do you PMR fancy a laugh ....whitest food shopping last night ,my retired GP came up to me in the supermarket ,said hello ,Christmas peck on cheek ,and said how are you karen ,(he has been retired 18 month ) I said ok thank you ... My hubby shouted up NO YOU ARE NOT KAREN !SHE IS IN CONSTANT PAIN DOC !KAREN HAS GOT PMR ......oh the doctor said PMR is all in people's heads ,it's a mind game ,go swimming for three weeks and exercise and it will go away within the 3 weeks ...............
Oh and as I am a dress maker I have always turned up the docs suit trousers ,he asked me ,could I bring you some trousers for you to turn up karen ? My reply .....well because of all this imaginary pain in my head I am unable to bend down to the floor to pin your trouser up to the desired lenght doc because of all the pain in my knees and legs,so sorry will have to wait three weeks till I have been swimming and the pain has GONE HAHA made me laugh xxxxxx rant over
I know what you mean Karen, I slipped walking our dog Sunday night and thought I had broken my leg. Suffered till morning then went to A&E where I was asked to fill in a medical form.
When doctor read PMR he asked what it was and when I explained to him all he said was to come off the pred asap. Amazing isn't it, said nothing about the pain I could be in if I did that. Happy Christmas to all my fellow PMR sufferers and thanks for all your advice. Dave
Sorry, Karen - certainly NOT funny!! If I was a sadistic person I would wish such people as your (and David's) doctors could find out personally what PMR really is!
But this is Christmas and I wouldn't wish this illness onto my worst enemy ( or, perhaps?). No, Constance! All the best.
What a prat! He'd have had an earfull from me!
I don't know Constance - I really feel that all doctors with this mindset SHOULD have to suffer some of the things theyare so dismissive of. There is one lady former GP on another forum who now understands just what her PMR patients who she tried to persuade to stop pred fast were going through.
After all, it isn't life threatening so while they aren't going to die they could be indulging in all this exercise that will cure it couldn't they? I couldn't go swimming - not unless there were steps down into and out of the pool and it was warm. Ladder????? Haha!!! Otherwise they'd have had to get the disabled hoist out - and lots of pools won't let you in if you can't get out of the pool alone.
I got stuck on one of those ladders, one leg managed to slip BEHIND the ladder. I hung there, in agony, for quarter of an hour when, luckily, another hotel guest came into the pool. Poor man struggled like mad to sort me out!
Needless to say, I have never used such a thing again. I would fear "woman found dead in hotel swimming pool"!!!
Just one thing to say. Thank heavens he's retired!
Yes exactly Debbie ...good job he is retired , xx merry pain free Christmas all you wonderful people on here xxxx
It is difficult to believe that a trained doctor would say this....luckily he is retired! What a story!
A PAIN FREE CHRISTMAS TO ALL!
Just to add - I had a minor op on Friday morning and was 'told off' for taking my preds that morning! To cap it all, at discharge, around 3 o'clock I was presented by the staff nurse, three medications - one which was an antibiotic - which it was not! (Checked by my wife in her BNF and confirmed by A&E) the second paracetamol - Ok - and then Ibuprofen - a NSAID!! I tried to explain to the nurse that this was not on and was confronted with the usual answer ' doctor prescribed it so it must be right!' (only signed by a FY1) and refused to check as 'they were all busy'. I had to be taken back into hospital that evening via A&E because of complications missed at discharge, so I took the opportunity of asking the A&E doctor about my meds that were issued at discharge, the look of horror at what had been missed and her reaction to the nurses comments just showed the lack of communication and knowledge between staff. She did confirm 'mistakes' had been made and seems to understand what PMR was all about - thank goodness!
I had at the pre assessment, and at the visit with the consultant prior to that, gone thru' all the medication I was on and emphasised I was on steroids and was reducing at my pace and with regards to how I felt, notes were written down and I saw an underlining of it as well - but it was obvious that on Friday no-one even bothered to read all this! My copy of the pre assessment form also clearly stated I could take my 10 mg preds along with the Omprazole without taking food for this one time as I had to stop eating the evening before. Summing up I got the distinct impression I was a 'pleb' and that they knew better!! Thanks Karen for cheering me up - I needed it.
Aren't we all 'plebs' as far as the, so called, "specialsts" are concerned?
After all, what do patients know about their condition?
Xmas greetings, etc. etc.
Constance
There is an NHS sponsored programme in the UK for "Expert patients", designed to help keep them out of hospital and make them the experts on how to control their illness. A study was done of such expert patients and the hurdles they met with and downright pig-headedness of (in particular) nursing staff when they ended up at A&E or in hospital was mindboggling (well it was when you considered the patients had been trained by the NHS to know what they should be doing).
My daughter is a nurse, has worked on the chest ward, her daughter is a very severe brittle asthmatic - and an unbelievably arrogant consultant decided Naomi was non-compliant with meds and had laryngeal dysfunction. Nat doesn't do non-compliance, the tests showed there was no laryngeal dysfunction. This consultant wrote a care plan that, when used, had Naomi in resus circling the drain on at least 2 or 3 occasions and as a result Nat now suffers PTSD. There's only so much anyone can take watching a 14 year old at death's door. He threw them out when Nat tried to discuss it rationally with him.
Happy Christmas everyone!!!!
Oooh - but forgot to say that I know at least 3 PMR experts (real ones) who are happy to discuss how we manage our PMR and pred. They even listen to those of us involved as patient reps for their research work.
Not all bad but they need cloning...
I am trying to laugh Karen!.... OMG!
Then I wanted to know, are you not on Prednisilone?
Sheila
Having got my GP all trained up, after his shakey start, it's a great shame the message didn't get thru' to the hospital as well. I also pointed out - at A&E - that in the long run it cost more in money and time, let alone the worry etc. to the patient - will they ever learn? Which college/hospital do they do the cloning Eileen - would love to know?
Have a great Christmas
It appears nothing!!
Have a Great Christmas, Frohe Weihnachten (or if you prefer 'Happy Holiday - the dreadful US version!)
Wasn't it Edinburgh that did Dolly the sheep? But the trouble is, clones appear to age faster and die "young" so you'd have to keep doing it ;-)
There are others besides, but anyone who is able to get seen at the rheumatology departments in Leeds and Ashford can get pretty good care...
Yes sheilamac I am on pred ,started on 20 and reduced to 5 but the pain was unbearable so now back on 8 mg x
So is the 8mg stopping the pain? I am dreading getting that pain back. Despite side effects from Prednisilone I am so happy to have no pain. I hope you are painfree now.
Sheila x