Hi, I had to go to the doctor yesterday to have my ear syringed, and happened to glance at the screen while the nurse was busy to see the following notes, made 5 or so years ago coincidentally when I had the procedure done last time: "Complaints of longstanding ill health. Visited Practise therapist [date] for CBT following anxiety attacks - label as somatizer."
I am absolutely furious. I had been back and fore to them for years complaining of all the various symptoms relating to hypothyroidism, and only mentioned the panic attacks when they became so extreme I couldn't cope with life. These started happening when my TSH must have been rising, I was extremely hyper, losing weight and classically thyrotoxic, and they more or less went away with starting thyroxine. I am extremely bitter about not being diagnosed for 15 years and losing the best years of my youth to this problem; to find my fight to get them to take it seriously labelled as a psychiatric disorder makes me more livid than I can describe.
Am I within my rights (in the UK) to see the whole of my medical records and demand that these remarks (made pre diagnosis, I must stress) are removed? It's no wonder that I cannot persuade them that I am still not well on thyroxine when each new GP I see reads this and dismisses the problem without consideration.
Stella @ Stejonda 29 December 2005 17:29:40 [ permanent link ]
In message <1135858673.358633.107910@o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com>, moriarte <elizabeth@basilisk.co.uk> writes>Hi,>I had to go to the doctor yesterday to have my ear syringed, and>happened to glance at the screen while the nurse was busy to see the>following notes, made 5 or so years ago coincidentally when I had the>procedure done last time: "Complaints of longstanding ill health.>Visited Practise therapist [date] for CBT following anxiety attacks ->label as somatizer.">
I am absolutely furious. I had been back and fore to them for years>complaining of all the various symptoms relating to hypothyroidism, and>only mentioned the panic attacks when they became so extreme I couldn't>cope with life. These started happening when my TSH must have been>rising, I was extremely hyper, losing weight and classically>thyrotoxic, and they more or less went away with starting thyroxine. I>am extremely bitter about not being diagnosed for 15 years and losing>the best years of my youth to this problem; to find my fight to get>them to take it seriously labelled as a psychiatric disorder makes me>more livid than I can describe.>
Am I within my rights (in the UK) to see the whole of my medical>records and demand that these remarks (made pre diagnosis, I must>stress) are removed? It's no wonder that I cannot persuade them that I>am still not well on thyroxine when each new GP I see reads this and>dismisses the problem without consideration.>
I think you can ask to see all of your records but you have to give notice. I'm not sure what your rights are about getting things deleted. The Dept. of Health could tell you - they probably have a leaflet about it. Try their website.
Thanks for this, I will be taking this up with them asap, will let you know what happens. I'm sure I'm not the only long-term thyroid sufferer out there that has their medical records peppered with remarks like this!
Saw new GP and she brought the subject up before I mentioned it. She had written the comment in summary of what previous drs had written, and said that it didn't represent her view. She was reluctant to remove it completely but was happy to revise it to say 'labelled as somatizer prior to diagnosis with underactive thyroid'. Not sure if I'm overjoyed about that, but she was straight about it at least.
Gwenhyffar Milgi 9 January 2006 15:34:39 [ permanent link ]
moriarte wrote:> Saw new GP and she brought the subject up before I mentioned it. She> had written the comment in summary of what previous drs had written,> and said that it didn't represent her view. She was reluctant to remove> it completely but was happy to revise it to say 'labelled as somatizer> prior to diagnosis with underactive thyroid'. Not sure if I'm overjoyed> about that, but she was straight about it at least.>
It least it now says that your previous doctors were incompetent tw*ts because they didn't recognize you were hypothyroid. It's actually a very strong statement to whomever gets your records next, because it's saying that your previous doctors misdiagnosed you.
Kevin G. Rhoads 10 January 2006 20:20:15 [ permanent link ]
it completely but was happy to revise it to say 'labelled as somatizer>> prior to diagnosis with underactive thyroid'. Not sure if I'm overjoyed>> about that, but she was straight about it at least.>>
It least it now says that your previous doctors were incompetent tw*ts >because they didn't recognize you were hypothyroid. It's actually a very >strong statement to whomever gets your records next, because it's saying >that your previous doctors misdiagnosed you.>
Sorry, ear-syringing or "somatiser"? You have your ears syringed when there is a build up of hard wax which cannot be softened with hot oil, which has to be removed in my case as I am deaf on one side.
A somatiser is a patient who imagines they have a range conditions when they don't.
Kevin G. Rhoads 17 January 2006 19:55:02 [ permanent link ]
A somatiser is a patient who imagines they have a range conditions when>they don't.
What is often labelled in the US of A as a "hypochondriac". The family practice doc we had for decades told us back in the 1980's somewhen that the association for family practice physicians had issued a strong recommendation to *never* label someone as a hypochondriac or symptoms as psychosomatic -- because all too often such labels were *wrong*.
I think such a suggestion should be adopted as guidelines for all medical specialties. THe amount of time and effort saved by not treating the rare cases of someone who is deluded are more than overwhelmed by the pain, suffering and extra treatment time and cost needed to address those whose health has been torpedoed by a medical system ignoring hard to diagnose diseases with diffuse symptomologies.
But the psychology of "I can't find a physical cause, therefore there is none" is very hard to overcome, even for good doctors. Giving that any excuse just makes it worse.
If only we could train doctors to read such a label in a patient's medical record as evidence of laziness or incompetence on the part of the doctor who wrote it -- but that ain't gonna happen anywhen soon....
For what it is worth, a somatiser is medically defined as someone who lays particular emphasis on physical symptoms and who play down or even deny psychological symptoms. This is often the case with the patients who are suffering from depression, who prefer to focus on their physical symptoms rather than considering the psychological ones.
Whoever comes back to this thread... I am a somatizer. I was shocked to see it was something to be ashamed of. I become upset or panicked and I sicken. That is how I physiologically work. I become ill from stress, rather immediately and indefinitely (I have been medically disabled -- near-death three times -- for about sixteen years. I was 21 when it began.)
Well, maybe this link will help you; there is no cause for anger. It is entirely likely that the doctor who "called you" a somatizer recognized the connection between your stress levels and sickness.
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