[Chirley]

Hi, I want to tell you the story of my Dad. It's not about MDS but gives you an idea how some doctors think.

My 84 yo Dad who lives independently, does all his own housework and cooking, mows his own lawn and rides his pushbike 3-5 kilometers a day suddenly started complaining about nerve pains in his right leg with weakness causing incapacity. After waiting several weeks to see if it would improve he went to see his GP, who told him that he was just a "rusty" old man and it wasn't worth doing any tests. He ordered morphine tablets and sent him home.

I became irate...... I insisted Dad went back and demanded a CT scan. He did and the GP reluctantly ordered the scan. End result....spinal canal stenosis. I told my Dad to ask for a referral to a surgeon, the GP said that there was no point because Dad was too old. I rang around and found a well respected neurosurgeon and made an appointment for Dad and then rang my Dads GP and told him he WOULD write out a referral.

Dad went to see the neurosurgeon and all he requires is a relatively simple decompression procedure which will require 1-2 nights in hospital. If left Dad would have lost bowel and bladder control and become wheelchair bound and in intractable pain.

In short my experience is that doctors can be very age discriminatory and even more worrying is that older people trust everything their doctor tells them.

Don't worry if you upset his doctors there are many more around.


Regarjds