[-jimi-]

... it will include that I tell them about all things the other docs messed up. I don't want to tell a new GP (I have no steady one) that the labs from the clinic I used to go to were lost due to their mistake, that their referral was mysteriously lost too, that the referral from the psychiatrist is bull because she referred me for an increased pulse rate when in fact it was because she was yelling at me, and that the GP will have to run some more labs because the psych forgot....

It's so messy and unreal, but somehow I need to explain why I'm really there and why data is missing. It's going to sound like I make things up. Docs usually think I make things up if other doctor's mistakes are mentioned.

But I really do need a checkup for both my thyroid and how my autoimmune illness is behaving.

This whole hassle is just preventing me from going. Should I just pretend my pulse rate was high because of nothing but it is OK now and should I take on the missing labs as it was me failing to have them done? It seems easier but I don't like lying.

[bluekoi]

-jimi-, Just start fresh again with the new doctor. If he wants prior records, and they are not available, he will just have to deal with things as they are. It is the present the doctor needs to focus on.

[SnakeCharmer]

Jimi, you don't have to explain any of that stuff, not even the increased heart rate thing because the new doc will take your pulse and if it's normal then it's not an issue.

One of the most important things I learned about starting out with new docs is don't explain and don't complain about the details of eff ups with past docs. It immediately gets them wondering if you're going to be a difficult patient. So, don't explain and don't complain unless the new primary specifically asks for that info.

A few years ago I had to get a new primary because my old one retired. He'd been my doctor for years. My file from his office was about 4 inches thick. Before he left he gave me (all his patients) records to take to my new doctor. He included only those things he considered vital, mostly dx and justification for the meds I was currently taking. Some important test reports, like colonoscopy, mammogram and kidneys. I showed up at my new doctor's office for intake with five pages of history. It was enough.

I was prepared to answer a bevy of questions, but they didn't materialize. The new doc read the five pages and asked if I was satisfied with how my medication worked and if I was seeing any other doctors. He asked if I had any urgent concerns. The only question he asked that wasn't strictly business was if I knew how old my old doctor was and why he retired (68 and he was ready.) That was to satisfy his curiosity.

He told me he didn't want to know about my past care, except for my meds, because he wanted to start with new eyes. And that's what he did. He's not lazy or anything like that. He's a very good doc, highly respected in this town, and he wanted to look at my physical/psychological health from the moment I stepped into his office. Before you see the doc, you'll probably have to fill out one of those standard history questionnaires. Have you ever had migraine, cancer, seizures, asthma, surgery, etc. That's all they need to know.

My new doc didn't ask any questions at all about problems with other medical practitioners or past lab tests or anything. He ordered a full work up to see how I was doing currently.

The new primary will need to know about any meds you're taking, including supplements. Take them with you on your first appointment. Tell him or her how you think they're working. I had seen specialists in the past and I didn't want to go back to them. When he asked me about that I said I'd like him to refer to new people in order to get a new perspective. He smiled big when I said that. He had his own trusted referral sources and he was glad I wasn't going to protest if he wanted to use them.

So, Jimi, I think it's okay to stop worrying and to just not even bring up all that stuff. It's stuff to talk to a therapist about -- that where we explain and complain. If your new doc asked why you're there, you can honestly say, "I don't have a regular primary and I need my thyroid and autoimmune disorder monitored." It is absolutely not your fault if the lab didn't run tests in the past. You don't have to explain that or mention it. The doc will want to run new tests.

My first appointment with my new primary was 40 minutes and that included an EKG. Appointments after that are only 15 minutes. That's how most primaries operate these days. He doesn't have time to talk about the past. What you need right now will be his or her main concern.

I hope it goes well for you.

[-jimi-]

The issue is that they are the ones I now should go to for my yearly checkup for the autoimmune thing. So yea I can say this is on you guys now, and really wish hard he will not ask when I was last. Because it is the last labs that are missing. Starting totally anew isn't possible since this doc is supposed to do my yearly checkup for something already diagnosed many years ago. I just had checkups other places.

I hope there is some note in the swiss-cheese records that say I was actually sent from the rheumy to a GP or he might not feel it's on him to do that.

But you are right, I shant start up mentioning the screwups, but if I have to, I need to mention them. I realized I cannot lie. But if I can go through an appointment without mentioning it I will. Probably the best way.

Hopefully he will also run a standard liver and kidney panel which I need for the psych med I'm on. Sometimes they do that anyway.

He will know what meds I take, they are in the computer system.

So I will just innocently say yea I'm here for the pulse thing and it is nothing I have noted at checking at home, so it is probably nothing, and by the way I need both my yearly lupus check and a check for my thyroid med.

I hope that goes over well.

I do not mean I would go there and whine. I don't need a therapist for that. What I was talking about was I felt I needed to explain the missing data the new doc should have and he doesn't. I'm a bit scared I will go there and just act normal and he will point a finger at me asking me why I haven't been on checkups in three years (how it looks on the records). Whatever I say to that, lie or truth, will brand me as a bad patient.

Our GPs do a lot of specialist work theses days because specialists have become rarer. He actually only does have 15 minutes with me so I have no idea how to squeeze all this in. He knows I don't have a steady GP because no one has where I live. The thing is he should have a referral for that but it too is missing.

So yea I too hope it goes well.

[-jimi-]

Originally Posted by bluekoi

-jimi-, Just start fresh again with the new doctor. If he wants prior records, and they are not available, he will just have to deal with things as they are. It is the present the doctor needs to focus on.

Thanx. It's more he is picking up where others left off. I'm already diagnosed with these things since years and that I know is on my records at least! (Side by side with a mental diagnosis of something I never had and no doc admits to putting there...)

I wish I could start totally new but I can't. It's basically a matter of making him run all the right tests.

I'm going to do my best here, but if this somehow does not work out even if I am a good patient, then I think I will give up on the checkups. I guess I will notice if I get heart, lung or kidney failure one day in that case.

[SnakeCharmer]

if this somehow does not work out even if I am a good patient, then I think I will give up on the checkups. I guess I will notice if I get heart, lung or kidney failure one day in that case.

__________________

Ah, dang it, Jimi! I'm sorry you're feeling so discouraged. Only discouragement or anger or fear could make a patient with an illness that can destroy internal organs say they'd rather die instead of putting up with the possibility of a doctor's rudeness for 15 minutes.

I'm not catastrophizing. You won't notice the symptoms of heart, lung or kidney failure until the organs have been damaged. The early symptoms are silent, especially with the heart and kidneys. People don't notice until the damage has been done.

If the lab messed up and didn't log the test results and the doctor confronts you on it, all you have to say is that you don't know what went wrong, but you want and need to be monitored from this day forward.

Please come back and tell us how your appointment goes. Your life and health are valuable and if you need encouragement to get you through your medical system, I'm pretty sure you can get it here.

[Perna]

I would just not bother putting down previous doctors or exercises in futility. I would just make whatever doctor I chose go with what is there now, what his own tests and discussions with me reveal, etc. (unless you are taking medicines you need?) If you are only going to the doctor once a year, you can start over whenever you want, things change and new doctors think they're better than the old ones anyway

[-jimi-]

I don't have a choice in doctors, I get the one they give me. But yea, it also mean if they suck I get a different one next year. I assume I shouldn't mention the old clinic's lost referral to the rheumathologist, but make them take a new decision if they want to send me back? I mean, I'm not even supposed to be at this GP with this sort of illness.

But I guess I'd like to pretend I'm stupid and have forgotten totally about the past. However I realize I do have to say the old clinic ran tests, because two tests they ran there are in the chart (all but two were lost) and they will want to know why I changed clinics, so I really have to say I went there and did the tests. I will not sound accusatory but I will have to mention I went there. If I don't make a big deal out of it but just quickly explain it, I guess it'll be OK.

[SnakeCharmer]

It sounds like you're getting the hang of it there, Jimi. Hope this will be a better medical experience for you than things that happened before.

[-jimi-]

Yea now I just hope the doctor will understand me... the clinic I changed to is in my neighborhood and mostly serves immigrants (I'm one if the few "native" people here) so they don't have doctors who really speak my language (not as their first language). I once had a nice one there, I mean really sweet and caring, but I only understood half of what he said.

[-jimi-]

It seems like problems will never be solved. My psych clinic did a new mindgame round on me, so I have to first try to heal from it, then address it. Then maybe I can deal with physical health.

It seems like health care here is a neverending cycle of abuse and neglect. You come out sicker than you were going in because the malpractice and the abuse.

I personally know several people who paid with their lives because of our so called health care.

I feel very very very discouraged right now.