letters from consultants

Oh dear, one of DH's consultants described us as an intelligent couple!! Wonder what that means, asks too many questions, insists on detailed replies, takes notes lol!!

When my health deteriorated a few years ago and I was visiting various consultants, my GP said to me, "I bet they all love you, you are such an interesting patient, much better than all the boring cases they have to deal with."

When my H's heart consultant suggested in a letter that he should go onto warfarin, I googled the risks, benefits etc for a man of his age and at the consultation I told him my views, he was furious and referred to me sarcastically as "Dr" and discharged us from his clinic.
I would love to hear how he referred to us in his report to the GP, it wouldn't have been flattering.

I thought I had stumbled across a code when I was in hospital for a few days recently. At handover time, the nurse going off duty said to her successor on the watch "This is Grumppa, he's independent." I immediately took this to mean that I was a stubborn old bugger, and was disappointed to find that it just meant that I could wash myself and didn't carry a plastic bag plumbed in to my heaven know's what.

DH was described as "This lovely gentleman" in one letter - great hilarity ensued His regular consultant has known us for years now and and always uses our names in letters. He is also used to lengthy negotiations about treatment!

We asked our GP about consultants letters some time back and he confirmed that ‘Pleasant gentleman’, ‘friendly lady’ etc are all code but he wouldn’t tell us what they stood for.

Ooh I'd worry about being referred to as 'friendly lady'!

Frequently I found that my previous occupation was mentioned- in other words, mind what you say, this one knows too much and will query anything that you say- you cannot fob her off.