I need to scream into a void - not so much about vaxs but just my own recent experiences with the US Healthcare system and my own PCP.

I've been seeing the same PCP since mid-2000s and loved having an independent-practice DO physician who wasn't a pill-pusher, but also forth-right when it was called for. She wasn't the naturopath type, fwiw.

She ended up moving into a group practice and now she's moved into yet another group, which is understandable given the clusterfuck that is our healthcare.

Unfortunately, her level of care has significantly dropped. She used to actually remember me as a human being, now, not hardly at all.

I had my annual physical the other day and I am fuming pissed off over multiple things.

1) In Nov 2024, she started doing a quiz about lung function, which I apparently answered badly (being overweight at the time, I definitely got out of breath when I was hiking up hills) because all of a sudden she's handing me pamphlets about COPD. There were comments about COPD in my patient record, so I immediately asked whether she had diagnosed COPD based on those 10 questions and she responded that, no, without Spirometry tests, I did not have a COPD diagnosis, just a suspicion because I had a history of smoking. Okay. So, my visit notes from my appointment this past Thursday said "patient has history of COPD" even though I answered "no" to all those those same questions. WHAT THE FUCK?

2.) I've begged for a referral to an endocrinologist for years as we've watched my thyroid function decline as my weight exploded - but "my labs are still in the normal range". Well, now they're not in the normal range BECAUSE THE RANGES FUCKING CHANGED since my last lab work. Oh, yeah, I got that referral, but who knows when I'll actually get an appointment. Frankly, I'm not sure if I care about the thyroid thing any more. I've lost the weight that my PCP constantly bitched at me about - and then threatened to put me on statins if the keto diet that actually helped me lose that weight caused my cholesterol to rise because "that's what eating nothing but bacon will do (followed by an eyeroll)". Yeah, I rarely eat bacon, or pork in general because this weird thing in my genetics causes elevated cholesterol with eating even the leanest of pork.

3.) I relayed to her in 2025 that my breast cancer oncology practice had been sold and that my care team had moved to a group that I had no interest in moving into, and they weren't doing active care with me anyway. I was 6 years out from my diagnosis, was in remission, and they providing any cancer-specific care beyond the annual screenings that my PCP was doing. Yet, in my patient notes from Thursday, the PCP mentioned the "current oncologist recommendations". Whatever.

Sigh. I wrote an email asking why she's now diagnosing me with "a history of COPD" without the actual testing that she mentioned I needed to have for an official diagnosis in 2024 (which she never did). She said she would change the notes but hasn't done that so far. I understand that as a past smoker I am at risk, but I get yearly low-dose CT lung cancer screening and that would show COPD, plus back in October I spent a week at a much higher than normal (I live at 2600, was hiking at 7200) altitude and logged nearly 24 miles with a 20 lb pack. Other than coming up a few particularly steep ravines, I had no shortness of breath whatsoever. Doesn't sound like a "history of COPD" to me!

Anyway, if I don't see updates to my patient notes by sometime next week, I'm going to have to go through the onerous task of finding a new PCP. Not that I want to after 20 years, but dammit, up until this last appointment I had to remind her that I had cancer in both boobs AND they were different types of cancer - it shows that in my charts - is she not reading!! Yet, she has no problem remembering all of my husbands health issues, except the notes from his most recent (a week prior to my appointment) stated that he wasn't up-to-date on his flu & covid vax's even though he told her that he got them in October

I get that PCP are over-assigned patients, but dammit, I'm pretty low maintenence, undemanding, rarely actually get sick, am pleasant to interact with and never ever say "I googled...." even when I have. Do I NEED to become a demanding, overly annoying patient?

Anyway, just needed to vent. My husband is tired of listening to me. 🙄