Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Doctor visit: update

Today I went for more blood samples for my on-going testing for PCOS. I asked the nurse what my file said about my last set of results and she told me that I had a low level of the hormone SHBG (Sex hormone binding globulin) and the doctor wanted that tested again and also for other things.

Once home, I went searching to see just what this hormone is and found that conditions with low SHBG include polycystic ovary syndrome, diabetes, and hypothyroidism. I'm guessing that it's more than likely that I do have PCOS. What didnt help was me then reading more into the syndrome and seeing...

heavy bleeding is also an early warning sign of endometrial cancer, for which women with PCOS are at higher risk

...for the past few months, I've suffered from heavy bleeding. Like my mum said to me (while I was sobbing my heart out on the phone) is that it might never come to that or maybe I dont have PCOS and I'm reading too much into things. I guess I'll find out for sure in another 3 weeks time.

Now to something about waiting for blood tests. It came to my attention that some people had been coming to this blog and had been referred here from another blog. NHS Blog Doctor happened to pass by here and had read my post about not being happy at waiting 3 weeks for test results.
I'm sure I'm not alone in thinking that 3 weeks is a long time to wait. I said in my post that I thought it typical of the NHS to take so long. I know for a fact that I'm not alone in thinking THAT. It's hard to have 100% faith in the NHS. They told my dad that all he had was an ulcer and then 3 months later, another doctor told my dad that he had cancer. Maybe I'm biassed because it was my dad but to me, they should have done more tests to rule out everything. Not just settle for "Oh. It must be an ulcer"

Do the non-private medical care people of the UK expect to much from the National Health Service? You hear so many horror stories in the papers about our health care that it can be hard to have faith in it.
The only thing I strongly disagree with is that the NHS 24 helpline isnt helpful at all. I've found it extremely helpful everytime I've called. They helped me when I couldnt breath right and told me that it was most likely bronchitis, they helped me again when I called about my gran and although saying I would have to wait for 3 hours for the out of hours doctor to arrive, the nurse made sure a doctor arrived an hour later and that's when we were told my gran had had a mini stroke. I'm just one of the millions of british people who dont have 100% faith in their health care. Who can really say I'm not right in thinking this? (apart from an NHS doctor).
In saying that I don't have faith in them anymore isnt a correct statement on my part, to be honest. I had faith in my original doctors. They were the ones to point out my mental health problem and my eating disorder. My faith lowered when I was moved to this new doctor surgery because my original doctor moved and because of where I stayed, I couldnt visit them anymore. There's no doubt in my mind that some NHS doctors are excellent. I just think mine aint all that great.

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