TY - JOUR T1 - A patient's diary: episode 7 — the liver specialist JF - British Journal of General Practice JO - Br J Gen Pract SP - 592 LP - 593 VL - 57 IS - 540 A2 - , Y1 - 2007/07/01 UR - http://bjgp.org/content/57/540/592.abstract N2 - I'm afraid that my liver trouble really isn't any better in spite of my efforts to get some proper treatment from the doctors. I have explained my symptoms to them many times but they don't seem to recognise an unbalanced liver when it is staring them in the face. They just tell me it's ‘irritable bowel’ or ‘nervous tension’ and dish out the same old useless prescriptions. I think part of the trouble is that they get professionally isolated in that surgery and they have lost touch with all the exciting advances going on in places like the New Hospital. I do my best to help keep them up to date. I always let them know if I've found an interesting medical website and I quite often print off relevant pages for their convenience. But are they grateful? Are they interested? Not a bit. They just smile vaguely and say things like ‘oh yes there's a lot of stuff out there but it's not always very reliable, you know.’ Well of course I know that. But I think I have learned to be discriminating and not be taken in by any of the false claims made by advertisers. Dr Brenda says she hasn't much time for the internet because of looking after her husband and the children, but she does relax in the evenings and watch television. So I always make a point of signposting any interesting medical programmes that are coming up for her.This week my appointment was with Dr Teacher. I could see he was having a stressful day by his tone of voice as he called me in. Full of a sort of weary resignation with a steely edge to it, if you know what I mean. I decided to make things easier for both of … ER -