severe throughtout your whole colon. I said what is it and how do we treat it. He looked at the nurse and said give her asacol and see me in four weeks. So I asked him again how we treat it and he said hopfully meds but they don't always work. He walked away. Very un sympathetic and a jerk. He didn't explain anything. So I went home and found out what uc was and how it was treated online. I went back and seen him with a list of questions. When i went and seen him I was now on lialda because I was allergic to asacol and I was starting to have problems with the lialda. So he said to me you need to go on 6mp. i was scared and I said that can cause cancer and he said you have no choice you need to go on this if it doesnt work you will go to biologics and those are worse and have a higher cancer rate. He then said it is surgery after that. I was crying by now. I said what about diet. I said I have a friend with crohn's and diet works for her. You need to stop talking to your friend and listen to me. Diet don't work and you do what I say I'm the doctor. He then grabbed the list of questions out of my hand and said yes no yes no to all my questions and then he walked out of the room. I was soooo upset. The nurse tried to calm me down but I was pissed. I walked out and sat in the bathroom for about 10 minutes. I never went back. He called me like a month later and asked if I was under medical care and I gave him a piece of my mind. I get upset everytime I think of this. I now have a wonderful doctor but I was just diagnosed with uc he explained nothing and had no sympathy. What a jerk.

I'm sorry you had a doctor who didn't offer sympathy. My first GI was highly respected, but he wasn't very good at the emotional side. It made him very uncomfortable if I got upset! I can't remember what he said, it was a long time ago, but I remember I had a couple of sessions with a psycologist to help me cope, because my GI would only deal with the medical stuff. Otherwise, he told me all the same things, in a straightforward way, that you heard..."surgery is next"...except then we skipped the biologics because they didn't exist. Fortunately he got me on asacol, which was only be studied at the time. So I am grateful he was good at the medical part!

I know it irritates doctors to hear, my friend says... or, on the Internet it said... they are human and it's a little insulting I suppose. I know my regular doctor -- who has become a social friend -- gets annoyed when I come in suggesting my self-diagnosis! They have big egos. But you have to be firm and ask your questions!

I'm glad you had the chance to give him a piece of your mind. Did he apologize? I would have reported him to the Board of Healing Arts, let him deal with THAT.

I guess the biggest jerk doctor I had was a urologist (?) who only offered the tiniest drapes. I complained and he said bigger ones just get in the way! I brought my own beach towel with me after that. He must have been burned out, he left his practice soon after and went into research.

 When I went to the hospital in order to get diagnoised, I had been serverly sick for 3 weeks (lost 30 pounds in 3 weeks, needed 2 bags of blood, and had a pulse of 150). I was doing the prep for my first colonoscopy ever, and hadn't ate in 2 days , I was in SO much pain once the prep started. My mom called the nurse to get my something for my pain because I was crying and doubled over in pain probably because there was nothing in my stomach so the prep was giving me severe cramps, the nurse came in and said "isnt it better then being sick?" I told the nurse I would rather be discharged and still sick then be in that much pain ever again. Apparently that got her attention because she gave me morphine after that.

I got no apologie from him, he said well whatever and then hung up. I would have given him a piece of my mind in the doctors office but he was sooo rude I was shocked. I was so scared because I was diagnosed and he didn't explain anything. I did tell his nurse I was never coming back here and that he was horrible, she was nice and tried to calm me down I got the impression that she had heard this from other people. He was a male and he was probably in his late 60's early 70's. I don't know if he had enough but my mom said he is old school and a doctor to them you just do what they say and don't question them. My doc now is the best. She has sat in the room with me for an hour once answering questions same with her staff. She is understanding and is straigt forward and if I don't agree with her she is fine with it. I'm honest with the docs and i'm going to have questions this is a diesese we all have to live with. I'm really happy with her. I never feel rushed or put off. When you call there you get a call back that day by her nurse sometimes even the doc herself. Because I have problems with my remicade infusions she was worried when they upped my dose and she called me right after my infusion and asked how i was feeling and how it went. She is awesome.

I've been happy with my GI. I had an OB Dr. that was terrrrible! She made me feel bad every time I went there. Being pregnant is supposed to be a happy experience. I ended up finding another OB office and my new Drs are great! Just what I had in mind. Anyway, if you have a bad (or good) experience with a Dr. - be sure to leave a review on vitals.com

I too am on the lucky side I guess and haven't really encountered any terrible doctors like the OP.

Since my diagnosis my worst experience was probably with my first GI who diagnosed me. Before the colonoscopy he was very abrupt and quick. After the colonoscopy was performed he told me I had something called "Ulcerative Proctitis" and wrote it on a piece of paper and handed it to me and told me to read up on it on the internet. At that time I had no clue what he was talking about and how serious the situation was. He then told me the cause is unknown and handed me a prescription for Pentasa suppositories. Since he didn't specify for how long I would need to use the suppositories I asked "how long do I need to use them? forever?" (expecting he'd tell me not to be ridiculous and that I'd use it only for a month or so). He then nodded (which made me take the diagnosis more seriously) and ushered me out the office. That night I went home to read up about my condition and I cried the entire night and didn't sleep. The next day I didn't eat at all and kept crying to my parents. I continued to read for the next few days about colitis and accumulated questions. My parents saw me in such deep distress and weren't happy with the amount of information the GI gave me so the next day my dad forced the GI's secretary to make another appointment for me two days after my diagnosis (normally it takes at least 3 weeks). At the second appointment both my parents accompanied me to the GI's office and he was surprisingly very very comforting and answered all my questions (probably because my dad would've raised hell if he didn't). He spent around half an hour patiently explaining my condition.

Either way we decided to switch GIs to one we felt I would be able to bond better with and have since found three GIs who all seem to be very comforting, supportive and helpful.

My first GI was probably the oldest of all my GIs (around 60s - 70s) and was the most experienced and qualified (aside from running his own endoscopy clinic, he also is a professor at one of the top universities in Australia, does lap band surgery and was head of the gastroentrology committee in Australia for a few years). My GP also regularly sees the first GI I saw for hemerriods and he too said he is very abrupt. I have generally found that the more qualified the doctor is, the less personal skills he has (or chooses to use) with with his patients.

Eventually doctors are going to be paid by Medicare -- and perhaps by all insurance -- according to the value they provide based on a bunch of measurements. Hospitals will be paid this way sooner. One of the things measured is patient satisfaction. So hopefully every doctor will be more sensitive, someday (if they have it in them) or it will cost them. You might notice hospitals are trying lots harder to get good patient satisfaction scores (at least my clients are).

I notice that the older members of my family are way more deferential to their doctors -- never questioning -- than the younger ones. It's a good change.

I had experience with a very insensitive doctor once. After a couple of years after I moved back to the United States, I went to see a gynecologist and got blood work done because it had been more than 15 years since I had done so. I got everything checked from my cholesterol level to HIV/AIDS. The only thing I knew, because I got it checked at the fitness center, was that my cholesterol level was okay. It was slightly above 200, but that was because my good cholesterol level was high.

My doctor knew my situation, that I hadn't had any blood work done in more than 15 years and only knew what my cholesterol level was. She told me she would call me only if something was wrong. Otherwise, I would get my results in the mail.

A few days later, on Thursday afternoon, she called. I ran to the phone but did not get it until it went to voice mail. So I called her back immediately. She didn't answer. I called the medical clinic. They said she left for the day and wouldn't be back until Tuesday. They could not tell me my results. That was the doctor's responsibility.

She expected me to wait four days to get my results when all I knew was that something was wrong?! She hadn't bothered to wait a few minutes before leaving for the day?

When I finally got a hold of her, she said, "I like to make my calls right before I leave for the day." She also said, "Your cholesterol level is a bit high. It's 206." How's that for caring about the patient? I was just a statistic to her.

I changed doctors right away.

My first GI told me I was too sick for his office and that he and his partners make their money doing scopes and have no time for sick patients and I was no longer cost effective cause I was taking up to much of his time with calls and office visits and togo  find another doctor. I was seeing this doctor for over 2 years for UP and when he ignored my calls and it spread up the colon was when he hit me with this.  I lost my colon becasue of him. He took me off all meds at one point for a year and never gave me rectal meds. I was too far gone by the time I found another doctor.