How many times would you visit the GP before giving up?

[Catk34]

I’ve been 10 times in the last 3 months.
I have a list of symptoms as long as my arm. Ranging from daily blood crusting in my nose, ear pain, loose bowel movements, joint pain, rashes, itchy skin, lump in throat feeling…and more
Basically nothing that really points to anything specific. I’ve had blood taken, which hasn’t really shown up anything significant and it gets left at that.
i have had a referral to ENT, but it’s an 18 month wait.
I get told things like ‘hormones’ (even though they haven’t checked my hormones) or ‘you’ll just be tired coz you have a baby’ (I’m not)

I really feel like I’m at a dead end now. I’m so exhausted from it all. The mental load of feeling and knowing something is wrong but not knowing how to get help. The constant appointments taking time out of my life but getting no further at getting an answer. Or just the insane waiting times.

I feel now that I’ve officially given up and will just wait until either - 1. Everything eventually gets better or 2. Everything eventually gets worse

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/clym663288jo

I read this news piece earlier about a campaign to get GPs to reexamine patients in your sort of situation. Hopefully there’s nothing seriously wrong in your case but it might help you to argue for a second opinion.

Do you know what bloods were done? Do you have a list of all the symptoms you’ve presented with?

Do you know what bloods you've had done and the results? Did they do a full autoimmune panel? Also seconding the above - you need reassessing

Document your symptoms and dates. Document any treatment and what you tried. Describe how this is impacting your life now. Go to the GP and ask what the next steps are. Show them you treatment so far and how it impacts you and ask what next and when. If they still won’t budge ask how you get a second opinion as this is affecting your life.

Don’t give up! Change GPs. Practice vary wildly. I moved from one of the best practices in London to one definitely in the bottom 10% (Google reviews were 1.9 or something…) Then we moved again and now I’m back to an excellent GP. The ones that do training for other practices are good. Ones with a transient / young / student patient group are good, because those people hardly ever go to the doctor.

Research and read reviews as if your life depends on it. Without being melodramatic, it may, eventually…

Do you have any suspicions about what might be wrong OP?

Are you worried about it being something in particular?

Are these things affecting your quality of life significantly?

I must admit, if I sit here and list the things that are going on with me, I come up with quite a list. But I have no inclination to see a GP. I'm wondering if most people over a certain age, say 40-ish, have such a list? Or maybe im unusual 🤔

In any case, getting to the bottom of these things may be a process of several more visits, and ultimately accepting that these things might not be related but just ailments you have - if the doctors say everything points towards this. Perhaps also asking for specific blood tests/asking to rule out certain things if they're on your mind and see what they say?

I'm not being funny but it would never occur to me to go to the gp for any of the symptoms you mention. Since you have been and anything serious has been ruled out what are you hoping to achieve? Bodies do loads of weird shit. It sounds like every time your body aches or pains you assume something is wrong and you need to go to the doctor. You don't.

Without sounding dismissive, what’s your diet like and do you take any vitamins?

@Owly11 you've said, a little more bluntly, what I'm trying to say above.

Also @Catk34 what you've said at the end of your post would be my personal default anyway. Assume things will clear up over time (and they very, very often do, or they come and go, and/or you learnt to live with them), and if things deteriorate significantly, then to seek medical attention. I suppose I view the GP appointments as a finite public resource rather than my own personal service, so would only go at a certain level of pain/worry.

I get the impression that the OP isn't going to the GP about one symptom. She's suffering from all of them, all the time. That's enough to drag anyone down.

It makes me so pissed off that GPs fob women's symptoms off so easily, so often, and blame everything on 'hormones' or whatever.

I had a weird collection of low level irritations for about 5 years. I didn't do anything as it all seemed like not worth bothering the nhs with. Several things worsened though. So then I couldn't exercise v much anymore. My weight went up.

Eventually I went to the gp. Then i waited on several referrals. I have fibromyalgia. I have osteoarthritis in my lower spine and pelvis. I am waiting on a physio referral which will apparently be v helpful.

In the meantime however, i am fat. Not obese some days, but in that zone others. I am tall too, so i am carrying a good bit of extra weight. More than my toddler weighs, which is a stark pointer toward how much easier a lot of all the other stuff would be if I were that much lighter.

But I struggle to exercise. I have so much pain. It all just kind of snowballed. I now have NAFLD too. I judt need to lose weight. Tricky with the pain etc.

You need to shout. Shout and shout more. You need to not tolerate not being ok, because it is not ok.

You need to fight it right away. Do not let it escalate. Chase everything. Yes it is tiring, but you need to push, push push everything to stay well.

Have they tested for things like parasites - taken a stool sample? Have you tried an elimination diet in case you have an intolerance or allergy to something? Get them to check the hormones and cortisol. It sounds like something is setting off inflammation in your body - I really hope you get it sorted! I went to a fab gastroenterologist a few years back who really went above and beyond, giving me a camera endoscopy which showed inflammation but no specific cause and we through lots of alternative therapies and lifestyle changes to help (it did!) but he said at the end of the day that there are things that scientists and doctors are still only discovering, he could see there was inflammation but medicine isn’t at a point where it can pinpoint the cause yet. Unfortunately there isn’t always a solution, modern diets and lifestyles have really messed up our bodies - get all the tests you cam and in the meantime try am elimination diet, avoid upf, take a good probiotic, move at least 30minutes a day! The blood would concern me tbh!

This.

It sounds weird, but scurvy is becoming more common due to people cutting out specific food groups for various reasons and some of the things you describe are symptoms of it. They're also symptoms of some other deficiencies, apparently.

I'm not saying that this is what is wrong with you, but (amongst other medical checks,) getting a full blood screening and ensuring that your diet is balanced, can only benefit you.

I wouldn't give up, not if I was ill and needed help. I would maybe go to another doctor. Some people go to a private one. No you shouldn't have to, but even it it means you have to cut out any luxuries (eating out/holiday, going to a show, whatever), that might be worth it.
Before private GPs existed (ok, they probably did, but no one I knew ever talked about them until recently), a woman with a stomach problem that needed surgery was palmed off, being told it was psychological. Luckily, she got to AE in time, but she could have had a much easier time if it had been found earlier, as in an easier operation and quicker recovery.

I think sometimes when you take a shopping list of complaints to the dr they see you as a hypochondriac. You need to focus on 1 or 2 things that effects you the most and you might get somewhere

Depends…I have most of the symptoms you describe on off, I wouldn’t be overly worried about these. But if you have persistent, severe symptoms and you know deep down inside that something is not right, then you should keep pushing.

Did they do thyroid blood tests? Any autoimmune disease in your family?

the gp has referred you, that’s not giving up on you. The gp is a generalist and referred you to a specialist. What more can you expect them to do. If your symptoms become more specific or change significantly back to the gp otherwise you need to contact the hospital to check where you are on the waiting list. It shouldn’t be more than 6 months for anything acute

I don’t believe a full blood count does rule out anything serious.
You wouldn’t go to the gp for a change in your bowels? Even though that’s a red flag symptom? And you wouldn’t go to the gp for 3 months of non stop bleeding from your nose? And you wouldn’t go to the gp for fingers so painful you can’t turn on a light switch? …you would just accept all these things as normal…?
hmm , ok, so maybe I’ve just spent the last 35 years being so lucky to not have all this normal stuff happen to me

Have you had a number of seperate appointments where you’re raising seperate issues or have you gone with your full list?

How old are you? What bloods did they do? What were your results?

Full blood count - showed low white blood cells but they marked it as ‘satisfactory’ so no follow up
kidney and liver function - showed slightly reduced kidney function, but again no further follow up on that either.
I haven’t had any autoimmune or thyroid bloods checked.

no CRP, ESR, RF or anti CCP bodies
no vit D or Vit B12, iron or folate?

OP, do you eat a varied and healthy diet? Do you supplement Vitamin D as you're supposed to living in the UK? Do you get enough sleep and drink enough water?

I know it sounds like I'm dismissing you but a lot of the issues you describe can be attributed to low iron, B12 and vitamin D.

Btw, I don’t mean that as an argumentative comment. I am just genuinely curious as how other people would act with these symptoms.
Am I overly worrying about things which are just pretty normal to most people?

You need to ask for these and serum iron, ferritin and full thyroid - not just tsh and depending what they show a referral possibly to rheumatology. Also be aware that what the NHS mark as ok are not necessarily optimal.