Stupid doctor

[larkasaur]

Doctors aren't supposed to be stupid, but this one was. 

I've been getting allergy shots at a group allergy practice.  The shots are prescribed by an allergist in NYC, but I get the injections locally. 

I feel hazy/bleary after allergy shots. 

I talked with my allergist in NYC, and we decided that if I'm still hazy/bleary the day after the shot, I'll repeat the same dose.  If I'm OK the day after the shot, I'll increase the dose.

So I emailed this to the group practice where I get the shots. I didn't say specifically that I was talking about a hazy feeling.  I just said if I'm OK the day after the shot, I'll increase the dose. 

I got a phone message from the nurse supervisor saying, "call us immediately, you won't be able to get any allergy shots until you see a doctor here". 

So today I talked to an allergist at the group practice, Dr. M.  She told me that if I have ANY symptoms from a shot, the dosage has to be decreased.  Even if it's just a hazy/bleary feeling. 

I told her that I've been having hazy/bleary feelings all along, I've mentioned it to the nurses and they haven't prohibited me from having allergy shots.  I told her that I told the doctor during my new patient visit that I get hazy/bleary after allergy shots, and he didn't say in that case I have to decrease the dose.  I told her that I've made progress with the shots because I'm willing to put up with being hazy/bleary.  Very likely I NEED to put up with being hazy/bleary in order to make progress with the shots. 

It all fell on deaf ears.  She said she'd discussed it with the practice  leader and this was their policy. 

So, I was planning to go back to getting allergy shots from the Dr. S who I had such a miserable time with.

But, I asked to talk to the doctor who's the practice leader, Dr. R. 

He said quite different things! 

He just said "you shouldn't get TOO hazy".  He said my plan was fine:  if I'm still hazy the day after the allergy shot, I'll repeat the dose.  If I'm OK the day after, then I'll step up the dose. 

So what the heck was Dr. M going on about???

I've never had an allergist say that feeling hazy after an allergy shot is not OK. 

It's common to feel hazy after an allergy shot.  Probably lots of people wouldn't make progress with the shots if they didn't put up with feeling hazy afterwards. 

Dr. M should know this!!!  She has about 8 years experience, so she's a junior doctor. 

If someone has a swelling or other symptoms that last longer than a day after an allergy shot, that's a bad sign. 

Probably Dr. R was told I had symptoms the day after the allergy shot; he didn't realize it was just haziness; so he said my dose needs to be decreased in that case. 

So Dr. M just repeated what Dr. R said.   Like a robot.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.  I kept on telling her in various ways that she was wrong, I said nurses have known all along that I get hazy after shots, etc. etc. 

Yet she just kept on with her dogmatic insistence that I have to decrease the dose if it makes me hazy - didn't pause to think she might be wrong. 

What the heck is an allergist doing in a group practice, who is so out of touch with how the allergy shots are done? 

Edited August 6, 2014 by larkasaur

[LunaRufina]

If you meet with her again, maybe you could probe into why being hazy after getting the shot would be abad sign- according to her.

What could it indicate that could be potentially bad, so bad that the dose needs to be decreased?

Also, would she be willing to speak with your doctor in NYC?

[if she just outright refuses, that would seem pretty hard headed to me]

[larkasaur]

If you meet with her again, maybe you could probe into why being hazy after getting the shot would be abad sign- according to her.

 

All she would say is "that's our policy".   Being hazy after getting the shot isn't a bad sign - she was just parroting (what she thought) Dr. R said. 

What has me flummoxed is that what she said ALSO contradicted what their handout for allergy shot patients says.

The handout says there's reason for concern if one's reactions to the shots are getting worse from one shot to the next.

That makes sense.

But it does NOT say that any reaction to the shot implies the dosage has to be decreased! 

So again - I don't know how this doctor managed to be unfamiliar with basic info in the patient handout. 

[kateislate]

I have no idea if this doctor is bad or not. I do know that some doctors are more cautious and conservative; some doctors are more aggressive. It's their right - your safety is their responsibility. If you don't like one, move on to someone else.

[melissaw72]

I don't have any advice, just wanted to say I'm sorry you have to deal with all this again.

[larkasaur]

Actually, calling this Dr. M stupid isn't accurate.  She has to be fairly intelligent to become an MD. 

It's more like - what happened to her brains when she thought Dr. R was saying something that didn't make sense and is contrary to common allergy practice? 

She seemed to be totally unwilling or unable to think for herself.  She was acting like nurses act, when they just take orders from doctors.  She was acting like an underling.

And she's a doctor herself.  She probably administers allergy shots all the time herself.  Does she seriously tell patients it's not OK to feel at all different after an allergy shot? 

You can see from all this, why I ended up going to NYC to find an allergist who could help me!!

I had already tried the local allergists and they hadn't helped. 

[larkasaur]

 If you don't like one, move on to someone else.

Katie,

It ended up being OK - I hope.  She was just relaying to me a distorted version of what the head doctor, Dr. R, had told her. 

I am going to be very cautious in the future, about anything I say about reactions to the shots!!

In my email to the group practice, I said I would repeat a dose until I was OK the day after the shot.  I didn't say that all I meant by not being OK, is a hazy feeling. 

So what I wrote ended up being badly overinterpreted.

Some reactions are warning signs if they persist longer than 24 hours.  A large swelling at the injection site, for example.  If a large swelling persists longer than 24 hours, it's a warning that further increasing the dose might cause a really severe reaction, like breathing problems. 

I think when I said "if I'm OK the day after the shot", Dr. R thought of the kinds of symptoms that are warning signs. 

Just being hazy is a subjective thing, and what it means probably varies. 

[larkasaur]

My father screamed at us that we were idiots a lot.

So when people do something that shows they aren't thinking for themselves, my first impulse is often to call them stupid. 

But actually, it's usually something else.  They aren't thinking for themselves because of authority or conformity. 

Dr. M told me something that isn't actually the policy of this practice - because Dr. R's authority stopped her from thinking for herself. 

At least, that's how it looks to me. 

I would never trust Dr. M, since her thinking can be so badly distorted by authority. 

[larkasaur]

If you meet with her again, maybe you could probe into why being hazy after getting the shot would be abad sign- according to her.

That was essentially what I asked Dr. R, the head doctor.

I asked "Is being hazy after the shot unsafe?"

He said "maybe you would get in an accident driving home".

I said "I ride a bike around".

He said "maybe you would get in an accident on the bicycle".

I said "I don't let it get that bad!" 

Meaning, if I felt so sick soon after the shot that it was difficult riding my bike home, I would certainly not be increasing the dose. 

In other words, the safety concerns involved in feeling hazy from a shot are a matter for my judgement about whether I'm too impaired.