Hospital appointment

Today I had a hospital appointment about the osteoporosis. (It spelt osteoporosis just like that!) I was really not looking forward to it because in the summer I had an appointment which turned out to be dire. This was in a different hospital and it happened to be on the day that a) they were starting a new computer system and b) the new junior doctors starting.

I have severe osteoporosis and had recently had a bone scan that showed that my spine had deteriorated further. Obviously it was appropriate that I should see a junior doctor whose knowledge about osteoporosis seemed to have been gathered from Google just before I came into the room. He started entering my data into a calculation designed to assess my risk of further fractures. For some reason he kept arguing with me, refusing to believe that I had broken my ribs because 'you can't break ribs that easily', somehow missing the point that with osteoporosis yes you can break them that easily. He also refused to accept that the fact my dad has  severe osteoporosis is of any significance. When converting my height of 5 foot seven to metric he googled 'what is 57 inches in centimetres?' P and I were actually so astonished that we didn't say anything. anyway at the end of it all you said you have got any risk of fracture at all I don't know why you're here spent several minutes telling me I should be there all. He then said he would get his consultants to just check his calculations. His consultant spent several minutes telling me that I shouldn't be there at all and there was nothing wrong with me and rib fractures don't count (they do if they're your ribs). He then very quickly checked the figures and said 'Oh you've entered a plus four instead of a minus four'. Instantly I went from being no risk to be very high risk. The consultant that gave me a prescription for a drug called strontium  saying 'that will be fine as long as you haven't any mobility problems, in which case it could cause blood clots'. 'You are standing next to her wheelchair' said P. 'Oh well as long as you're not bed-bound it'll be fine.'

Well would you be happy with that? 

'I never want to go to that hospital again,' I said to my GP.
So today I went to a different hospital. It was light years apart from my experience previously. The doctor seemed to know what she was talking about and has put me on another drug which is an injection every six months which she did there and then in my back (which is a strange place to have an injection).

So that was good anyway.