What, no loading dose?
I have been helping someone in the county of Lincolnshire to access treatment and I can say with all honesty that it is THE most difficult and frustrating case I have ever taken on.

I have been told on two separate occasions that GP’s in this area don’t give loading doses as there is “no benefit to patients“. Once by a Practice Manager and once by a female District Nurse. Both are seemingly embarrassed about having told me this apparently ‘privelidged information’ about a certain (and hopefully small) group of GP’s.

The Practice Manager now denies saying it and the District Nurse’s superiors also deny it happens and yet the patient still remains ‘unloaded’.

Persistence…
I continue to dig around to get to the truth about this bizarre situation, so if you live in Lincolnshire and have not received your loading dose either, please consider getting in touch and giving me the name of your Practice and GP so that together we can make a change. (This goes for anywhere else in the UK too).

I have reminded the Practice of NICE Guidance. This states that a loading dose of 6 injections should be given and that this every other day frequency should be continued for those with neurological symptoms. This regime exists so that the patient has the best chance of recovery.

My help, or interference as this Practice sees it, is unwelcome and has fallen on deaf ears. Imagine a drawbridge being pulled up and port cullis being heavily dropped. This is arrogance, ignorance and stubbornness at an unprecedented level.

The Clinical Lead at the CCG (Clinical Commissioning Group), who is also a GP has said “the Practice were likely right in regards to their cautious approach” – Shocking! This wet comment smacks of a doctor not wanting to go against a peer rather than making sure (as they should do) that the patient’s needs are at the heart of the matter.

I won’t give up on this patient or on the wider situation, but my persistence causes some health professionals I’m dealing with to become angry …….

Belittling behaviour…
When I explained about the pointlessness of just one B12 injection for someone so severely affected the disgruntled District Nurse I mention above, loudly told me, “YOU ARE JUST A WOMAN!”  (I know, a shocking lack of sisterhood!)

So I agreed with her. 

Obviously she it meant as an insult, but agreeing with someone when they’re insulting you has a miraculous effect. It completely takes the wind out of the sails. But I also added… “This woman wants to help you to help your patients”.

Essentially her statement was correct, I am just a woman;

Just a woman who cares 

Just a woman who wants to make change

But what the nurses statement was really saying was;

“you are ONLY a woman, you are not a nurse like me or a doctor, how can you know all these things and I don’t? How dare you make me feel inadequate?”

I understand her frustration. I understand her annoyance at not knowing about B12 deficiency, I’d be annoyed too…..she was however shouting at the wrong person, perhaps she should have been asking others around her why she hadn’t been taught more about this vitamin than how to give B12 injections.

It’s a fact that most people with B12 deficiency know more about their condition, how it affects them and how it should be treated than their doctor or nurse does. Wouldn’t it be lovely if this truth could be embraced and the patient’s knowledge tapped without the healthcare professional feeling inferior?

The reason that my site and others like it exist is because the teaching of B12 deficiency for those who need it is far too sparse and this needs to change.

Best wishes Tracey

www.b12deficiency.info

I want to leave you with Becky Hemsley’s wonderful poem –

Like a girl

She drives just like a girl you know
She throws just like one too
She fights just like a girl as well
She’s just no match for you

She also runs just like a girl
And that’s the way she plays
But when they say “just like a girl”
I think they mean to say

Worse
And somehow less
Somehow slower, somehow weaker
They think that if she’s ‘like a girl’
They’ll easily defeat her

But girls will go to battle
When they already are bleeding
And girls are great at throwing themselves
Upwards through glass ceilings

Girls are busy navigating progress,
Driving change
And girls are busy winning
Whilst you criticise their game

So tell her that she’s ‘like a girl’ –
She may just prove you right
She may out-play, out-last you,
Win the race and win the fight

‘Cause she’s a driving force
Fighting for her place in this world
And if you try to talk her down
She’ll rise up

Like a girl

Becky Hemsley 2023

If you are a health professional and you and your colleagues want to learn more about B12 deficiency please click here.

If you are experiencing problems with accessing treatment;

For testimonials please click here.

Please note that the NICE link is unavailable outside of the UK.