Letters To My Doctor: The GP

Dear Dr,                                                                         

I am writing in context of my recent visit to xxx and a confirmed diagnosis of Thyroiditis. I felt it may be useful to share my experiences following a consultation with yourself on (date).

I want to share this information since it has taken me much longer to get a diagnosis, simply because I was not heard and this has had a significant impact on my life and the future course of my life.

At the consultation, I presented with sleeplessness. You asked if I was depressed and I said I was not; I was disappointed to read that this had been interpreted as me being ‘defensive’ in my medical notes. I simply knew I was not depressed and this had also been confirmed by my counsellor. (There is a letter on my file as per how she experienced me in therapy.)

I also described the feeling of having a sore lump in my throat and was told by yourself ‘that this doesn’t happen with thyroid problems.’ In this instance I do have a sore lump in my throat, and it has now been established that this is due to my thyroid illness. This may be useful information for future.

In-light of recent support I now have confirmation, as suspected, that on the day I visited you I was experiencing symptoms of an over-active thyroid (these are very unpleasant) and ‘sleep hygiene,’ which I am extremely well versed in was not helping me to sleep – as explained at the time. I felt it was inappropriate to be described as ‘angry’ in my medical notes when I was in fact calm but assertive in asking for help.

Finally, on leaving the appointment I said ‘so you can’t do anything for me then?’ to which you responded by indicating towards your screen and saying ‘it looks like we’ve done enough for you Jenny.’ Thyroid problem or not I felt this an unacceptable way to end the consultation – I am sure you can imagine how this made me feel.

I understand that during this consultation your concern was me becoming addicted to sleeping tablets. However, I felt like the language of ‘it looks like you have enough on your plate’ was disingenuous in the context of the consultation, which made me feel extremely uncomfortable.  

As expressed at the time I had, in the previous week and not for consecutive nights found the need to take a total of 4 Zopiclone tablets – in expressing your concerns about addiction so forcefully you caused myself a great deal of additional stress that had not been present previous to the consultation – I left the room worse off than I had entered.

I appreciate you not wanting a patient to become addicted to sleeping tablets, but I felt this course of action was not considered within my personal context or with any knowledge of me as a patient. In understanding my journey, you will see a reluctance to request medication unless absolutely necessary (risk/ benefit.) In fact, I have actively and continually taken decisions to seek alternative ways to good health, regardless of being pescribed a plethora of medication.

In my experience, for the last three and a half years the biggest barrier to my care has been a lack of continuity and people making assumptions about me – often based on previous notes on my file. Can I ask you to understand why your notes of this consultation may have caused future barriers.

When I have described symptoms, they have simply not been heard.

I ask that you please refer to my letter from Dr xxx to understand my condition, which, granted is not common.  

Yours Sincerely

Jenny

*no acknowledgment or reply.