labellementeuse | (no subject)

In good news, I'm going in for my first rituximab treatment this thursday. This is a treatment that hopefully will make it possible for me to come off steroids permanently with a normal or safe count, so, you know, \o/! Should be about four cycles, they shouldn't take too long and shouldn't have any side effects.

In less good news, god almighty I hate my doctors up here. I'm thrilled that he's giving me rituximab, which I wouldn't have been able to get in CHCH. But jesus, I went along to see him, he said "Hi I have your notes from Ruth come in on Thursday morning and we'll give you the first dose." There wasn't even a question of whether or not I could make it (which I can't, actually, but fortunately my boss is wonderful and is finding me cover.) There was absolutely no discussion of what the treatment actually is, which I happen to know is a low-dose treatment administered by IV. I should theoretically be able to come off it in a few hours and have no or very few side effects, but heaven forfend that he talk about what those side effects might be or, you know, about the IV, or anything. He didn't take a blood test, he didn't suggest dropping my steroid dose - so I have no idea how they're supposed to tell if my count is going to be affected, and hey, I would quite like to come of the pred as soon as possible but forget actually talking to him about what level I can drop to - what I really want to do, and I think it woiuld be safe for me to do, is drop to fifteen but since I can't talk to him and have no idea what my count is like now, I can't (and, anyway, it's not smart for me to make an independent decision like that. Unfortunately, it looks like I'll be making a lot of these kind of decisions myself because he's not interested in helping me make them.)

Basically? He doesn't talk to me, has no interest whatsoever in making sure I understand anything and I don't like iot and I don't trust him and I miss my doctors in Christchurch. A lot.

Also I said I'd work tonight and I really, really don't want to, so WAH. WAH I SAY WAH.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Did... did you try to ask him about this stuff?

It's not offensive, honey, but I did try. I mean, I didn't say "I hate you and I don't trust you and I would really like for you to communicate more with me about my deal, BITCH" but I did ask to have a blood test, I asked about dropping prednisone, and I asked about the rituximab, and he said "yes that's possible" for the first one and then totally failed to follow up on it - which he has done numerous times before, actually, and it really pisses me off - he said "we could consider that" for the second and then DIDN'T consider it and gave me a non-answer for the third. Any one of these could be well intentioned absent mindedness, but all together and with his general attitude mostly it strikes me as fobbing me off and hoping I won't take up too much of his time.

With my other doctors they were always more than willing to take a little extra time. And sometimes that meant waiting for upwards of two hours in the waiting room, but it also meant never leaving the hospital confused, it meant never leaving the hospital unhappy, and it meant ALWAYS knowing what my options are. With this guy I would never have known about options at all. *sigh*

Right, well then yeah, he sounds like a jerk to me.

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I know this might be kind of an offensive question but...

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