Ideas, please?
Sep. 24th, 2009 03:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
urocyonIt seemed worth a shot asking for advice, particularly from people more experienced in navigating the NHS than I am.
The immediate concern: a really suspicious-looking mole has cropped up on my arm, where I've had loads of sun exposure. I tried to convince myself that it was just a (uniquely) raised mole, since they will apparently sometimes do that with age. But, it shows more than one sign of possibly being carcinoma. I'd want it removed anyway, just because it's ugly and annoying, and I've been having to stick a plaster over it at night to keep from clawing at it. One night I managed to almost remove it that way--unintentionally--but it's back and bigger than ever.
This wouldn't be much of a problem on its own.
The complication: As I've mentioned before here, I have not so much a medical phobia, as medical PTSD based on bad experiences. (Long story.) It doesn't help that I've recently learned that most of the health problems I'm dealing with now can be traced directly back to inappropriate/sometimes flat-out abusive medical treatment--including the early-onset diabetes. This reluctance has only been enhanced by watching my mom die horribly last year, partly due to craptastic medical care and having symptoms dismissed. I haven't seen a lot of reason to trust the medical establishment in general.
As a result, I have not been to see my GP here in more than a year. I also know I'm not up to dealing with getting browbeaten (has happened before, after a shorter period). and/or brushed off.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
vatine is willing to help if I just shut down--both from autie overload and a learned response, hard to unlearn!--so I don't get completely blown off, but the GP is still likely to start ranting. I am not sure that even a straightforward "medical phobia" explanation would actually help, rather than producing more bootstrap BS. This GP has at least been polite about it, but he has dismissed things like "I don't want to take a statin" and "I am horribly depressed after the diagnosis" before. (Just as glad now about the latter, since SSRIs have done anything but help so far!)
Still, not too surprisingly, possible skin cancer is pressing enough to motivate me to get it looked at. That's scarier than the untreated chronic pain, or the diabetes which is under decent control. Now I'm wondering if there is any reasonably viable way of seeing someone other than the GP I'm registered with, as a first point of call. Besides just not being up to dealing with browbeating, I am also concerned that he'll get caught up enough in "Waaah, your diabetes! Waaah, the crazy noncompliance!" to pay attention to why I'm actually there. (Yeah, that's happened before, too.)
I even briefly considered putting it off until after we move, but not only is that a delay of unknown months while I'm worrying, we wouldn't have to pay exorbitant sums for the NHS to remove the thing!
Can anyone offer any suggestions for navigating this situation? I'm probably blowing things out of proportion, and missing available options. Thanks in advance!
Edit: There just might be one out when making an appointment, since my GP is the surgery's Diabetes Guy, definitely not Suspicious Moles Guy.
The immediate concern: a really suspicious-looking mole has cropped up on my arm, where I've had loads of sun exposure. I tried to convince myself that it was just a (uniquely) raised mole, since they will apparently sometimes do that with age. But, it shows more than one sign of possibly being carcinoma. I'd want it removed anyway, just because it's ugly and annoying, and I've been having to stick a plaster over it at night to keep from clawing at it. One night I managed to almost remove it that way--unintentionally--but it's back and bigger than ever.
This wouldn't be much of a problem on its own.
The complication: As I've mentioned before here, I have not so much a medical phobia, as medical PTSD based on bad experiences. (Long story.) It doesn't help that I've recently learned that most of the health problems I'm dealing with now can be traced directly back to inappropriate/sometimes flat-out abusive medical treatment--including the early-onset diabetes. This reluctance has only been enhanced by watching my mom die horribly last year, partly due to craptastic medical care and having symptoms dismissed. I haven't seen a lot of reason to trust the medical establishment in general.
As a result, I have not been to see my GP here in more than a year. I also know I'm not up to dealing with getting browbeaten (has happened before, after a shorter period). and/or brushed off.
vatine is willing to help if I just shut down--both from autie overload and a learned response, hard to unlearn!--so I don't get completely blown off, but the GP is still likely to start ranting. I am not sure that even a straightforward "medical phobia" explanation would actually help, rather than producing more bootstrap BS. This GP has at least been polite about it, but he has dismissed things like "I don't want to take a statin" and "I am horribly depressed after the diagnosis" before. (Just as glad now about the latter, since SSRIs have done anything but help so far!)Still, not too surprisingly, possible skin cancer is pressing enough to motivate me to get it looked at. That's scarier than the untreated chronic pain, or the diabetes which is under decent control. Now I'm wondering if there is any reasonably viable way of seeing someone other than the GP I'm registered with, as a first point of call. Besides just not being up to dealing with browbeating, I am also concerned that he'll get caught up enough in "Waaah, your diabetes! Waaah, the crazy noncompliance!" to pay attention to why I'm actually there. (Yeah, that's happened before, too.)
I even briefly considered putting it off until after we move, but not only is that a delay of unknown months while I'm worrying, we wouldn't have to pay exorbitant sums for the NHS to remove the thing!
Can anyone offer any suggestions for navigating this situation? I'm probably blowing things out of proportion, and missing available options. Thanks in advance!
Edit: There just might be one out when making an appointment, since my GP is the surgery's Diabetes Guy, definitely not Suspicious Moles Guy.
