Digging Deeper
Posted on 2003-06-02
I feel let down, frustrated and completely fed up.
The good news is that I got a letter today confirming an appointment for me to see someone about my breathing. The bad news is that the appointment is at the chest clinic at the local hospital and I've already been referred there in the past.
The last time I went I had a few x-rays and blood tests taken, and was basically told that there is nothing wrong with my breathing. In their opinion my shortness of breath is caused by a combination of the hiatus hernia and M.E/CFS, neither of which can be treated with simple medication.
If that's true, I'd really like to know why I'm being sent back there??? It just seems like a waste of the clinics time and my precious energy. The only doctor I desperately want to see would be someone that knows anything about M.E/CFS, but it doesn't look like that's going to happen any time soon. The PCT, (Primary Care Trust), wont sanction the referral and thats that. I'm just tired of being passed from doctor to doctor. They seem to forget that sick people aren't just a file full of case notes, and that they have feelings too.
Unfortunately I don't have enough influence to make things change though. I don't have the power or the strength to fight the system to get where I want to go. The fact that I keep trying, unsuccessfully, to do something about this, just digs me further down into this hole.
You might as well start shovelling in the dirt, because I'm coming close to giving up all over again.