Yesterday I was called to a meeting at Occupational Health. I had to see the same lady doctor who had upset me on the phone a few weeks earlier. It took us about 40 minutes, to get to the place she works from. Apparently she needed to see me to answer a few more questions before she filled in the forms. These forms have to be sent to a panel who decide if I meet the criteria for early retirement due to ill health. This doctor, who I must apologise as I can’t remember her name, was an expert at poor communication. It wasn’t the fact that her foreign accent was difficult to understand, but it was the cold way she interrogated me even when she could plainly see how upset I was. She insisted on reading out word for word the letter she had received from my consultant. Now she had already asked me for what she thought my life expectancy was, previously over the phone. I had told her how Myeloma was a very individual cancer and that no one could tell how long I had to live. The consultant backed this up in his letter. He also went into more detail than he thought was necessary for me to know, about my bone lesions and my probable life expectancy based on an average. Reading this out to me not once but twice was unnecessary and upsetting to say the least. She didn’t ask me anything more than she already asked me over the phone so I cannot see the point of dragging me over there in the first place. Any way as you might imagine this put quite a damper on both mine and Colin’s mood for the rest of the day. Maybe you become an Occupational Health doctor when you are unfit for any other type of medicine? Who knows but one thing for sure is that she should stay away from any job that requires empathy or any kind of understanding of the clients disease.
Today will be a better day. As both Colin and I had decided we will both try to do some work in the mornings as a way of getting back into some sort of routine. If this is to happen I had better rush around as I am already running late. It’s a good job that I have such an understanding boss!
Take it easy
Deborah x
