Not questioning can be harmful to your health.

I was set off on another thread by the whole issue of not questioning, and/or not being able to find answers, for whatever reason. I decided to take my rant to another thread. I'd like answers because if you don't get answers to your questions, it can make you sick. Is it wrong to ask questions, and expect answers?

What am I missing? Why were there no honest answers???

All I wanted was an honest answer back in the 90s - from 1995 on - I tried to get an honest answer. Even if that answer was "I don't know" - I should have been told that, rather than made to feel like I was going crazy.

Now, I can't get answers, and I feel like I'm going crazy...but I know I'm not crazy.

The medical expert for the College believed that it was o.k. for Dr. Arora not to offer me an OCT in 2003 because that was not available in Hamilton, where I live. I am an hour's drive away from Toronto; the cost for this was $150.00; and I would have gladly paid it; but I didn't even know that such a test existed. (And, by the way, my husband's insurance covered the cost of it, which I found out later)

The College overloooked the fact that Dr. Arora COMPLETELY IGNORED my central vision problem, and did not even offer an angiogram in 2003. Could his excuse be - "there was a peripheral problem that needed urgent attention?" Sure, he could try that. (The flashes were central, not to the side, - I wonder where the flahses should be for a retinal tear at 5 o'clock - who knows? Who cares?) Dr. Arora didn't even need an excuse for writing "20/25" when my vision was somewhere between "20/70" and "20/200". All he needed to say was that my vision was essentially normal on all visits, and because he is a doctor, he is believed over me. I call that FRAUD. The College calls it an acceptable standard of care!

On follow-up, after his laser surgery, done without signed, informed consent, he did a visual acuity test; he didn't chart the result of that (he charted the one that wasn't done the month before, but didn't chart the one that he did, LOL). His "follow-up" plan should have been an angiogram at the least. He claims that he told me to see my optometrist. Obermeyer, the College investigator, says that he told me to see my family doctor. The truth is that I ran out of there before he could see me crying, because I felt that he was being verbally abusive. He was telling me that I made too big of a deal out of things, and he wasn't taking my problem seriously. In my opinion, a retinal surgeon who does not take central vision loss seriously, needs to be disciplined.

The fact is here, in Ontario Canada, if the doctor doesn't feel like treating the problem, he doesn't have to. Therefore, to get back to the issue, it all depends if the doctor feels you need the MRI. If he feels that YOU are important, then you'll get good care, if not - TUFF LUCK. Don't bother complaining, because the CPSO PROTECTS THE DOCTOR, AND DO NOT EVEN THINK OF INITIATING A LAWSUIT OR THEY'LL GIVE YOU SOMETHING TO REALLY CRY ABOUT!!