> ----- Original Message -----
From: Helen Dynda
To: Multiple recipients of list ADHESIONS
Sent: Thursday, August 01, 2002 1:19 AM
Subject: Hurtful Things Doctors Have Said to Their ARD Patients...
Some of you will remember this list; because you shared the hurtful things doctors have said to you...
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HURTFUL THINGS DOCTORS HAVE SAID TO THEIR ARD PATIENTS:
Are there doctors, who are so uneducated about Adhesions-Related Disease (ARD), that they take their frustrations out on adhesion-suffers - in spite of the fact that they took an oath to "first, do no harm"? After you read the list of ACTUAL comments SOME doctors have said to their ARD patients, the answer is, YES THERE ARE!!
Or do they "smoke screen" ARD patients - so they do NOT have to deal with Adhesion Related Disease? The answer to this question is also " YES! " Since ARD is not yet recognized by the medical profession as being a disease or disorder, many doctors tell their ARD patient that adhesions do NOT cause pain. Their hope is that they won't ever have to deal with the frustration that adhesions-related disease causes both doctor and patient.
Regardless of what their reason is, these comments - made by some doctors - ARE unprofessional ARE NOT acceptable!! Doctors have taken an oath to "first, do no harm." For those doctors, who tell their ARD patients such hurtful things. they give the medical profession "a black eye."
The next time a doctor makes an unacceptable comment, have him put it in writing - or have it reapeated in front of someone else, if at all possible!
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Hurtful Things Doctors Have Said to Their ARD Patients:
* We already know you have irritable bowel syndrome.
* It's just growing pains (in my 30's???)
* You're just my " COLICKY BABY "...followed by a laugh and a pat on the back.
* You are trying too hard to get pregnant. That's the reason why you are having pain.
* Don't worry about adhesions.
* I'm a stomach guy. This isn't my specialty (in regard to an ARD patient's pain, lack of sleep, and anxiety due to adhesions).
* Don't ask us about adhesions; because adhesions are not our specialty.
* I have been a surgeon for 33 years. Everyone knows adhesions don't cause pain.
* Talk to your surgeon. I'm not the one with the knife (who cut you).
* I'm glad that you felt better for a period of time after your last adhesiolysis; but I only do this type of surgery once.
* What do you think people did before there were surgeons? They learned to live with their pain.
* If you have an adhesiolysis, the possibility for new adhesions is too great.
* It just must be you!
* You will just have to "toughen up."
* This may just be something you will have to learn to live with.
* ALL you're looking for is sympathy.
* You're "acting like a baby."
* You are making it sound worse than it really is.
* You are so focused on your pain, that you're making it worse.
* We need you to have a psychological evaluation before you can have surgery (for lysis of adhesions).
* If you don't want to be dropped as my patient, you will have to see the psychologist.
* There is nothing wrong with you. " It must be all in your head!!'
* Either you are anorexic or you're...(the doctor points to his head.)
* You better consult a priest. Your pain must be"All in your head."
* You must be in a stressful relationship; and that's what's causing your pain.
* I think that you need an antidepressant. I think that will help you.
* Are you on antidepressants? Have you been hospitalized for depression - as if depression could cause this kind of pain.)?
* You are depressed. You need to see a psychiatrist.
* You'll feel better, if you go and see a psychiatrist.
* If you don't want to be dropped as my patient, you will have to see the psychologist!
* All patient's react differently to pain. You must have a low pain tolerance level.
* Some women handle pain better than others.
* I'm 99% sure we won't find anything.
* There is no such kind of pain as the pain you're describing!!
* All patient's heal differently; and you are just taking a very long time to heal
* As the doctor pushes on my left side and I jump up in pain, he says, " What? It hurts here? I don't feel anything" ... as he continues to push harder - and I pass out from the pain.
* The doctor looked at my husband, as if I were not there; and he laughed - as he turned to my husband - and said: "Does she complain when she brushes her hair too?"
* I pressed on your belly; and I did not feel anything out of the way.
* My GYN said: "I just really don't understand how you could be in pain! You are healing perfectly in there. Everything looks just like it should. There is no reason for your pain...no reason at all! When I obtained my medical records, the first words I saw were: "...probably adhesions." My GYN never mentioned one word about adhesions to me...until finally my CT-scan was re-read and showed "...loops of bowel fixed." Then he finally had to admit that I had adhesions; but then he said, "Adhesions will stretch and you will be perfectly fine."
* After being unnecessarily exposed to harmful x-rays, after submitting to painful internal examinations...after too much blood was drawn...and after I lost my sense of dignity when doctors asked me to position my naked body in specific ways...THEN these doctors told me that all of my diagnostic tests were normal and that there was nothing wrong with me.
* All your tests were negative. Now, I see no need for pain medication.
* Take 4 Advil and deal with it.
* It's not that bad. Just take some Tylenol.
* We only prescribe pain medications to people with terminal illnesses.
* You cannot continue to take narcotic pain medication. You went through 20 pills in 20 days. You can't continue like this. You must totally understand the consequences; and I WILL NOT give you another prescripton!! You must find another physician or go to a pain clinic.
* Do you totally understand the consequences of taking narcotic pain medication? You can be become addicted. You must stop!!
* You know, you're well on your way to becoming a drug addict.
* In 1996 the head of the Gastroenterology Department at a famous clinic yelled at me and told me that I was wasting their time!! One year later(1997) I was diagnosed has having "massive adhesions, which had attached my omentum to my abdominal wall" as the result of a laparotomy performed in 1970. It took me 27 years to find this doctor, who performed a diagnostic laparoscopy and correctly diagnosed me for the very first time!!
* You need to stop wasting my time with this nonsense.
* You are welcome to see another doctor in the office.
* None of the staff is allowed to take even as much as an emergency message from you. You've called this office in excess...as well as after hours.
* You’re a “ frequent flyer “ in this emergency room!
* Dr. looked at my abdominal scar and laughed because he thought he could have done better!!