I didn’t write all of these, but they for sure have been thoughts in my head. I haven’t always said what I felt I needed to say to doctors until recently. I have gotten fed up with their ignorance and unwillingness to help me. These doctors have reduced me to tears so many times with the crap they say, the insensitive idiotic things they say. They are supposed to be an advocate for us, not work against us. They are supposed to be there to listen, not ignore us. They are supposed to fight for us, and do everything they can to figure all this bullshit out, but no they don’t listen to, or believe us.

1. “‘I guess I don’t need all these meds then!’

2. “‘Really?! So you can see my pain?’”

3. “‘Please don’t dismiss me. I am highly aware of my symptoms because I live with them 24/7. Being aware of your symptoms and condition to a high level of detail is not only necessary but helpful, because if we work together — you with your knowledge of medicine and me with my knowledge of myself — we can get somewhere.’”

4. “‘You’re wrong. [I] think I know my own pain after 7 years.’”

5. “This was not in my five-year plan. Or 20, for that matter. This isn’t just pain. It is agony with no real quality of life to speak of. Please spend a full week in my home. Then decide!

6. “I have told a provider once if she doesn’t take me seriously I’ll be making appointments every month until she listens to me. That worked.”

7. “‘Why would I make this up? I can’t do anything I loved anymore.’”

8. “‘Unfortunately for you, if it wasn’t for all the sick people out there having to come to you for help, you wouldn’t have a job! Therefore I suggest you show us some respect… or find someone that knows what he or she is doing. FYI, it’s people like us that pay your bills…’”

9. “Just get up and leave. If a doctor treats me like garbage I’ll find another. I know not everyone has that luxury, but I’ve known doctors to intentionally prescribe the wrong medications, or try to cause pain during a physical exam to prove me wrong and I’m not taking that chance anymore.”

10. “‘I didn’t know my pain cared about my age because it surely doesn’t seem like it.’

11. “‘It’s real, it’s painful and just because you refuse to acknowledge it exists does not make it any less valid.

12. “‘Just because it’s not happening right this second as you’re moving that limb, doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen. Watch me walk down the hallway when I leave, then tell me it’s all fine.’”

13. “‘I live in this body and experience it every day. You’re only seeing it in passing and on paper. Tell me, doctor, do you know my name without looking at that sheet much less my history or pain?’ Too many times I’ve nodded and agreed with ignorant doctors who assumed I knew nothing. So I educated myself and went to experts, read medical papers, watched online conferences caught up on medical research and when I’m dismissed now I can recite facts and figures. I’m not another number. I am a person and they forget that.”

14. “I said to my doctor, ‘Don’t dismiss me. That’s rude. I know you are the doctor which is why I am here, but if you don’t actually listen to me then we aren’t going to figure anything out.’”

15. “‘You’re not hearing what I’m saying.’”

What is something you have wanted to say to your doctor, but never have??