Slimy doctors

Hi SLH,

Well, I don't know about "slimy", but my radiation oncologist is a pure 100 percent jerk with no manners or personality whatsoever.  I do know that he has an excellent reputation for being a very competent and skillful oncologist, and his office staff and rads technicians are absolutely wonderful, so that is really what matters.  But gosh, I just wish he was NICE!!!!!!  And everyone that I have talked to feels the same as I do-- his staff, other patients, etc.  Do doctors not have to go through "nice" training in med school?

My general practitioner, on the other hand, is a very nice guy, but he scared the daylights out of me one time when he did an EKG on me in his office.  He told me I had suffered a previous heart attack.  Well, I immediately went to a cardiologist, had echo/treadmill stress tests, holter monitors, etc., and the cardio said absolutely no, I had not had a heart attack, ever.  I haven't been back to my GP because needless to say, I'll never trust him again.

I'm sure there are much worse cases out there, unfortunately.  Hopefully there are more good docs than bad ones.

Mary Jo

When the general surgeon put in my port, she operated on the wrong side...and I immediately developed a blood clot...probably because I had just had an SNB on that side a few days prior.  You would have thought my bright blue bewbie leftover from the SNB might have been a clue that the port belonged on the other side.  When I opened my eyes in recovery, I looked down and said, "They operated on the wrong side."  The room went quiet and nobody would talk to me.

 I asked the surgeon what happened and she told me she hadn't read the notes first and the nurses forgot to mark the side it was supposed to go on.  After the clot developed all the way up into my jugular (I looked like a puffer fish)...she wouldn't return my calls.  My breast surgeon's office finally got her (at first she said to them, why are you calling me?)...but she came down to the emergency room, where she "talked down" to my mother.  She also told me a blood clot is no big deal.

They had to change my treatment plan as a result and I had to stay on coumadin from April through December of that year.  Twice I had to give myself shots in the stomach for a few days.   They also had to remove my port at the time of lumpectomy...instead of leaving it in a while in case of a recurrence.

I understand mistakes are made...but I was really taken aback by her attitude.  At one point, I said to her, "I'm not going to sue," and she laughed.  I should have, but didn't have the energy for it.

not only didn't she apologize, she acted like we were bothering her.

i was surprised she admitted she hadn't read her notes prior to surgery.  i asked her when she realized she had operated on the wrong side, and she said as she was sewing me up.  when the nurse from the hospital called me the day after surgery to see how i was doing, i told her about them operating on the wrong side...she was appalled she hadn't been informed of it...she was evidently head nurse for that area.  told me she was going to investigate and call me back..but i never heard another word from the hospital.  i guess they decided to take a wait and see attitude as to whether i was going to sue.

in fairness, i have to add all other experiences at that hospital were wonderful and i wouldn't want to be hospitalized anywhere else.

When my PS was getting ready to do my nipples, my husband, his skinny nurse (who I am pretty sure he was sleeping with) and I were in the room. I had no shirt on of course.  We wanted to give some input on where they would be so they would not be pointing skyward seing as I was 52.   Thought that might make the freaky implnts look more real.  He told me to get a new PS.  I was so desperate to get the whole thing done I agreed to where he wanted to put them (part 2 coming)

Then he says he is too upset to do the surgery, goes out of the room, my husband leaves because he is going to take a swing at him and knows he will mess up me getting thru this.  Finally he comes back in.  I still have no shirt on.  He sits in his chair sniffling, wiping his very dry eyes.  I had to beg him to do it.  It was my one and only out of body experience. My out of body head was thinking, "You total and complete ass.  Just say what he wants so he will do it."  My inner body head was saying ridiculous things like, "You're a Christian man aren't you? Please do not abandon me!   etc"

So the nipples point north, I reported him to OR board of med examiners, and not sure what they did to him.  This is only one of a series of weird stuff. And now I am paying a fortune to have it done right.