Doctors

Having been on the receiving end of lousy medicine over the last 15 years, I have no respect for doctors.  As far as I am concerned, they are the new Mob.  They take millions from the drug companies to hand out the drugs like candy.  They do this without any idea what these drugs are capable of doing to their patients.  My story:  After my husband died in 1997, one week after, my doctor decided I needed medicine for high blood pressure.  I had not even had time to process the changes in my life.  So he convinced me to take something called Ziac, a combination of a beta blocker and hydrochlorothiazide.  So I took that for 11 years.  No blood work was ever done.  I kept asking "do I really need this?"  The pat answer was "Oh, it's low dose.  It won't hurt you."  In March 2003, after 6 years of being on Ziac, I developed huge pustules on my hands.  They would break open and bleed and hurt so bad.  Then I developed dying fingrernails, swollen and itching hands with them just cracking open and bleeding.  I went to 5 doctors, 3 Gp's, 1 dermatologist, and one allergist.  The first GP sent me to what I was told was a dermatologist.  He did some testing and told me I was allergic to industrial chemicals and I would have to quit my job.  From there two more GP's who didn't have a clue.  All this time, I am asking could it be the blood pressure meds. Oh, no they won't hurt you.  Finally, when my arms and legs erupted in a really nasty, itchy rash, I was sent to an allergist.  I had to demand that he do a biopsy to rule out fungal, bacterial, or cancerous problems.  When I showed no allergies even to the industrial chemicals, he was done with me.  And the so-called dermatologist kept harping on I needed to get away from my job.  I hung on for 4 years with no improvement.  At the end of that 6 years, I took early retirement, giving up a lot of money in the process.  My hands did not improve.  So them I was told that my immune system had become sensitized to any chemicals. This was in 2007 and they kept me on the Ziac.  I kept gaining weight, had trouble breathing.  I was told that I needed to just get on a diet and lose the weight and the trouble breathing was because I was overweight.  I couldn't lose the weight.  In 2009, I made a trip to my son's home.  He was going TDY for the military and I was house sitting.  I was in such bad shape I could not walk across the room without stopping to catch my breath and my feet and legs were really swollen.  I came home, looked all this up and found I had the symptoms of the beginning of congestive heart failure.  So I called my doctor's office.  I wanted to know how long I had to put my affairs in order.  The nurse, after asking questions, told me that it was the blood pressure medicine.  To come in and the doctor could confirm it.  Needless to say I was boiling mad.  All I got from the doctor was we need to get you on a new medicine.  No.  I am off all of it.  How do I get off Ziac.  Oh you can just quit.  It is low dose and won't hurt you.  The info said it could cause a heart attack if stopped suddenly.  I left and called the pharmacist.  He told me how to step down off the meds.  If I had stayed on that medicine, I would be dead now. 

And the crowning insult, the dermatologist I thought I had been seeing, not a dermatologist.  Scott and White had needed a dermatologist and did not have one, so they put a GP in as one.  I had never seen a dermatologist.