This is mildly irritating me and probably shouldn’t be

[HoneyDragon]

Had to see a consultant went through the usual standard questions, noting my responses. One being “how much do you drink”, I replied “I don’t drink”, he then clarified “you don’t drink alcohol at all?” And I clarified I don’t drink any alcoholic drinks.

He then copied me into the letter sent to my GP recommending what needed to be done next in which he put “Honeydragon drinks a minimal amount of alcohol”.

No I bloody don’t. I said I don’t. And this has really irritates me for some reason. I’m fairly thick skinned, an I do have real stuff to worry about but stuff like this gets under my skin and makes me want to write strongly worded emails. Because he checked, double checked and then wrote something entirely different.

Obviously I won’t do that. I just harrumph and gruntled about it. And now I’ve decided I don’t like a seemingly perfectly nice Doctor because of it.

Why is it the little things that wind you up? Please tell me I’m not the only one who will gruntle over relatively minor issues yet cope admirably with the big ones.

Mine flags I have asthma
Every time "how's your asthma?"
Well, fine as I don't have it!
Eventually after asking for it to be changed, constant asthma letters etc, I accepted the asthma review
Turned up, did a peak flow, said I wasn't on any inhalers and they said "but you don't have asthma?"
Me "THANK YOU" and it got removed from my records

I did have pneumonia which is why I had steroids/nebulisers/inhaler treatment once

MaMelon that's a really important point, not just for mental health but for other conditions that are often minimised, pain, fatigue etc.
Not sure where I'm going with this, you got me thinking.

This was an excellent one. I'm doing well for someone with peritonitis for many years ...
(I've never had peritonitis)

that would piss me off.

I'd want that record to be changed to reflect facts not the GP's interpretation of what you said.

so if he'd asked "do you have kids?" and you'd said "no" would he have written "HoneyD has an unclear maternal status, but seemingly has a small amount of kids"?!

ffs.
complain. his conduct is unacceptable

DH once tried to sort out a joint something (I can't remember what it was) and they asked for my details.
cool. they added me.
then he wanted to cancel the whole thing because he found a better deal so he cancelled my details first.

he then got a letter from them in which they said my part was closed down as per request due to my passing away 😳🤣
wtf? he never said that!

stealth, yes MaMelon makes a good point, if you have someone suffering and it’s minimised by a gp it can be traumatic, they are the gatekeepers to the help you need, for some that wording could isolate the further from seeking help.

I’m watching Newsnight and one attendee has made the point that if Naomi Osaka declined interviews due to a physical injury she would be wholly supported but because its due to mental health reasons she’s considered to be overreacting and should suck it up. Her sport financially penalised her for advocating for her own health.

How annoying for you. That would really irritate me too.
I'm pregnant and my medical records gave me down as having three live pregnancies and three miscarriages & one current pregnancy. Actually it's 3 live pregnancies, two miscarriages and one current pregnancy. I've asked for it to be changed so many times. It changes nothing but at the start of this pregnancy it made me so uncomfortable because it felt like a bad omen and seeing it recorded on my maternity app every time I logged in freaked me out!

I had this with my midwife, when she asked how much alcohol I drank a week before pregnancy and I said ten units. She raised an eyebrow and was incredulous and patronising, though wrote it down anyway. I knew exactly how much I drank as I'd been counting accurately and losing weight with Weightwatchers that year before I got married!

My mum has to declare that she’s had a TIA when getting travel insurance, even though she hasn’t had one, because of the way it’s worded on her records. Something like ‘no evidence of a TIA’ but because it doesn’t say she hasn’t had one, she has to declare it as if she has! It’s bonkers.

The worst one I had was when the receptionist phoned me to say I had pre-diabetes. She said it was type 2 based on my weight and told me that it was lifestyle related. I queried it was related to my weight as I was a normal weight at the time. She insisted it was related to my obesity. I came in for a followup the next day and only then did she realise I was not the person on the record who was morbidly obese and I was in fact being treated for an eating disorder and was only recently weight restored. Turned out the pre-diabetes disgnosis didn't relate to me either.

I think alcohol can be a difficult one to gauge.

I consider myself a non-drinker as in general I don't drink alcohol at all. However very occasionally I will have a bit (eg at a wedding I will have a sip of champagne during the toasts). I also use alcohol in cooking from time to time (there's lots of brandy in my brandy butter at Christmas).

So it wouldn't be true to say I never have any alcohol, but in an average week or even month I have none.

She actually got constipated ( not unusual with thus particular type) so was taken off it but was recorded as a ' reaction'
They have to take something like that as a reaction, her body reacted in a certain/different way to something unnatural. I used to work in pharmaceuticals and sat in a few times on clinical trial meetings for r and d. Anything different has to be noted for people's safety

I once had a phone call for life insurance they asked me how much they drank and I told them laughing I drank probably twice a year. The lowest they had was once a month so he said he'd put down 1 a week. I said no way if there's a comment section put it in there and made him send me a copy!

That's utter rubbish! Why do they not pay attention to their patients?! I've sent my letter & cc'd it to my Dr as well.
So they had you down as sterilised when you weren't? Scary isn't it? 🤦🏼‍♀️

@RainbowCrayons

The worst one I had was when the receptionist phoned me to say I had pre-diabetes. She said it was type 2 based on my weight and told me that it was lifestyle related. I queried it was related to my weight as I was a normal weight at the time. She insisted it was related to my obesity. I came in for a followup the next day and only then did she realise I was not the person on the record who was morbidly obese and I was in fact being treated for an eating disorder and was only recently weight restored. Turned out the pre-diabetes disgnosis didn't relate to me either.

That is mental. And very scary. 😳