Your image and the help you get

Status
Not open for further replies.
C

Caroline

Senior Member
Relationship to Diabetes
Type 2
Has anyone else noticed the more capable they come across the less help they get?

I know there are lots of things I can do for myself, so I try to be proactive. I like to do my own research rather than just be spoonfed information. This then gives me the image of being capable and confident, which sometimes does me no favours.

People don't believe it when I don't have all the answers and ask for help. Often I'm told well you are confident you can manage on your own, which makes me feel like I'm some kind of freak and is very isolating.

Recently I have been trying to get regular foot checks as I don't find it easy to do for myself and if everyone else is busy, it gets left. The message I got from the podiatry service was they felt I was manageing my feet quite well and didn't want to see me unless I was having problems.

I go tot he doctor for help and burst into tears of frustration, so he puts me off for a couple of weeks with depression, all I want is a little help, although a little extra time off work is useful too.

Does anyone else feel the same?
 
Ohh Caroline a fein innocence hun i have to shout and scream blue murder with my lot before i get any help.If it was not for my DSN id of taken my diabetes and handled the entire 11 month on my own.I just think sometimes we cant handle it all on our own , im one who finds it difficult asking for help and i certainly wont burden any of my family .
 
Think I'm just gonna have to go and cry on the doctors or nurses shoulder to see if I can get more support from the professionals.

Everyone here is great, you all understand. Actually it feels better having told how I feel...
 
Caroline said:
Think I'm just gonna have to go and cry on the doctors or nurses shoulder to see if I can get more support from the professionals.

Everyone here is great, you all understand. Actually it feels better having told how I feel...
Click to expand...

Yeah you deserve it Caroline why should we struggle on our own we aint the ones who get paid to supposedly help our pacients.If this forum did not exist i would not know half of what i do today.
 
Steff2010 said:
Yeah you deserve it Caroline why should we struggle on our own we aint the ones who get paid to supposedly help our pacients.If this forum did not exist i would not know half of what i do today.
Click to expand...

My doctors other names are twit and idiot, I'll have to go lay it on with a trowel to get him to listen and rope in any other professional person who will listen....
 
Caroline said:
My doctors other names are twit and idiot, I'll have to go lay it on with a trowel to get him to listen and rope in any other professional person who will listen....
Click to expand...

Madness aint it , if mine aint ignoring what my DSN says he is messing up my results ,Imagine if all of us put our gripes together about our gps we would have for some intresting reading
 
Steff2010 said:
Madness aint it , if mine aint ignoring what my DSN says he is messing up my results ,Imagine if all of us put our gripes together about our gps we would have for some intresting reading
Click to expand...

If we all had the same doctor and got together with all our gripes, we might stand a chance of getting a decent one between us...
 
Caroline said:
If we all had the same doctor and got together with all our gripes, we might stand a chance of getting a decent one between us...
Click to expand...

LOL you might of hit on something there
 
I have always found that with the NHS it's a case of asking to get, not being offered.

If you ask it's there. When I enquired about on-going foot care they told me they don't do automatic recalls as so many people don't bother turning up. Equally, these are the people who identify my feet are numb and spot some interesting lumps on my feet, ask ME if I know what they are and then tell me only to worry if they become painful - eh? you worked out 2 minutes ago I have no sensation, how am I supposed to know if they are sore?

My GP is fantastic, indeed, the permanent GP's at the practice are all good, they are very active in training new GP's so they are always being brought up to speed from the newly qualified and can share their experience too.

I do always (where possible) use the same GP, I got very fed up explaining and having thought after thought and countless drugs when I really should have been referred to a specialist. Now I see just one GP and they know what they've done and what their plan is, if things don't clear up.

This multi-GP practice lark really doesn't work for routine healthcare, great for urgent treatment, but the key is consistency.

Having the title of Doctor usually turns heads when I'm called from the outpatients waiting room, especially if I've hardly sat down when they call me, you can feel the eyes!

Once the qualification bit is out of the way, they are then sweating not to get it wrong with a lawyer. 'Sue first, think later' a great motto.

That said I do then get them talking high-brow at me, first, I can't hear and lip reading medical terminology is close on impossible, second, I don't understand medical terminology (as anyone reading my none-technical posts will see from here). I want it in simple English so that I can understand and hopefully remember what has just been said before they've finished the conversation.

Nearly all consultants and GP's I've known have been fantastic when asked to write things down for me, even a collection of sketches of various parts of the body.

It's not only my hearing that causes me these problems, if I were to converse with clients in Latin or the native legal terminology they would glaze over even more. Why the medical profession should be any different I don't know.

But then, the difference between God and a Doctor is that God has never pretended to be a Doctor. :D

Oh, and usually it's the Doc who cries not me 😱
 
Thanks David, you cheered me up. I will make an apointment with my doctor and cry all over him, that is good for a couple of weeks off while little feller is at school. It will give me a bit of thinking and research space...
 
Caroline said:
Thanks David, you cheered me up. I will make an apointment with my doctor and cry all over him, that is good for a couple of weeks off while little feller is at school. It will give me a bit of thinking and research space...
Click to expand...

No problem, not quite sure which bit cheered you up, but I aim to please.

Don't most people want time off when their children are on holiday from school? Or is that your cunning plan to make it look genuine 🙄

It's ok, I won't tell anyone :D
 
Einstein said:
No problem, not quite sure which bit cheered you up, but I aim to please.

Don't most people want time off when their children are on holiday from school? Or is that your cunning plan to make it look genuine 🙄

It's ok, I won't tell anyone :D
Click to expand...

I want both, but since I am the focus of his attention when we are home together I also need a little time when he is at school for some breathing space. he even wants to help with certain things that are best kept private...
 
Gosh, if only my doctor responded that way to being cried at. I've tried it, he just told me to calm down....,Calm down you stupid man? Calm down? Who's the one with the chronic illness here? Who has to come here every cou[ple of months and be told that somebody wants another test or somebody wants to prescribe more drugs without ever quite getting around to telling me why? Enough of that i think...
Needless to say Caroline, i've been prone to crying with frustration most of my life. Plus diabetes is one of the most annoying things i've had to deal with yet. I think that offering help to everybody is against company (NHS) policy because, although it's a lovely idea and surely every patient minded NHS worker would support it with open arms, it would cost more money than we've got.
I hate kicking up a fuss, firstly there's probably somebody out there who needs these services more than i do, secondly i hate the attention and thirdly i resent having to make all the effort. On the other hand, i could easily wind up like my grandmother, who wouldn't call the emergency services when she blacked out on the kitchen floor for fear of making a fuss. (It's fine, she's ok, maybe some kind of cardiac arrythmia, but she's 80+ and in pretty good health if you ask me). Hang on a minute, i am the person who didn't go to the doctors for six months before diagnosis with diabetes, even though i felt grotty because it was too much trouble and bound to go away of it's own accord....Maybe these things are genetic....😱 Great, i've got my terror of putting people out from my grandmother and my diabetes from my grandfather.
I think you deserve a break, it's not easy being diabetic, it's not easy bringing up kid(s), and sometimes life in general isn't that easy either. What does seem good is that at least your Dr Twit (i wonder if ours are related?😉) realises that tears and wound-up-ness are a sign of needing a break, not a sign of needing more pills.

All the best
Rachel


Rachel
 
It might also be helpful to point out that you cannot do checks on your own feet for neuropathy - which is what diabetic foot checks are largely about - Oooh! Makes my blood boil - dimwits! Best of luck Caroline xx

And I completely agree with as far as being capable you are left on your own - I went on a pump at the end of November and have not seen anyone since - had a call at the end of first week and that has been it! Unbelievable. Got more info on here as always! I know a fair bit - but it is eternal learning!!!
 
Last edited:
Admin said:
It might also be helpful to point out that you cannot do checks on your own feet for neuropathy - which is what diabetic foot checks are largely about - Oooh! Makes my blood boil - dimwits! Best of luck Caroline xx

And I completely agree with as far as being capable you are left on your own - I went on a pump at the end of November and have not seen anyone since - had a call at the end of first week and that has been it! Unbelievable. Got more info on here as always! I know a fair bit - but it is eternal learning!!!
Click to expand...

Despite the apparent intelligence you'd expect health care professionals to have, they do seem to be lacking in common sense.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top