UK Keratoconus Self-Help and Support Association

Arrghh just had a dam frustrating time talking to my new GP. I need a sick note after taking two weeks off with HSV, i have self certified for one but need a doctor to write me a sick note for the other one. I was in the middle of moving at the time so i couldn't see my old GP and had to wait to register with my new one. Anyway as he didn't see me he can't write one, ok point taken, but that's not what annoyed me!

It was the fact that i had to sit there and explain what condition i have and what surgery, why i had to have time off sick and what exactly i needed a prescription for FML drops for!! Now i have NO faith! LOL!!

So now am thinking that maybe doctors need a fact sheet about KC as well as i'm tired of explaining it, and moreso to people who should know!

Ok ... rant over now. Didn't want to shout too much about professionals as most do understand, it's just dam hard work when you find one who doesn't.

Sweet X x X

I have never found a GP that understood the condition, you would have thought though that most medical conditions are in latin they would be able to work out what part of the body KC afflicted!

Sounds like you need one of Annes busines cards to give next time so he can look stuff up on the internet.

I thought you was back at work?.....as you mentioned in your other post?..or have I gone mad?

Back around 1980 when my optician suspected KC and sent me to my GP for him to refer me to the hospital he had no idea what it was and wasn't that keen on refering me. When I transfered to my current one in '83 I think my mouth hung open when he knew all about KC - but he ruined it all by letting it out of the bag that he'd only recently read up on it for another of his patients.

In the typical working lifetime of a GP how many cases of KC do you reckon they come across?

Jay,

I think Sweet was getting a sick note for a historical sickness. I'm sure that she is fit and well again now.

Yes i am back at work and have been for a little while now. I just need a sick note from the last time, but it is complicated as my old GP wouldn't see me as i had just moved and i was waiting to register with a new one!

Am going to have to phone Moorfields and get one from them or indeed my surgeon as they both saw me at the time.

Oh well ... Sweet X x X

Having just moved I think I will have fun when I see the doctor tomorrow.

I think I will take the fact sheet with and give him/her to read.

Oh the joys of changing GP's

A doctor friend-of-a-friend I was talking to once in a bar at a sort of medics reunion told me that most doctors know little about eyes.
Yer average GP knows two things:
1. if it's eyes, it's probably conjunctivitis
2. if it isn't conjunctivitis, refer them to a specialist.

One wonders how many people (like me, the first year I had both contact lenses and hay fever!) get diagnosed with conjunctivits when they haven't got it at all by GPs working onthe above principles!
OK, I know it was on evening in a bar, and most definitely off-duty (!) but I don't thin it was entirely a work of humour.
Rosemary

I guess....but I think we may be unfair to some degree....my Doctor has to refer to his medical books on a few occasions.....and so I think whilst they know general stuff (hence General Practioner) they need to spot signs that need further clarification hence the referral mechanism..........but before I used to get really annoyed at his lack of understanding...but then kinda changed my views

I had dinner with a friend at the weekend - he is a GP and has been for just over a year.

Anyway he asked about the graft and how it had gone.

Then he admitted that he knew very little about KC and through his training and work thus far he has not personally had to deal with it. Opticians (he said) are better equipped and trained about KC than a GP, that is part of their job. (Besides I personally saw about six opticians over 10 years none of which spotted I had KC until it was too late).

He also qualified that by saying - that although he has spent the best part of seventeen years doing medical training and working hospitals as a ward doctor - that eyes like most parts of the body are incredibly complex. Consequently (he said) a GP is only likely to really have a general understanding of how everything works and be able to get a overview picture of the patient - and so deal with most common ailments.

He could he said have chosen to specialise in a particular area but then that would be to the detriment of the rest of his knowledge and he would still be training for a few more years and getting even more in debt.

So at the end of the day - his feeling was if someone came to see him with a rare condition - then to just refer them on to the relevant specialist as that is their job and area of expertise - not his. They way he treats being a GP is to be willing to learn but also to know his own limitations.

Anyway it occurs to me that the supposed number of KC sufferers is roughly 1 in 3000 and of those only around 10% iirc require a cornea graft. So on that basis roughly 1 in 30,0000 people need a cornea graft whilst the rest of the KC sufferers probably manage just fine with their optician to find a workable solution.

Paul