My semi-regular rant against my doctors.

To my (former) orthopedic surgeon:

Dear sir,
When I first visited you in January I told you that this was not the first time I’ve injured my ACL. I told you I was tired of the friggin’ thing giving out on me and hobbling me for weeks. I told you I’d like to have the surgery my two previous surgeons recommended I consider.

When the MRI came back and showed a complete rupture, you told me to give the PT a chance. Fine. I’ve done the physical therapy thing before and there is no reason why my knee shouldn’t be has good as it could possibly be before the surgery. Then you tell me that a brace will do what the surgery would do without having to cut me and I would “get used to the brace.” Last month it was “Well, continue the PT and I’ll order you a stronger brace.” Like I want to live the rest of my life in a goddamned knee brace.

But the kicker-- the final insult was two weeks ago when you told me that I don’t really need the surgery because “Sometimes the ACL snaps back with physical therapy and you aren’t really that active to begin with.”

Look you old fucker, why did you waste 4 months of my life? If you never had any intentions of doing the surgery, why didn’t you just say so? Why did you feel the need to insult my intelligence by telling me my ruptured ACL will “snap back”, you damned liar? Since I’m not an athlete, I’m supposed to hobble around like a crack addict (as my daughter so elequently put it) for the rest of my life-- afraid to walk on grass because the uneven ground makes my leg buckle and just get used to the pain and daily swelling, is that right?

Why, why oh WHY did you string me along for 4 agonizing, leg-dragging, pain-filled months, you liverspotted prick?

To my internist,

During my first visit with you 2 years ago, I told you I suffer from hidradenitis suppurativa. You’d think after two years you’d look it up or something, right? I mean, you’re a doctor and your patient has this condition-- shouldn’t you know something about it?

Yes, I have a cyst. I have cysts all the fucking time. I am never, ever cyst free. EVER. When you notice a cyst during an exam don’t prescribe an antibiotic. They do no good and sometimes make the damned things worse by adding to the fluid collecting there. When the cysts become infected, then I’ll need an antibiotic.

When they get too big and the pressure causes pain, I’d like to have them drained, please. I don’t want a lecture about me squeezing them because I don’t squeeze them and that is not what causes the cluster of cysts, you moron!

WHY WON’T MY DOCTORS LISTEN TO ME!!!

Nonoffensive Answer

Perhaps your doctors are overworked, and aren’t able to spend enough time with you to adequately address your concerns. In the case of your orthopedic surgeon, maybe (due to age, since you mentioned him being liverspotted) he’s no longer up on all the proper ACL healing techniques. In the case of your internist, maybe they are young and still learning.
Inflammatory Answer

I recall hearing in both my psychology and sociology classes that the complaints of women (whether in the doctor’s office or at the supermarket Customer Service desk) are often downplayed, overlooked or pooh-poohed as being in their head - regardless of the gender of the doctor or customer service representative. Just MHO.

Sexual and/racial racial prejudice, I imagine, sad to say. It’s a sad state of affairs and you have my sympathy.

My wife reached the point of telling her physicians her name was “Dr. december” (she has a Ph.D. in statistics.) The title Dr. got them to treat her more seriously.

Biggirl, I know a really good knee surgeon in the Chicagoland area if you want to check him out. The doctors jerked my husband around when he blew his knee out the rest of the way 2 Christmases ago, but they are VA doctors, so I expect that crap from them. After exhausting the VA options, I found another doc for hubby. The doc gave him no run aroung. Hubby had his knee replaced just before thanksgiving and he is doing wonderfully.

I lance hubby’s cysts, but they are mild compared to what I read about hidradenitis suppurativa. From what I hear a lot of doctors are persistantly ignorant of that condition and its treatment.

Good luck.

i meant joint surgeon. He does other joints too and maybe could reccommend someone good if he doesn’t do ACL. I found him through my hand surgeon.

Thanks lee. I’m in New York. And I did get a second opinion on the knee. The second ortho surgeon said that there is no reason why I shouldn’t have the surgery. He also told me he does not do ACL replacements, but would recommend someone who does.

The thing is, I thought my surgeon was giving me real facts. That was until he told me that whopper about the ACL snapping back. I told him this wasn’t the first time I have been treated for it. Did he think the other doctors lied to me too with this bullshit about the ACL coming back? Does he think I don’t know how to read or something?

Do yall think my internist would be offended if I came into his office with some of the lastest info on hidradenitis?

Hmmm. If I were you, I’d bring the information, but not to shove in his face. I’d merely state my case, using the information as back-up to prove that I’m not just Crazy Patient Out To Get Revenge On Idiot Intern ™.

If he disagrees with what should be incontrovertible proof that you know what ails you, kindly inform him that you would be glad to reaffirm his opinion at another doctor’s.

Get a referral to a different doctor, and hopefully that will work out more to your advantage. If not, keep shopping for a doctor that seems both knowledgable and sympathetic to your problems. Since you live in New York, there should be plenty of doctors nearby to consult.

An orthopedic surgeon who doesn’t jump at the chance to cut?!

And they say there is no god . . .

If he is offended, he is not worth going to again. Bring it in. It is not a very common condition and treatment does go against conventional wisdom in many ways, like the antibiotic thing.

I have HS, too. Get a Dr. or a derm who has a clue. This is nothing to fuck around with.

Sorry for your shitty medical care. Doesn’t help, but I am sorry!

I’m so sorry you’re stuck with crappy health care providers Biggirl.
The surgeon is seriously out of order, he should have formulated a treatment plan and discussed it with you at the outset.

To be fair on the intern, my textbook here says HS is “very difficult” to treat, and says “antibiotics, oral retinoids and Dianette (2mg cyproterone acetate, 35mcg ethinyloestradiol) have been tried.”
Maybe he’s not got much more than that to work with?

Just a sad fact of life IMHO. Sometimes, women seem to still be second-class even in this so-called enlightened culture, even to each other. In fact, I’ve noticed that women can be even worse to other women over whom they perceive to have the slightest power. There are times when I find I have to be a complete bitch with some people, just to get them to provide the service I’m paying them to provide. Doctors, doctor’s office staff especially, CSR’s of every stripe, you name it.

Bank tellers rank up there with some of the worst, in my experience. But I’ve seen them being shitty to men too, to be fair. And I hear that they are often treated like crap by their employers, which I could see trickling down, so to speak. Doesn’t make it any easier to deal with though.

Sorry for the hijack, Biggirl. I don’t know, of course, why your doctors won’t listen to you but I doubt I would have had the patience you’ve shown. I agree that you should seek alternate opinions/options. Tell them what you think, in a reasonable but firm tone. Insist, if necessary, that your time is just as valuable as theirs. (Which it is!) Don’t allow them to waste any more of your life with treatments that drag on interminably, painfully and without satisfactory resolution.

A decent doctor shouldn’t have a problem with a patient who self-educates and takes ownership of their health.

On one hand, it sounds like the surgeon doesn’t know his business. ACLs don’t snap back very often. And the internist erred when he assumed you squeeze the cysts, but prescribing an antibiotic isn’t an unreasonable idea, though what works for you isn’t what works for everyone with HS. And your doctor should have asked what worked before.

On the other hand, patients often have unreasonable expectations of doctors. In fact, patients often are very unfair to doctors, expecting them to be psychic, automatically know what has worked for them in the past, know their entire complicated case history because someone somewhere wrote something down, etc. My experience of patients who badmouth other doctors is they often tend to leave a lot of these details out. Some patients can be given advice four or five times and still hear what they want to hear.

I wish you luck with finding good doctors who can help you with your problems. I’m sure your grievances are legitimate, but I do see both sides of the story reguarly – patients given bad advice, as well as “bad” patietns with no patience.