back Friday afternoon to come in to Ultrasonic Angiology this morning! Had the test, sonographer/radiographer type person has a poke around and tells me there's nothing wrong with the artery. This is a 'yay' as it means no angioplasty, but also a 'boo' as it means we still don't know what's wrong. Hoping now that the reduced Tacrolimus dosage will be enough to show some improvement. Tests on Wednesday so I guess I'll find out sometime on Thursday.
Tis somewhat frustrating going to clinic now. Most of the nurses have great memories and know who I am, but the doctors are a whole different matter. Seeing a different one each week I can kinda deal with, but really, how hard would it be to take five minutes to LOOK AT MY BLOODY NOTES before you ask me into the room? They barely even know your name, and I spend the first five minutes of each appointment updating them on what is happening, what I've had done recently in terms of tests and drug changes and so on. Doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the fact that they're taking any time to actually look into your situation. I do appreciate that being a kidney patient does mean a lot more hands on involvement in your treatment than a lot of other long term conditions but it does sometimes feel like you have to drive it a bit. One week the registrar I saw basically abandoned the consultation because she couldn't read the notes the previous week's doctor had written. And they apparently complain about having to use the computer! At least there'd be no handwriting issues then! :)
Ooh that was a bit more of a rant than I intended! I'm not complaining about the standard of clinical care. I just think that in terms of how they deal with patients it'd be nice for people to feel that they are individuals instead of just the next pile of notes to be processed. Like so many other situations I suppose!
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I know exactly what you mean about the registrar/SHO/Consultant/cleaner lack of continuity of care situation. I had a very long gap between visits to my rheumatologist, to the point where the whole team had left and all they had were locums...
ReplyDeleteI didn't know what the Rheumatologist needed from me this time round and he couldn't find my notes and even after they were found I'm still not sure he knew what he was supposed to do.
This is also very commonplace in maternity departments, seeing everyone to anxious 1st timers, to high risk cases like me being seen by every Dr Tom, Dick and Harry and doing nothing to make the patients feel at ease. It's no better with midwives either, ask any of the B3 mums and they'll tell you exactly that.
Have a *hug*
Hope the cret levels are getting better and your stress levels are reducing a bit hon xxx