So You Wanna Be A Doctor?? The Anesthesia Chapter

Talking to Your Doctor About Fibromyalgia

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Nerve pain can not be seen by the naked eye nor the best X-Ray equipment. Every doctor acted the same, dismissive, looked at me as if I was a pill instead of a human being who needed support. I received no medication. My anxiety heighten every time I had to see a physician. My fear of mental abuse keep me away from clinics, even when I needed help. My anxiety got so bad I could not stand, becoming weak and numb.

I finally made an appointment, hopeful for some guidance, the whole visit I sobbed uncontrollably. She told me to do yoga, and said I was to complicated for the clinic. I was dismissed with no medication or any direction. I can not stop crying, feeling abandoned. I am seeking a phychiatrist hoping and praying he will help me. We all need to talk about our experices to support each other. Remember you are not alone. Write your State Senator to help pass a law against physicians profiling and discrimination. We have a disease of chronic pain that needs support, compassion, understanding, and Love.

I am in a situation now my health is being neglected. I recently got my disability because I have such severe neuropathy I fall, I want feel my feet and I will just fall. These are not even the only medical problems I have. But I had a doctor for near 20 years had me on strong pain meds for the problems.

I had a good job and Insurance. Then I lost my job and I fought for 3 years to pay for my Insurance under cobra. And then lost out my unemployment stopped. Well In the meantime I was loosing everything my trailer my car got repossessed. And had to move into a hotel well both my daughters were living with me and we had to have an apartment type suite so I had to have a boarder to share expenses so I let a friend of mines daughter also live with us she was 29 just like my married daughter and my youngest was almost Well one of them or there friends stole a zanax RX from me and even though I was going to prosecute my own family, I had police report and turned it over to the FBI not only did the doctor cut me off and also did not take me seriously neither did the FBI.

So I have been through hell even getting my disibility. Thank god I did. But the doctor that helped me was 90 years old and retired. He referred me to the pain clinic at this county clinic that is for less fortunate and I was treated kindly at first he retired and within 6 months I was discharged out of the clinic. Mine is a long story and this is only a short portion of it. But I am starting to think I am crazy and need to see psychiatric help.

And this is very serious and true. Thanks for Listening Donna in Birmingham. You are not crazy Donna! This past November after 25 years of trying to get a diagnosis for the low back and hip pain I had been experiencing along with constant GI issues, I was diagnosed with Ankylosing Spondylitis, Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Ehler Danlos Syndrome, and Fibromyalgia.

I have lost joints due to fusion. There is still a preconceived notion among Doctors that women cannot have AS. I have been prescribed anti-depressants to deal with what I know now is an autoimmune disorder, and a genetic condition that allows too much space in my joints which causes constant pain. I do not even ask for opiates due to the stigma attached to it anymore.

I have had pharmacists refuse to fill my scripts. I have had emergency rooms refuse to prescribe anything stronger than Tylenol. If Tylenol worked I would take it and never need medical intervention. I have given birth to four children and that did not hurt worse than a AS flare.

It is a sad day when Doctors who swore an oath to do no harm are more concerned of a malpractice suit due to narcotics than actually caring for the patient in front of them. It is a sad day when patients are required to urinate in a cup to receive medication. No other class of patients are required to submit a urine screen to obtain their meds. Some medications are equally as addicting.

It cannot but appear we are profiled and targeted. For me it would be easy to obtain verification through my medical records that I do indeed have a condition, infact several, that causes chronic pain. I know enough to make sure I see the same doctors for my conditions.

I go to the same pharmacy yet I know I am in a database identifying me as an opiate user. No other information as to diagnosis or medical history is in that database. A pharmacist has the power to deny me the medication prescribed by my Doctor based solely on this information. It is such a frustration to be chronically ill, have chronic pain, and be treated like an addict. That is why I started the Ankylosing Spondylitis Project and we work with another group, Patients not Addicts, to attempt to change this.

Doctors need to hear us. They need to see us as patients with underlying medical conditions. They need to fight for us and with us. We also need to be treated like patients. The current status of our medical system is a heart beat away from negligence. People will die either by their own hands or by a system that is set up to judge them before treating them. Currently there are million chronic pain patients in the US. Furthermore, alternative medicine to treat chronic pain often is not covered by insurance. Physical Therapy for an incurable disease that I am restricted to just 5 visits a year.

It is like the CDC did not even think about the repercussions of their own guidelines. That forcing people off medication that they did well on, with no history of abuse, would likely send people to meets with drug dealers willing to prescribe Heroine. Congrats to the CDC they just made drug dealers a lot richer. THis is often the problem with prohibition type laws and guidelines. Those guidelines were also full of misleading and false data. It ends up pulling the cart before the horse. Less than 5 percent of chronic pain patients abuse their meds.

So who are these guidelines targeting? They will have the exact opposite result because most people abusing opiates are not buying them legally anyway. That is the most frustrating thing about this. Also Doctors should be angry- as we are moving away from patient centered care.

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My son is severely disable with Ankylosing Spondilitis. I knew he had the same thing I had when he buckled over while dining in a restaurant. I had no idea it was hereditary. When I was in teens I was informed by a GP that if I ever stopped moving I would be in a wheelchair within a few years. Physiotherapy and dance kept the worst at bay for me, but since the cancer surgery the chest tube was left in for nine weeks I have some serious issues.

No one will listen. They refuse to believe me. Overweight patients get profiled all the time. She was complaining of hip pain. Her doctor told her to lose weight and exercise. Finally tests were done but by then the cancer was extensive and she died 7 months later. I always wondered if she had been a thin pretty young thing if she would have had a different outcome. I also have been overweight my entire life. My weight varies 20 up, 20 down. I am active and work steady. I ride my bike, eat healthy and at 61 have no medical problems except my tendency to be a larger woman.

I have mitochondrial disease. Pain is also a huge issue with mitochondrial disease and it was very hard to get pain meds and I was often treated like a drug addict. I have many needs as a patient with mitochondrial disease and very little assistance from the medical community. It makes me want to scream. I have had a patient with mitochondrial disease. I had to read a lot about it, but I really enjoyed taking care of him. Hope you stay curious and keep trying things.

I was told I had mitochondrial disease by a colorado Neuro. I moved to florida this year and found a new Neuro whom I had called and asked if he would take me as a patient. He started me on mito cocktail. I saw him this week and after asking how I was doing, I told him I was still choking and had hand weakness making the use of my cane difficult. He also bullied me because I keep refusing cymbalta for pain. Telling me if I was really in pain I would take something. I will never see another Neuro again. I sometimes frequent the Er for multiple health problems.

To later find out I have endometriosis which was causing my pain and excessive bleeding not a UTI. I then after having the endometriosis was back to visiting the hospital for pain in my lower abdomen and was given multiple pain meds because that is what they thought I had wanted. In result of the multiple pain meds I miscarried the child I was carrying and was implanting which was the result of the pain. Another time I was profiled I was in psychiatric unit after trying to commit suicide.

I felt it was the only way away from my abusive ex husband. While there I was given geodone an anti psychotic and ended up having a hard time swallowing uncontrollable movements of my tongue and my mouth was in a permanent smile. I found out I was allergic to the geodone. This is so sad. I am very sorry. Sharing these stories is the first step to raising awareness. Justina, thank you for being willing to tell your story.

In I became ill. At our first meeting, he noted that I had lost a significant amount of weight recently due to a gall bladder that had simply stopped working and subsequently been removed. In the months that followed, I was properly diagnosed with an auto immune disease and Fibromyalgia. Because of this man, I no longer include information about my mental health on medical histories.

Patient profiling is too real to risk it again. It is true that your medical records follow you from doctor to doctor. There can be erroneous information in the records that should be amended. It is a good idea to read your own med records every once in a while just to make sure things are presented correctly. As in any human interaction, there can be miscommunication, misinterpretation. There is another lady with my same name in town and our records have gotten confused on several occasions.

I find it extremely scarey info that was erroneously included will impact my future health care. This doctor and that doctor is sending each other reports so what do you suggest is best to do in this situation? Have you found amending them to work and how best to approach it? Thank you for your lovely blog and fresh ides for being a physician.

My dad was a solo practitioner and kept his home phone number in the book. He got calls emergency every Xmas morning and dutifully went off to the hospital. He got emergency calls every Xmas morning and dutifully went off to the hospital. Thank you for your lovely blog and fresh outlook on being a physician. Ad you middle name to your chart or your maiden name or something.

It would be dangerous not to do so. You need to have your records accurately reflect who you are. He would not even look at test results from pain clinic and said that was not his field. The pain clinic did thirsting that proved I needed help with extreme triglycerides. He did prescribe medication but later visits said he had ordered testing.

I saw many errors in my documentation from his office regarding these issues and he argued with me and said His records show it so it is true. But the records were written incorrectly. The Social security administration perpetuates these problems by not allowing testimony from real people in work place and home that truly see your decline not a doctor that turns in erroneous reports and could care less if you can feed your family because you miss so much work due to multiple health issues…mine brought on primarily by Stickler Syndrome but the doctors never want to hear how my connective tissue disease means I need different or more attentive care than someone without a genetic disorder.

And nothing changes Pamela. The medical file is a legal document that does not permit of change. What would happen if doctors were faced with criminal as opposed to civil charges when wrong-doing has occurred? I am 48 years old. At 42, I began to develop the initial symptoms of what over a dozen doctors, countless misdiagnoses, and thousands of dollars worth of tests would finally reveal…prolapse of my rectum, bladder, and uterus.

I had never heard of this condition. I did an exhaustive online search and was astounded by the articles that described my symptoms to the T. Thanks for giving me a chance to vent. Always therapeutic to write your story. And share it with your doctor. This is how we learn — and heal. When I was 28 years old and recently pregnant with my third child, I had severe hyperemesis gravidarum and landed in the ER to get IV fluids. I was feeling pretty crummy and was not answering questions well as sick people often do.

My husband was home taking care of our 1 year old and 3 year old, so I was alone. A doc I had never met before was extremely short and rude with me, asked me if I was on medicaid and suggested I get an abortion for my unplanned pregnancy. My pregnancy was not unplanned, I was in a great marriage to my doctor husband, I have a degree from an Ivy league school, and had good private insurance.

My problem was that I was very sick and I was young, so therefore my pregnancy must be unplanned and I must be on medicaid. Did you ever give feedback to this doctor? Cultural competency classes are supposed to prevent this kind of thing, but there is nothing like learning from your own mistaken judgements. Great teaching moment if you had not been throwing up. My 88 year old mother got shingles on her back.

After the sores disappeared she still had pain, but it went on for a full year and the pain was excruciating! She was in to the Dr and emerg several times and they told her it was common and gave a pain prescription. Finally someone thought to do a work up on her and it was discovered that she had a terrible kidney infection! The aged are far too often just given a pat on the head and sent home. My mother tried to treat an abdominal issue on her own for eight years. When I saw the attendants looking after her I was appalled and asked if anyone had bothered to check if there really was something wrong.

They never bothered to check out any of her complaints. A terrible, lonely death. When my son was a baby he had colic and was in pain.. I am a patient with Crohns Disease, R. I have been on almost every medication available for Crohns. I am currently on Humira since september and was on Cimzia for 3 yrs prior.

I still have uncontroled daily pain, nausea, diarreah, up to 12 to 15 loose stools a day. The fistulas are my main problem with bowel leakage daily, up to 8 to 10 pads a day and NO normal sex life. A very good friend posted this article and I noticed that you are 50 min south of me. I live in a small town, Sweet Home, Or.

I am desperate to find a P. Doctor that understands my situation. I do have a GI doc in Corvallis. He works hard to keep me going but we are running out of options. I could go on forever but my need right now is to find someone, anyone willing to work WITH me and not give up on me by saying those awful words …… There is nothing more we can do, you will just have to live with it! I am not that kind of woman to let those words keep me down.

I was hoping, praying that you might be able to help me? Are you accepting new patients and do you accept OHP? Thank You for this excellent article and any help you can pass along ……. Desperate in Sweet Home! I do not accept a few insurance plans, but I see anyone who wants to see me. I do not turn anyone away for lack of money.

That is what I believe. Debbie- I wanted to put my comment here and hope that you read it. Or someone else with Crohns disease. I have had it at least 20 years and I have been on all of the biologics, etc. Wow, I related to what you said! First off, It made me ache. The pain of fistulas; the embarassment of leakage; frustration about the loss of sexual function, depression and despair at those words: It went through its trials and I was almost part of the third but was too sick to want to maintain a high amount of prednisone that was required to maintain the integrity of the trial.

I started it a week ago. My blog is chronicling it. As far as ERs, Dr. Is there a Pain Management Clinic near you? If not, can you maintain some semblance of relief on the prednisone? That is like a swear word or someone running their nails down a chalkboard to your body but taking just enough to help. However, I am there with ya. Every system in the body is affected by Crohns. Joints, muscles, bone, eyes, ears, mouth, and nose! I have had wicked fungal infections that back up into those parts- And Iritis happens due to those muscles in the eye.

I hate being a Professional Patient. Once a good friend I confided in told me the obvious: Having a good friend, mentor, faith are all that become left when the well has run dry. May those around be in tune enough to reach you. I hope this does. I hope that Dr. I live a couple hours north of ypu Dr. Wible and it is so refreshing to hear that what I have always believed was true.

I live in a small community Dallas, OR and we do have a small community hospital that is a branch of Salem Health. I have had it for almost 25 years now. I have had to go to our small community hospital because I now live with chronic pancreatitis that my GI dr. In going to the ER there is one particular dr. Come to find out, two of my friends have had the same kind of run-in with this same doctor. She refuses to treat pain and accuses each one of us of being pain med seekers. I am a bag girl aka obese and that is one of the reasons I get treated like crap. This dr said that his answer for everything is methadone.

It turns out, he was fired a month later and the clinic was closed down because of many complaints. Wille for your apology on behalf of other ignorant drs. I pray that one day they will figure it out! Darcy I too have chronic pancreatitis since with 66 hospital admissions.

I too have had ER horror stories. They get the ER is a joke! I know a bunch of people who have Kryptopyrrole disorder. Despite strange hemoglobin issues, and the presence of pyrroles in urine. I went to a mental health center for my eating problems in after having tried to deal with these problems on my own. I had lost weight and I had been binge eating. It was the binge eating that scared me into getting help. I found out about anorexia by reading a book. I hoped that psych meds would stop the binge eating. I begged for these pills and was refused.

I believe the only reason Lithium stopped my binge eating is because it suppresses the appetite. The weight gain people get from it masks the appetite loss in many cases. I was on Lithium for years and it ruined my kidneys. Along with that, they coerced me into taking antipsychotics, which I never needed. All I got were devastating side effects from these pills. I have been profiled by doctors so many times I cannot count. I am a lot better off now.

I want to go back to each and every one of them since and ask for an apology. My story is also too long to share here in a few paragraphs but the basics are that in the state of Oregon, over a six year period of time, I saw over 30 doctors due to intermittent, full-body paralysis; gradual, progressive muscle weakness; exercise intolerance; long QT heart rate; fluctuating heart and blood pressure rate and more. After the majority of them misdiagnosed and mistreated me diagnosed with conversion disorder, prescribed anti-psychotic drugs, lied about me and symptoms in records, accused of being a drug addict, scoffed at, told I was too old to have a particular disease….

The type I have is the most rare and the most serious form, Andersen-Tawil Syndrome. On a cellular level, triggered by various things such as medications, IVs, anesthesia, sleep, wheat, salt and much more, potassium wrongly enters the muscles causing paralysis and more. Our greatest fear is ending up in the ER where they do not listen to us and proceed to hook us up to IVs and make us worse or kill us. I had to diagnose myself. The doctors agreed when presented with the information, the facts, my symptoms and characteristics and after they did what I asked them not to do during a small procedure to insert a heart loop monitor: It sent me right into full body paralysis, long QT heart beat, arrhythmia, tachycardia, high blood pressure, breathing difficulty and choking for nearly two hours.

They could do nothing but watch, at that point, knowing any medication could make me worse or kill me. I cannot tolerate the medication usually prescribed. So, I help myself through diet, potassium supplements and avoiding triggers. Since my diagnosis, my husband and I have created an independent organization, the Periodic Paralysis Network. We have a website http: We help members from all over the world who can get no help from any doctors and hope to educate the medical profession about PP in hopes that others will not have to go through what I did and therefore end up as bad as I am and that doctors may be able to recognize, diagnose and treat PP appropriately in a timely manner.

Thank you for offering those of us who have been so mistreated by doctors a place to tell our stories. A gift from the universe, via you. I had a hysterectomy age After 3 months I decended into the hell of prolonged benzo withdrawal, but was still just seen as a crazy drug addict. All bc docs profiled me. But, here I am! Thank you for listening to people like me! Oh, I feel for you! I have refractory Interstitial Cystitis, and it has turned my world upside down.

I have had my bladder nerves surgically severed twice Ingelman-Sundberg Procedures , have a sacral nerve stimulator that failed, had a failed spinal stimulator trial, have an intrathecal pain pump with morphine, and was seriously looking at bladder removal when a good, cutting-edge clinic started me on Botox injections to my bladder, urethra, and pelvic floor for pain and frequency.

I was treated like a drug-seeker, disbelieved, and humiliated. Once, the pain was so severe, I was admitted to the hospital and put on a PCA pump. I was stunned and humiliated into silence. I wish now I could go back in time and let him have it! IC is terrible and not well-understood. Take care and know that you are not alone. I went to many many doctors with a mold allergy problem and not a single one was able to help find the disease, just threw an assortment of meds at me.

I was tested and diagnosed. Change classrooms in the school where I taught. Went from being near death to being near perfect in just a few months with no medication. I have Crohns disease and I have strictures in my small bowel as a result of years of active disease. I have had quite a lot of my small bowel removed as well. I went into hospital for an operation and the morphine stopped my intestines working. I felt very nauseous and my stomach was very distended. I was in agony for days and extreme discomfort for days.

Eventually a nurse gave me the cyclizine and I began to get better. I was able to eat etc. However the lost days caused me to lose 3kg. I was extremely upset about this because I have well documented problems with nausea. In future I am going to ask to speak to the head nurse and then the doctor on the ward.

I will not put up with this again it was torture. It is good there is a place for this. Medical professionals need to learn not to categorize people. Just a huge thank you. Like most who have taken the time to comment, I have had more bad experiences then good.

If we have to go to a Dr. Carefully chosen to provide the Dr. Modest, stylish, good quality but not too expensive. Fitted but not too much. Well pressed Closed toe shoes. No heel, or modest. Even then it only buys me a minute or two to stall the profiling. Still, I always hope. My husband and I were poor, but had saved up plenty of money to cover what our insurance did not. In our youth however we assumed everything would be fine. Our daughter was 10 weeks preterm. Second, I was mortified that my perfect, beautiful child was being pointed at like a baby monkey in the zoo.

I was tested for drugs 4 times when I had a premie and was repeatedly asked what drugs did I take for entertainment. Clean, and they simply could not believe it. When we were finally discharged a nurse was kind enough to take me aside and explain to me that the mongolian spot on her tushie would be seen as child abuse by some, so make sure I carry the clinical notes from the NICU documenting the mongolian spot on my person everywhere I went.

There have been years when I would rather see my Vet for medical care. Your efforts to humanize the Dr. Keep up the good work! Getting healthcare and not paying for it? I understand the profiling from both sides, but think it would be best not to generate so much animosity in what should be a healing relationship.

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I think docs and patients can both do better. What do you suggest? I suggest doctors and patients learn to communicate better. It would be the healthy thing to do. Unfortunately, patients are in a vulnerable position when they see a doctor, and anxiety about their health plus profiling and intimidation from the doctor equals a patient unable to be heard and quite likely sicker than before he saw the doctor, in my opinion. I found your website through another blog, http: I took a chemistry class in college where I was taught about certain vaccines.

So, with some vaccines, you are giving yourself a weak version of the illness. Wible, but it seems counterproductive. Like the flu vaccine. I have had several people in my classes go get flu shots every year, and a week later they have the flu. What was the vaccine preventing? Maybe it was vaccines like the ones I described I know that not all vaccines are like that, and some do save lives and prevent illness. I would really like to know. And the comment about being a deadbeat for not paying for medical care?

A huge majority of runaways after 48 hours being tricked or kidnapped into sex slave trade. And this is just in our very privileged country. I am not saying this is worse than other terrible crimes against humanity but it IS the worst thing I have personally witnessed in my life so far. It really is unbelievable.

I remember the first day of medical school, August The only time my entire life I became suicidal was during my residency in the mids. We were asked to track our work hours, record them, and turn them in. I, at least, was working hour weeks, so the idea of adding another task to my plate was laughable, even though I realized had I done so, it might have meant an objective measure to effect change. I was far more focused on practicing how to sleep like a dolphin, where half my brain rested while the other still functioned!

I somehow learned to take quick naps while standing upright during rounds or while taking a history from a patient or in the middle of dictating an intake history or discharge summary. I was told, at the time, a first-year Internal Med resident had committed suicide by hanging himself in a call room during his first month of rotations. I also was told one of my former medical school classmates killed herself near the end of her anesthesia residency by hooking herself up to IV propofol in an empty patient room. Welcome-to-medicine lectures are very scary. Thank you so much for the truths you speak for so many.

I was happy, secure, and mostly unafraid until med school. I recall in vivid detail the first orientation day. Our anatomy professor stood before an auditorium filled with eager, nervous, idealistic would-be healers and said these words: I have often wondered how many auditoriums full of new students heard those words from him. I am sure someone stood in front of us and told us what a wonderful and rewarding profession we had chosen.

I do not rememember those words. But I do remember how to successfully commit suicide—with a gun. One month later, on the eve of our first monthly round of six exams in one day, I had my first full-blown panic attack. I had no idea what was happening. I thought I was losing my mind. I took a leave of absence and made up excuses. These much-feared public interrogation sessions can be so malicious that the student may be left crying—in front of peers, staff, and patients. No one ever suggested that the process was brutal, or the responsibility frightening, and no one offered us help.

I have maintained contact with only one colleague from med school, so I do not know how the others fared. Through the many years of training, and through what would appear to the observer a successful career in a surgical subspecialty and now into retirement, I have carried the anxiety, and the depression, and the fear. Perhaps entirely unrelated to those first days in med school, but still something happened to me, and probably to many of us, that changed us forever.

I still remember how to successfully commit suicide, because someone who had power over me at a vulnerable time described the details. And we wonder why. Download free audiobook here. Its like a 3-hour doctor suicide hotline call with me. A Manual of Psychological Medicine. My first attempt at writing this same blog 5 years ago. Very interesting list of 35 reasons doctors die by suicide written by a novice Pamela. My suicide risk went down when my PHP intervened.

They found me proper treatment. So my personal experience refutes your claim. PHPs help impaired physicians not hurt them!!!! Thanks for sharing Marcus. Marcus, so glad that the system worked for you. Please do not assume that your experience is perfectly typical. PHPs vary greatly state to state.

I am currently conducting a confidential survey on state PHPs and your input would be very helpful link below. Although you had a positive personal experience with your state PHP many others have had very negative experiences. To assure organizational justice oversight, regulation and some form of accountability is needed. I actually had no idea of the scope of the problem until I started reading your columns.

Between , there were a fair number of intern and residents committing suicide. It was a very scary time. At the hospital where I worked at that time, the head of Medicine requested from the head of Psychiatry that a group be run for trainees. I offered to do it as long as I received supervision in group therapy. One of the important parameters of the group was that it would be for interns only.

I did this group for two years, with two different groups of medical interns. But the experience just popped into my head as I was reading your email this evening. Thank you for sharing this Susan. Please read the article linked above. Anesthesiologists are part of the larger group called Doctors, who are part of a still larger group called Health care workers. There are multiple factors that contribute to these problems. Physicians are one subset of a much larger group. You identify many of the causative factors in your writings, however there are many more, and to ignore them only serves to leave so many others suffering within the system without a lifeline.

I know this is not intentional. The oppressive nature of the system as it exists presently is a massive problem. That culture permeates everything in health care. It is because the system is sick, that the participants within the system become ill also. I applaud your efforts to bring these problems to the public at large. Again, I applaud and commend you for illuminating a problem that has existed for far too long.

I hope that your example will encourage others to come forward. Also I have a separate list I keep with other health care professionals. For the purposes of the film the focus is on doctor suicides. I do not want anyone excluded. Fantastic article and research Pamela. You are one of the first beacons of hope in my lifetime illuminating the truths of the diseased medical system which cost the life of my brilliant and beloved father, a pioneering surgeon and in turn influenced the suicide deaths of two of my siblings. Medical culture and training reform is long overdue and an idea whose time has come.

Infinite thanks from myself, my family and so many others in this healing journey for us all. Thank you Sarah for being willing to share the pain that your family has endured since with no answers—until now. May this documentary shed light on your beloved father and the tragic loss of your siblings. The grief is unbearable.

May your family heal and be part of the healing that the medical profession has needed for more than a century. I am very proud of Dr Wible for been a female doctor who addresses suicide in physicians the way it is, without fear. Pamela, firstly you have done and are doing amazing work,I hope you start to get more support from the AMA and others.

I am really saddened to hear things are so bad in the US. Having trained in the UK in the late 90s conditions were finally improving and have continued to improve with much more acceptable hours. I really wish you well with your amazing work. Yes, I do feel support is coming now from our medical organizations. The awareness among physicians of the humna rights violations and the public outcry for change is right around the corner.

Hi Pamela and Melanie. Great informative needed work you are doing Pamela. We have never worked the insane hours like US docs and I dont know how anyone can survive that system. I have now been working in Australia in remote rural hospitals where GP generalists get very well paid but have onerous hours and responsibilities. Not surprisingly younger docs arent keen to work like that and there is always a shortage of remote area docs,nurses and allied health. We are all facing a mental health crisis. This is rising in the general population with so many anxious stressed people as patients pushing their stress and demands onto us and we are not supported by the beauracracy or our managers who keep demanding more for less.

I am now nearly 60 and although I have enjoyed some great times in general practice and met some amazing people I cant recommend it as a career anymore especially if you would like a family and good relationship.

What I've learned from 1, doctor suicides | Pamela Wible MD

Doctors are under tremendous pressure, professionally and personally. They need more help than anyone else in society. I went into medicine to help people, but dropped out of medical school in my first year because it medical school seemed inhumane. I had to see a psychiatrist to get out. That you for all you do. You need to come to work and do your job. I would be stuck with 30 all alone! I see it crumbling. A Dr ,or anyone in medical should never ever be forced into risking their great talents for a corrupted bunch of money hungry imbisals!

I have actually calmed others down while in waiting on my Dr who was called to an emergency at hospital explaining why they are waiting hours. I gave one lady I was so sick that day but I knew somebody had to do something because the Drs and other nurses would be blamed and oh God nothing worse than hearing a patient cuss you out and degrade you for stuff out of your control! I am in agriculture now and I love it but I loved medical as well. Its a gift that very few can do! We each know life is short!!! Addressing underlying system dysfunction first would help.

A resident might possibly be diagnosed with narcolepsy or ADHD, but this would not normally be treated by a psychiatrist, and at any rate, the treating psychiatrist would decide which medications to prescribe if indicated. Some even more disturbing reports are emerging that PHPs even non physician PHP directors such as psychologists in their zeal to promote strict abstinence programs for all clients regardless of diagnosis, have demanded that students and doctors come OFF their ADHD or narcolepsy or OSA medications so as not to interfere with drug testing for substances of abuse.

Stopping a legally prescribed medication for a potentially life threatening condition is medically indefensible, unethical and illegal, if it is done by a nonphysician. How broken is the system, that doctors have to be pushed into illness in order to be trained to do their job? More here on this epidemic: As a second year resident I stood in a patient room on the top floor of our hospital and wished the window opened so I could jump. I promptly realized the severity of these thoughts and sought help. The thankfully louder part of me is now very open about my mental illness, treatment and experiences.

I want others to know that asking for help is ok. Having depression, anxiety, etc does not make you weak. I hope my openness is a catalyst for change in my medical community. I very clearly remember one lecture as a medical student about to start my internship. Dear Dr Wible, thank you for speaking up for doctors. I am a cardiology trainee, and the expectations of the system on myself and my colleagues is brutal. It has made all of us into the worst versions of ourselves, and I am ashamed to no longer be able to care as much as I used to.

I hope that change towards our work culture will continue to happen, and wish you all the best. Thank you so much for bringing this out in the open. I too recently spoke up about suicides occurring in corporate Australia — by the C-Suite of professionals.

Again, in a room for 22 people, we have 6 directly affected by a suicide of someone, most a direct report!!!!!! I too became a quasi-suicide hotline. Lost a dear friend, and world-acclaimed physician to suicide years ago. He was brilliant, tender hearted and physically blessed as a competing triathlete. He was written about in the book: Who was this doctor? Do you have an obituary? Are you in touch with family? We can honor him in film if we have family approval. Wible, An acquaintance posted one of your articles about physician suicide online.

They are all residents, as I live near the University of Michigan. I am lucky as they are wonderful but I am also concerned about them after reading this. Although there is zero chance they would share something like this with me, of course, is there any way for patients to support your efforts to prevent physician suicide?

I would be devastated if any of them killed themselves. When I was hospitalized with high blood pressure, I wrote all of them thank you notes, specifically noting their strengths in treating me. In any case, thank you very much for bringing light to this issue. I have a dear friend who lost her physician husband to suicide. Hope his sheds light on things she has thought and felt for years. He was 6 ft 3 in tall, smart, great personality and was known as Demi God among his friends. The school and his classmates have a bench in his memory at the school and a Neil Grover Memorial Scholarship awarded every year.

We became a family of our own. The interaction with other people helped us to become little stronger every day. With so many sad stories at the grief session,I wondered how I could make other parents and sibling aware of this illness. There were all kind of Walks except no formal Walk on Suicide prevention.

I told my idea to the grief session group. There was a dead silence on this idea. They were all worried that this idea would not work as there was so much Stigma attached to this cause. I did not give up and started pursuing for a location and got many rejections. I did not tell the group about the rejections. There was a myth that if we talked about suicide, it would happen.

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Ultimately, Jewish Community Center in Springfield gave me the place at no cost. I would always be thankful to Michael Paysnick The Director for his sensitivity of the cause. However, he expressed his concern that I would not be sad if not too many people joined me for this Walk. My answer was that even if 10 people walked, we would be bringing awareness, to the community. In ,with full support from the grief session group, we had about people at the first walk with no TV coverage We had a picture on the third page with a small write up on the third page of the news paper. It is now in more than cities.

Currently , I help the cause by anyone wants me to share the story. At the last Springfield Walk, we had approximately one thousand people. We have three grandchildren who participate in the Walk. They always ask about Neil.. Hits VERY close to home for me- the primary reason is the extreme pressure working in anesthesia.

It is a job that take a high toll. At least for me, between working ICU and then anesthesia- a part of me died with each patient I lost until I was dead inside. Been out for 15 years and am still recovering from it…I suspect one never fully does recover. Between being ICU charge nurse and then anesthetist for 20 years the stress was too much and I had to quit to save both my sanity and life.

Would you be interested in being interviewed me about your experiences? I know a woman who was a year ahead of me in an anesthesiology residency. I think of her often. I was starting to get to know her better and she was confiding in me some of the problems she was having. She had married an attorney who turned out to be very controlling and abusive. She was physically drop dead gorgeous, which she felt got in the way of relationships since men could not see beyond her looks. I barely could, either at first. Even in scrubs, her physical beauty just radiated.

But she was also so smart, funny, interesting-and very lonely. In one conversation, she asked me about other methods I had thought about and I did mention the IV route, but did not think I could manage that. And then the following week, she died and we never had the lunch date that we had planned for that next week. Decades later, I think about her and ache for the pain she had. So she will be an unnamed, but remembered person in the film.

Thanks for sharing this information. I find it incredibly sad that two brothers with so much love and support for others, who went into the same profession, and attended the same residency program ended their own lives. I resonate with his feelings and taking time off. During our first summer as med students we were allowed to go off on vacation in the summer for two months a luxury at the time. Another classmate and I went to Europe riding the trains and backpacking. We ended up on the far side of the island of Corfu in a campground. As we were setting up our tent I heard a voice from another campsite.

It turned out to be Joe who was traveling on his own in Europe! One of the few moments-memories I cherish during my schooling along with my friendship with Jeff and Jill all of us were from California living in the foreign land of Wisconsin. I want to add that advocating for proper time off for students and interns, residents, fellows is critical.

My residency program in Internal Medicine essentially made us draw straws for which month in our internship we would get vacation. I drew the short straw and had to take the first month of internship as vacation. I had been on call the night before and up all night admitting and caring for patients. My resident let me leave in the AM to fly to LA for the funeral I made only the burial not the service.

See a Problem?

It all remains a blur to me except for standing alone over his casket in the hole at the end and putting a decal from our favorite band in his grave. I had to return that afternoon and come back to work the next morning. Later that year I went to my program director and told him I want to take the next year off. I spent that year working in the local outpatient clinics and assessing whether I wanted to continue my training.

Fortunately I realized that residency training was not representative or indicative of the profession and went back. It was a year which I still cherish and have friendships for life. I have shared these insights and advocated to our medical students, residents and others that it is okay to take time off for personal and professional development.

Now some thirty years later I find a new chapter in my career as I pursue developing and supporting a lifestyle medicine approach to my practice and our clinic. The vital signs of nutrition, physical activity, social engagement, stress management, and sleep have taken the forefront for treatment and prevention. Physicians and all healthcare providers need to check their own vital signs frequently before they go silent.

Unfortunately suicide remains a pervasive issue for everyone. It has been in the top ten causes of mortality in the US for several years. I recently had a good friend from college non-professional kill himself. As I reached out to others it was amazing and disheartening how many of us have known someone or many who took their own lives. It is a dialogue and advocacy that must continue for all of us until the underlying causes in society and our environments are addressed in a positive and supportive way. Unfortunately I think about it every day. I tried to go through a physician health program but would have to drive 6 hours for an appointment.

Menial tasks and wasting time on the computer until midnight every night are making me hate my job more and more. I take more time off just to take longer to complete tasks. No time to read or learn. Actually insurance companies and governmental regulations own me. I am just tired and want to quit. My kids will graduate in May. My job will be done. There are answers if you want help. Worst night of my career was admitting a colleague with a tricyclic overdose.

Fortunately for her and for me we had access to a superb critical care facility and she recovered. She left medicine the day after she was discharged. I have done emergency medicine and served in a combat zone — but this still haunts me most. Oh that is intense. Did you have any debriefing? I can hook you up if you need to talk to someone. Dr Wible Thanks for all you are doing to improve things for health care professionals.

I had severe depression during my first year of family practice residency and my marriage counselor was able to get me through it with CBT. I stopped trying to fix my wife and developed a sober network of support and now, 28 years later, have an amazingly rewarding job as medical director for a growing addiction treatment company that has 34 facilities in 5 states. I have facilitated group therapy for professionals early in recovery from addiction and observed many urine drug tests for the Professional Health Program.

Some of these people are alive today only because of the case management of this program but I have also seen the onerous punitive medical board actions for those who did not do well in treatment. I cannot blame my substance use disorder on the medical system as it clearly predated my medical training. I am grateful that my illness has given me a wonderful final chapter in my medical career and recommend that those interested in helping, do the course work to join the substance use disorder treatment work force.

The leading cause of death for people active in addiction is suicide. Thank you for your work in the world. I would simply like to add to your excellent work. I would look forward to potentially correspond with you pertaining to my wealth of experiences here in Sydney, Australia. Hopefully if successful, it can be implemented worldwide. There is no doubt what we attempt to address here requires complex considerations to a multitude of what are sometimes diffuse but also quite individualised factors that seemingly evolve constantly over time.

The good news that I want to surface soon is that the pathway to get back and maintain our own good mental-being seems to be more linearly defined and whilst proactive, should certainly not need be over- reliant on specific well designed qualitative outcome studies that will take many years to complete and scrutinise. Perhaps if I could discuss one important reminder today is the regular practice of what is now coined self-compassion.

General surveys will repeatedly reveal we are the most highly valued of all the professionals in our communities. But my simple reminder is this we too are members of our society, and if we are truly valued, then its is time that we utilise this status but along with it ask this question; Why does its really need to be a big deal if an occasion of time comes along, ranging from where we either need to slow down in our work output to benefitting from receipt of some form of a helping hand from another health professional?.

Furthermore, what is it that obstructs us having permission to take time away from the daily hard-grind and role responsibilities to interrupt a potential spiral downwards? So it would seem to be about how we can transfer this more realistic expectation of what we are about and know how to transfer this so that our employers and patients both of whom, can be unrealistically idealising of what is possible to deliver can be even kinder and more accommodating than we can usually be to ourselves. What I want to address is how practical health promotion can occur in our working lives- just hope that my government when they resume in our capital in a few weeks time still considers it an important enough issue to be urgently addressed still.

Will keep you and all others advised of my progress. Seems they are content on just watching the front-line Drs and nurses in our public hospital system continue to fall, whilst researchers continue to crunch their numbers and present their statistical analyses to the Minister sometime next decade for what will always remain qualitative and humanistic.

It is now apparent that this is a true a David Vs Goliath battle that I have embarked upon. So, I shall do once more what we are quietly trained to do best;swallow my pride once more, forge forward and consider all other options. Any constructive practical suggestions from you or others reading this would be appreciated at this stage………….

Patient Profiling: Are You a Victim?

Asking your oppressors for help will slow you down. Hello Pam and thank you so much for your work. Every chance I get with our students I mention your name and try to find out if the student is ok. I educate around the stresses, and politely let them know that they are not alone. I do not care if I am overstepping boundaries: Getting a life 5. Preparing for admission tests 7. Choosing a medical school 8. Undergraduate medical schools 9.

Perfecting the UCAS form Getting into Oxbridge Graduate entry medicine Graduate entry medical schools How to succeed at interview If things don't work out Making the most of medical school This might seem like an exaggeration, however over your lifetime you will spend more hours working than you will spend awake with your life partner.

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