Hi there everybody,
With all the posts about Dr patient communication I felt I wanted to say a
few things about how I feel when the boot is on the other foot. I am a
Veterinary Surgeon and always used to find I didn't deal very well with
people who were actively searching for cures themselves for conditions that
I was treating. I now realise that was largely a reaction on my part to the
frustration of treating conditions where either there was no known Curative
treatments or what was supposed to be working wasn't.
I found that it triggered my own insecurity and instead of being able to be
with the client and their concern, I went straight to the feeling of "I'm
not good enough" which is a pretty universal feeling for all humans! and I
automatically became defensive
I can now appreciate that someone seeking answers independently is doing
just that and it doesn't have to mean that they don't think I'm doing a good
enough job even though I'm doing the best I can.
The other thing with Internet stuff etc is that its often theoretical and
unproven still and we are very scared often of doing things which then later
turn out to have undesirable outcomes because they haven't been fully
researched and we can get blamed.
I would say its pretty hard to appreciate the sort of frustration
adhesions disorders bring without having had a chronic illness / disability
of some sort. I also like many of you find myself saying I'm fine when I'm
not !!
Mary I think those questions you posed are really great perhaps we could
organise a questionnaire or something to get an concrete analysis of what
symptoms , personality traits etc we do have in common and what sort of
things work for what percentages of us?? I certainly know how valuable it is
to read posts from others, but I'm finding it hard to keep track in any
other way than anecdotal reports.
By the way I ended up buying a TENS unit which seems to help a bit with
bloating - for me anyway.
Best wishes all, Sue.
PS Ive just gone back to full time work after 4 years of only being able to
do relieving work. so fingers crossed.