not very helpful

[Tally]

I went to the GP (again) this morning about my ongoing diarrhoea.

 

My sample has been judged normal and my interpretation of my symptoms is in doubt. What kind of weird illness would it be that made me look in the toilet and think it looks watery with pieces of food in it, when it's actually completely normal?

 

The GP says the diarrhoea is part of my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (even though I have had this for 8 years and the diarrhoea for only 6 months).

 

The CFS doctor mentioned something about vitamin b12 injections when I saw him in May, but I only got a letter on Friday telling me he was recommending b12 injections. I had an appointment with the CFS nurse on Monday where I asked her about them and she acknowledged there was no evidence that I had a b12 deficiency, and that there is no proof that b12 injections help, only anecdotal evidence. It is proven safe, however, I have heard anecdotal evidence that it can cause diarrhoea. Extra diarrhoea is the last thing I want. She said there was no pressure on me to have them if I was concerned about it.

 

Now the GP says the b12 injections will make the diarrhoea stop. When I said I was worried about side effects, he started asking, "don't you want to get better?" and I felt really pressured to agree to it. He said it is proven safe and effective and the evidence for that is the letter from the consultant, who is more qualified than the nurse so he overrides her. So the nurse lied to me? I don't think she would do that. I said I needed more time to think about it and he wants to know what date will be enough time.

 

If I have the injections I have to pick up a prescription from the doctor, take it to the chemist and then bring it back to the doctor and book an appointment for the nurse to give the injection. Once per week for ten weeks, and then once per month for a year. If I miss two appointments I will be discharged from the CFS service altogether. When I told the doctor I didn't think I could remember to do all that every time he just asked again, "don't you want to get better?" Why does being forgetful get twisted to mean I don't want to get better?

 

Feels like everyone is against me at the moment and no one seems to believe anything I say.

[Mumble]

Sorry, can't advise on most of this other than find a different GP in the practice who is more understanding or possibly write to the practice manager and politely outline the difficulties ASD causes in relation to health appointments (there's a nice pdf leaflet on the NAS website) and ask how you could all work together to make it as easy as possible for both you and the doctors.

 

If you do decide to go for the injections, the process is a pain (no pun intended) but you should find you get into a routine. I have to have injections every two weeks but at the hospital rather than the doctors; I've set up a repeat reminder and a repeat task list using Outlook on my computer with reminders which for the first couple of months got me in the routine of what I needed to do - now it's become pretty automatic. If you don't use Outlook, I guess you could do something similar on a mobile phone.

 

Re side-effects, yes they can be a problem (I take as much medication to treat side-effects as I do to treat my original medical conditions) but they might not be a problem for you. So long as you know they're reversible side-effects, I'd say it's worth giving them a go on the proviso you can stop the medication if the side-effects did become too problematic.

 

[Tally]

Actually, this wasn't my usual GP as I couldn't get an appointment with him. I think I've only actually seen my GP once as I only moved here recently. He was more helpful and I do have an appointment booked with him for next week to take him a copy of my DLA application, which he asked me to. There's probably not going to be time to discuss it all with him then, but I could take him a letter and make another appointment.