Posted by Dinah on February 1, 2005, at 7:54:15
In reply to Re: Question for you » gardenergirl, posted by mair on January 31, 2005, at 12:27:11
I can relate!
I have a real fondness for saving my medical records. I get hold of all the ones I can, I ask for copies of my test results, which I keep in a big old file somewhere. It's come in really handy at times as one provider ceased doing business and another lost my file.
I'm the same way about psych records. I ask for copies the second the relationship is over. Then I not infrequently get outraged because they either got something completely wrong or they said something that sounded awful. I got so upset over one of the psych notes in my pediatric file (my pscyh file has long since been destroyed, drat it), that I tracked down my psychiatrist from the period (who left private practice shortly after seeing me and was away from this area for some time and had just returned) to ask him what on earth he meant by the comments. He appeared astonished, but not angry, that I could find him, said he was glad to hear from me and that I could call him if I thought of any further questions. He remembered me but vaguely, my parents better, and his comments about what he had written were soothing and framed in terms that patients didn't have access to their files back then. Then he said that if what he had written were correct, I certainly would have known it by now, so I could safely assume he was mistaken. Hardly reassuring. But while I was upset at the time, I'm glad I did it in retrospect. I learned a lot and remembered a lot working through it with my therapist.
But...
I would never ever ask to see my therapist's notes, not now, not in a million years. He hurt me enough with the second hand comments quoted by the pdoc from Hades, and which he never denied. Similarly I never have requested the notes from the pdoc from Hades because of what they might contain from my therapist. Although the limitation period for keeping those notes is nearly up and I ought to request them, even if I never read them. The difference is that I care about my therapist and he has the power to really hurt me as opposed to just angering me or causing brief injury.
poster:Dinah
thread:443118
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20050129/msgs/450938.html