The SUIT study

[percival]

So I finally got a call by the doctor who's running the SUIT study, after my e-mail had been forwarded by the secretary I'd written to earlier this week.

He's Indian. First of all, he didn't say what he was calling about, he just went to great lengths to tell me that he couldn't tell me anything about my scans. (Maybe as a reaction to my "it's you! FINALLY!") To his protestations, I said, "fine, I know, let's get on with it." So he asked me whether I wanted to go on the study yes or no. No apologies for having made me wait seven weeks for that call.

I expressed concerns about the interaction between the Clomiphene Citrate and the fibroid - whether it would stimulate growth. He responded: "If you want Clomiphene, you tell your doctor." No, sucker, I don't have a doctor, I have registrars, and they certainly doen't have time to discuss that with me. Also, I expressed CONCERN. So I repeated the request. He said: "Well, you are the boss, you tell me". Then, I lost my patience and SHOUTED: "Will the CLOMIPHENE make my fibroid GROW????" No, it's an anti-estrogen, and estrogens make fibroids grow. Phew, an answer, finally.

I also got some more info about how the study is run. Basically, on our first consultation, we'll be asked a few questions, and then we'll be randomised. If we're in the Clomiphene group, we'll get 6 months' supply of pills, with the first cycle being monitored. If we're in the IUI group, we get six months of ovulation predictor kits - when I'm ovulating, I call up the clinic and I get inseminated with fresh sperm. We'll be sent home with the kit right there and then.

I said I'd phone him tomorrow on his bleeper to tell him our decision.


His "bedside" manner is certainly under par. I'm willing to chalk part of this up to cross-cultural differences, part of this up to stress. He's only part time on the study, the main funding having run out. However, I'm also quite vulnerable right now, and this is not what I hoped for - I hoped for people who care. I think a long talk with my husband is on the cards tonight once I'm home from the course. I'm sick and tired of being treated like a thing. I want proper care and support, and I won't get that from a stressed-out Indian male doctor or from a clueless Icelandic female registrar or from a newbie British registrar.

Comments

[aome.livejournal.com]

I'm sick and tired of being treated like a thing.

This is why I hate most of the medical community. I would FAR rather go to the dentist than the doctor - at least my dentists and aides have always treated me as a human, but I've had only ONE decent doctor (and two female nurse practitioners) in my whole life.

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

*hugs*

Then again, there are times I prefer registrars to consultants, especially at teaching hospitals....

[guttaperk.livejournal.com]

Ouch.

There are all sorts of wrongness in what you describe.

For instance, I'm a registrar, and the concept of not having the time to explain the effects of medication to my patients is ludicrous. If I don't, who the fuck will?

Oh, right. Nobody. Which is what often happens, I guess.

[ljrags.livejournal.com]

Ok, I am a bit confused here by terminology. Are registrars the same as residents here in the U.S.? (By the term residents, I mean someone who is practicing medicine under supervision of an experienced doctor. It is the last stage before they let someone practice medicine on their own) And why is it you seem to see a different one everytime?

[perceval.livejournal.com]

My GP is fine, and the private GP I sometimes see is ok, too. But the people at the Royal Infirmary have just been ... well, we had only one decent registrar so far. And the ultrasound lady knew what she was doing.

[perceval.livejournal.com]

Not if you get the clueless newbies in two of your three consultations.

but I see what you mean - registrars are less battle hardened.

[perceval.livejournal.com]

I'm seeing a different person every time because my visits are spaced months and months apart, and because that's the way they've organised their work.

I don't know what the exact status of registrars is - I think they are a bit like residents.

[perceval.livejournal.com]

The registrar I was talking to sounded definitely unenthusiastic and unwilling to give me any information I didn't specifically ask for. Not somebody to come to with any problems ... and he did tell me that Clomiphene has quite a few side effects.

[perceval.livejournal.com]

Oh, and when I said "the docs don't have time to discuss things with me" I meant that I normally have to wait months for an appointment. So if I think about it, and have further questions, I don't get to see a doctor (good example: the fibroids). I get as little doctor contact as they can get away with.

[mincot.livejournal.com]

Even when you see the same doctors, there's no guarantee. I had a constant pain in the small of my neck, and I was referred to a neurologist. He gave me meds, and the meds made me start hallucinating. Really. Once I saw a black cat, real as life, hop down from my desk and calmly walk through the CLOSED door. (I didn't have a black cat.) When I complained, he did not say, "Well, there can be hallucination, but they will go away after a period of weeks," or, "I know it is bothersome, but the positive effects outweigh the negatives, unless you're hallucinating when you are driving." No, just "Take it."

I switched doctors--hard to do, as I was a broke graduate student who could only afford what student insurance paid for, which wasn't much. (Thank God for a doctor my mother worked with ... he took me on and never once charged more than the bare minimum--he was interested in longitudinal family studies, so as he saw my grandmother, he began seeing my mother, sister and me at minimum charge so he could see long-term family patterns ... SWEET man!)

(((((((((((((((((((((Perceval)))))))))))))))))))) That is SO frustrating--and SCARY!!

[atropos87.livejournal.com]

:/ That all sounds tough. Good luck with making your decision.

[murasaki99.livejournal.com]

Good goddess, I'm amazed you didn't have a total fit at the idiot. (I'm reading these entries in reverse order.) I've not yet had an Indian doctor I was happy with - one I got referred to for dermatology wouldn't even *touch* my skin! How can a dermatologist do anything if they won't touch you??

I agree with you totally. You need to be treated like a whole person, not an object. Stick to your guns. It's really too bad the big hospital is so utterly impersonal, it makes the practice of medicine a travesty.

Hugs and good wishes!

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

No, registrars in my case were far less know-it-all, far less up themselves, far more open to the possibilities...