To think my GP just wants me to either end up in A&E or die?

[bytheMoonlight]

My asthama has been playing up recently and I have been using a lot of inhalers.

Last night, around 3am,dh had to go to the out of hours service as I had used up the two I had. I only got them 2 wks ago.

The emergency inhaler I was given is an aresol one though, the areosol in it actually makes my chest tighter so it takes a lot of puffs and time to open my chest.

I phoned the doctors this morning to get an appointment and was told as it was asthma it could via phone appointment. GP phoned me back, told me off for using them up too quickly, nearly made me cry, I tried explaining it's not under control and I need different inhalers. She said I had to prove they weren't all used up. I explained that these inhalers have a red line which appears when they are empty, and that and they weren't helping to open my chest so must be empty. She said she couldn't issue me any and to phone the front desk to book in with the asthma nurse. She didn't even know I had an emergency inhaler so was just going to leave me with no inhalers. I explained that I did have an emergency inhaler but it's much help, she got even angrier that I had used the out of hours service and told me just to use the emergency one till I could an appointment.

I then phoned the reception and I can't get into see the asthma nurse till Tuesday afternoon. Which means I have no way of preventing an attack.

AIBU to think this is just dangerous. I don't know what to do now. If I phone back and she starts shouting at me again, I will just end up crying. It's not my fault I need to use them so much.

I think she would be happy if I died and gave her a permanent solution to the problem.

WTF? Go to A&E. Also pharmacists can issue emergency inhalers.

And complain about the doctor

OMG definitely complain but sort yourself out first.

Well I suspect she doesn't actually want you in A&E or dead since that would show up how negligent she is being. Go to A&E and explain your situation, take someone with you to help fight your corner if you think you're likely to be reduced to tears again.

they are not the experts on you, you are!

my dil has called an ambulance 14 times since christmas - each time being admitted, but the expert couldnt find anything.

he called her in for an appointment and told her to stop bothering the nhs and to stop calling ambulances because they were for people who NEEDED them.

she was mortified and upset!

last week, she called them again, again in excruitating pain, had lost 6 stone in weight since christmas.

turns out she had a blocked bile duct and WAS in pain and needed an operation to correct it.

i ws mad on her behalf, but also becuase if they had said that to my MIL, she would have never phoned for an ambulance again, i'm just glad DIL was strong enough to stand up for herself and ask for help when she needed it.

A GP refused to take my husband's asthma seriously when he went to see him (twice) and dh ended up in A & E with a severe asthma attack that almost killed him. He has never had another as he changed GP who was horrified by the other GP's cavalier attitude to his condition and prescribed him proper drugs.
You need to phone the surgery and get an emergency appointment with a GP preferably another one than the one you spoke to on the phone so they can reassess what inhalers you're on and change doses to stabilise the asthma.

Complain definitely, a junior doctor on the childrens ward sent my DS home twice while he has pneumonia with nothing but inhalers on his third admission i demanded a chest x-ray which showed pneumonia. He shouted at me that i wasn't medically trained and had no right to ask for a chest x-ray. I got a second opinion! My son almost died and was in HDU for a week. Its not worth the risk go to A+E.

Change GP. My old one told me there was "nothing wrong with me except I was fat, go away and don't come back until I lost three stone".
Two weeks later I had a second massive heart attack and had to be zapped by the paramedics. The hospital consultant was so irate he actually wrote me a letter to show to whichever doctor I asked to move to, backing me up and explaining and asking them to take me as a patient.
Don't put up with the GP you have now, find another one asap! And if you do need A&E in the meantime, then go there - explain it all to them. Don't put yourself at risk because the GP is an arse.

What a numpty!

What inhalers are you on?
Do you check peak flows?

A GP told me on a saturday morning that she didn't think I had asthma, it was all in my head or stress related and that I was using too much ventolin. I ended up in incubated in intensive care that night and in hospital for a week. The consultant agreed with me that I did indeed have quite(!) bad asthma! Please persist with the GP before you end up in the state I did.

You really need to change GP - if you are getting through reliever inhalers that quickly then your doctor is not treating your asthma correctly. Have you ever been tried on symbicort? It's a long lasting version of ventolin plus a steroid. I went from being a two ventolin inhalers a month asthmatic to pretty much never using it. Something else that has helped me a lot with my allergies is fexofenadine so it would be worth asking about that if you have allergy induced asthma.

In the mean time get yourself down to A&E, if you're getting through inhalers so quickly you should be seen by someone. They'll be able to sort you out with an inhaler plus some steroid tablets and antibiotics if you need them and they might be able to suggest a new GP who would handle your asthma better.