Day 4 Most disheartening doctor statements

There have been so many disheartening statements that it’s hard to pick just one. I’ve heard “some people have a lifetime of nerve pain with no known cause” from a neurologist. A chiropractor told me “you have an autoimmune disease that hasn’t been diagnosed yet.” An internist said I was a “control freak.” A Duke neurosurgeon snapped angrily that he would give me a referral to a pain clinic since I wasn’t a surgery candidate. But perhaps the most discouraging statement was when the trusted orthopedist that I had been seeing for six months said “I can’t do anything for you” before discharging me from his care.

As a side note about physician statements. My sweet and introverted sister-in-law was told by her general practitioner that she needed to stop being so preoccupied with her health. Embarrassed by the chastisement, it was six months before she got the nerve to see another physician. Two months later she died from a completely treatable bone cancer. She was 39 and the mother of two children. If physicians only understood the power of their words.

 

Your list of statements is just devastating. So sorry to hear about your sister. Such a tragic loss.

Glad you have joined us here on the Forum. Keep us posted on how you're doing. Wishing you the best........