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A doctor in the mid-1990’s who told me he “didn’t believe” in regular insulin, and only prescribed NPH. He also didn’t believe in the hA1c score, and said the best way to tell if a diabetic had long-term blood sugar control was to look at their feet. Of course, by the time you get ulcers there, it’s probably too late…
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A French doctor who spent something like 2 or 3 solid minutes examining my hands, and who kept asking me which “race” I was. I said “um, white” and he snapped “No! This is not your race! Are you German, Italian, English…” I told him what my ancestry was (being fairly certain due to genealogical research), and he frowned and said “No, that is not right…”, all the while staring down at my hands.
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When I was in the ER for severe abdominal pain a very angry doctor who came almost running up and listened to me for perhaps 5 seconds, no I’m not exaggerating this, and said “You have a bleeding ulcer. You need Tagamet.” and he tore off a prescription as I was trying to explain to him that I had been tested for h. pylori and scoped and I had no ulcer, threw the prescription on my bed, and yelled “discharge this woman! She doesn’t need to be in here!” Oh the real diagnosis? Kidney stone.
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A very angry doctor in the ER who asked what medication I was taking, and when I told her regular and NPH insulin, rolled her eyes and exploded, screaming words to the effect of “Jesus Christ, she took NPH. We’re going to be in here all fucking night waiting until it clears. Why did you take that, huh? Huh?” Um, because I’m an insulin-dependent diabetic, and it was prescribed for me over 20 years…I’m sure it’s on my chart somewhere…I mean WTF, are the cool kids taking insulin for highs nowadays?
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Last month a doctor who had my CT scan results right in front of him, open and on his desk, said “We need to order a CT scan!” I told him I’d just had one the prior week, and he “No you haven’t.” I told him to basically look down, and he said “Oh yeah. Huh. Let me write you a prescription then.”
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One doctor asked me if I was religious, and when I said I wasn’t, he then started witnessing to me about the Adventists, and pushed a whole bunch of literature in my hands. I politely accepted, and then he started to tell me that “studies show diabetics who have a strong faith in Jesus Christ are proven to have better blood sugar control” and then mentioned how he was uncomfortable treating patients on a long-term basis who lacked faith, because a lack of faith meant you weren’t “taking your diabetes management seriously,” so if I didn’t find something to worship, I should find a new doctor.
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One doctor demeaned my sexuality in very clear terms, and said he wouldn’t treat people like me “unless they were dying, which you’re not.”
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When I slipped on the ice and had a crippling tendon injury which put me in a wheelchair, two doctors refused to prescribe any pain medication except “200 mg Ibuprofen” (which if you don’t know is the standard over-the-counter strength." This was after I told them I hadn’t slept in 36 hours due to the pain. One of them told me it was “because kids your age (19) just abuse pain meds” and the other told me he “didn’t believe in pain medication; you should only treat the cause and just tough it out.” I didn’t sleep until the next day, when I saw a third doctor who gave me powerful narcotics without question.
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A doctor who diagnosed that I had a burst eardrum from an infection, who told me “your eardrum’s gone” and wrote it up in the records. He also didn’t give me antibiotics, saying “now that the drum’s burst, the pressure is relieved and it’ll clear itself.” It put me into a panic, so I went to see an ENT the very same day who told me “no, your eardrum is inflamed but perfectly intact.” Here I put my foot down and demanded to know how come the other doctor couldn’t see an eardrum, and the ENT looked embarrassed and shrugged, saying “I have no idea, it’s clearly there and there’s no blockage.” And he said I needed powerful antibiotics at once to fight a really bad infection in there, giving me an injection and pills.
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And finally, I had a doctor whose office I waited in for exactly 3 hours and 35 minutes past my appointment because they were running extremely late. I had to get back to work, so I went to the desk and demanded my co-pay back, because obviously the doctor wasn’t going to see me. They categorically refused to give me my co-pay back, so I told them “since it’s on a credit card, I’ll dispute the bill.” That apparently got their attention, because they summoned the doctor, who said “oh, well, I’ll see you now.” I explained it was too late, as I had to get back to work, and she said “well you can’t legally ask for your co-payment back because I offered to see you.” I said “let’s test that theory with the insurance company,” and then she sneered at me and said “so you need to go back to work? What’s more important, work or your health?” and I replied “well, if I get fired I can’t afford to see you, whereas if I go back to work I can go see someone else who won’t make me wait nearly 4 hours.” She then announced to the waiting room that I was lying about my appointment time, and I showed her my admission sheet which had the appointment time on it, and she looked at it, looked at me, and said “get out of my office!” I went online to dispute the co-pay and found they had already credited it - however, about a month later my insurance company sent me their itemized receipt which showed the doctor submitted a claim that she had seen me for an office visit, and that the co-pay (and other money) was outstanding. In fact, there was a charge for an X-ray I never had. I called the insurance company’s fraud line, told them about it, and it was the last I ever heard of anything.
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Not a doctor, but a bad pharmacist story: At an OSCO drug, I went in to get a prescription filled for 150 glucose test strips, and they only had 100. So they said they owed me 50, I paid the full amount, and went home. The next week I phoned in and they told me they hadn’t had any come in (of my brand)." Two weeks passed, and still no strips, even though I called every other day. Finally at three weeks they told me my strips were in, and I went to pick them up. And they wanted to charge me an entire pharmacy co-pay for the remaining strips. I told them no, this was because they shorted me on the last prescription, and this led to a very lengthy argument with a pharmacist who claimed “once you walk out of the store with your prescription, we don’t have to give you anything you’re short on, because you accepted the short prescription.” I told her I had to take the short prescription because otherwise I wouldn’t be able to test my blood sugar, and she said kept arguing. Finally, she looked at me, and said in a sweetly-sarcastic way “Oh you poor thing, this just isn’t sinking in to you, is it? You took your prescription. Either pay for these strips, or get out of the store.” So I left, and as I had more money than time that day, I just went to another pharmacy and bought the missing strips.
I have many more stupid doctor stories. I even have a few good doctor stories, too. My current endo who I’ve been seeing for 11+ years is fantastic. My ex-so was one of the best, maybe the best doctor I’ve ever met. But sadly, I’ve met far more careless, overworked, and bizarre doctors than good ones.
I don’t do it because I’m on the pill so I know based on that but most of the women I know who aren’t on the pill and are menstruating do something similar to keep track. It’s especially useful if you start having trouble and you can show the OB exactly when the problem started.