In Poland on holiday - need help with bad case of homesickness

You don't get to decide that.

And yes, they're very much part of society.

Well of course. PO promises but PiS delivers!

Chuja delivers. :):):) Cities in Poland are ruled by PO or anti PiS coalition. Ha!

Wider pavements?

It will be 10 years soon.


I meant compared to UK:)

I slightly recovered and I'm back from my holiday.
The funny thing is when I like two sides for the same issue. E.g.:

I like that doctors, nurses etc are being polite, more partner-ish etc in UK but I hate that the hard truths are being glossed over,

Example that I came across was a pregnant women (just the beginning of pregnancy) with BMI 30 was told that it's fine. While I understand that she shouldn't go on a diet or anything in that time I would like a middle ground when she would be informed that it's too high and care has to be put into healthy food.

Or H&s:
I like the care put into h&S measures in UK but I also like the feeling of personal responsibility that comes with the more relaxed Polish approach.

People self-medicate up to the eyeballs in Poland. Terrible hypochondriacs. Public health education is shite but it's improving.


I'm sure that she will be monitored for any issues arising from her weight. And there is NHS advice on this topic. They may not have wanted to 'fire brigade' her on her first visit.

nhstaysidecdn.scot.nhs.uk/NHSTaysideWeb/idcplg?IdcService=GET_SECURE_FILE&Rendition=web&RevisionSelectionMethod=LatestReleased&noSaveAs=1&dDocName=prod_244782

It's the national sport. Prescriptions full of unnecessary medicine, and piles of unnecessary tests. I had a cracked rib once and the doctor wanted to send me for a diabetes test, despite having no symptoms at all of diabetes,

I remember that the manufacturers of 'rutinoscorbin' (as Polish as bigos) ran a survey about its clinical effectiveness among doctors. 50% said it was a miracle cut for everything and 50% said it was useless. They still throw it at you though.


They tend to be very sensitive about the matter of weight.

It seems that a BMI of 30 in the UK is not overweight at all?

It is very much overweight. Overweight in the U.K. is either from 23 or 25 depending on ethnicity/age/sex (some people are more prone to diabetes) and obesity is from 27.5 or 30.

Nevertheless, there is always sensitivity about weight and since the woman in question was pregnant, extra sensitivity is appropriate.

I wouldn't laugh at that. Once I had to go to an oncologist - she was an older, good, experienced doctor. She just looked at me, asked a few questions and told me to check my TSH levels and go to an endocrinologist. It turned out that I have Hashimoto disease. She literally saved me, because I didn't know what's going on with me and I was at my wits' end.

Not so much laughing as feeling despondent about unnecessary tests and cynical about the national hypochondria in Poland. I even know people who can tell you not only which type of tree gives them hay fever but also what 'percentage allergy' they have. Plus I've come across people who won't even let their kids eat ice cream for spurious reasons.

I have full medicals for work reasons more or less every three months and perfect blood sugar levels as well as the blood pressure of a 25 year old, so a blood pressure test with no indicators of an issue given when I went to get painkillers for a cracked rib was overkill.

The one medical issue I do have is treated by occasional injections. It's something inherited and straightforward to manage. The doctor I go to for it writes out long prescriptions full of irrelevant things (including, yes, rutinoscorbin). My friend who's a doctor far above the one I go to in the pecking order says just to ignore it, have the shots and the painkillers since the doctor who prescribes all the unnecessary stuff is almost certainly getting bungs from the drug manufacturers if not kickbacks from the chemist across the road from her surgery (which she always tells me to go to).


Good that she spotted something, however I'd guess that there were specific pointers that led her to send you to one.

Did you tell that doctor about it?


Well, obviously, there usually are and as a doctor she was able to spot them.

Yes.


In Poland, you get sent for (often paid) tests for little or no reason other than hypochondria and money.

The funniest experience I had at a Polish doctor was when I went with a friend who didn't speak Polish. The doctor gave some rather odd medicine (it was a very straightforward issue which is only ever treated with one simple drug) and I had to go back with the patient a week later since the medicine he'd been given hadn't worked. It was a different doctor on duty and when she was told that the previous doctor had prescribed the meds and there was no improvement, she replied "of course not, she doesn't know what she's talking about".

Was it some recent blood sugar result?


Strange, I have a completely different experience than you... Are you using private health service?

Yes. Every three months and no symptoms of diabetes.


I've used both, though disapprove of the concept of private medicine.

I've a few other horror stories (including about a drunken surgeon) however I'll not tell them since there are good doctors too (hopefully most of them) and I'd not want to put people off seeking help when needed.

When I have any problems (currently I'm off work due to a spinal fracture after a "fall onto a sitting position" onto a concrete floor, something I don't recommend to anyone) and I'm here in PL, I go to a friend who's a doctor and who I trust implicitly.

Say what you want, but hypochondriacs, as they say, tend to have overall levels of good health.

I remember after Poland entered the EU (and interest in the US disappeared I started following some British news sources) I was surprised at how often I saw stories about someone who'd seen X number doctors (often in the double digits) none of which recognized that the patient had something like stage four lung cancer.... (not just one story it seemed there was something similar on an almost weekly basis....)

A British person told me (on line) that it was culture. British doctors (following British attitudes in general) are often too optimistic and take the position that most things patients complain about are minor and will resolve themselves whereas Polish doctors tend to be pessimistic and want to test anything that moves....

As irritating as all the extra tests in Poland can be.... I'd rather go through them than be waved away when something is really wrong....

They rarely live longer and are miserable through worrying.


I've only had good experiences over there and very mixed experiences here.

Minor things go away usually. With more serious things, a profit motive (and the worst doctor in the world, Dr Google) harm rather than help.

I've always had the impression that hypochondriacs enjoy themselves greatly finding horrible things to suffer from and being relieved when that isn't it....


If the NHS is so great why did it take so long to catch Letby? Serious question.... usually angel-of-death serial killers who target small children are found relatively quickly (those who target the very old and/or sick can avoid detection longer) but in her case officials bent over backward to keep her on the job and killing babies..... what went wrong?

That is weird then.

You know, if I go to a private visit to an endocrinologist that I haven't visited before and I won't bring some somewhat recent blood test results and I'll ask for a prescription then the doctor may tell me to come again with the results (if I didn't bring them) or will send me to take a test if the results are old. But I think that's reasonable, because apparently there are people so desperate/lazy to lose weight that they'd be ready to take the drug that people with my disease and with hypothyroidism are taking and that would be dangerous for them.

It's different in the case of public health service, because there they have my medical records already and they can simply check.


In Warsaw?


Me too, honestly. Especially considering my experiences.

Yes, that's where I live.


I thought so too.

Oh dear, I am really sorry to hear that Jon. Wishing you a full recovery. Hope you're not in too much pain :(

I thought 15 coz you joined the forum in 2009, the year after your move to GB as I presumed.


You don`t know what you are saying. There have always been those health care posters everywhere - in school, offices, clinics. E.g, where did I learn from that you need to clean your teeth twice a day??? From a squirrel poster in my kindergarten.

Come to your senses, please. Ha!

• 
  
  

I remember this song for kids about brushing your teeth from my childhood - I loved it lol:

youtu.be/Z4j3MuGsTrU

The lyrics:

ising.pl/fasolki-myj-zeby-tekst

"Szczotko, szczotko,
Hej szczoteczko O! O! O!
Zatańcz ze mną,
Tańcz w kółeczko. O! O! O!"

🤗❤️

I'm not talking about posters for kids.


Here, you might like this from my own childhood. How to cross the road safely. We learned this in school :)

youtube.com/watch?v=PEssgMQ1O_k

You mentioned general health education. It starts with posters for kids. Ha!

It just occurred to me why that was familiar. Someone I know slightly is involved with treating that illness and has some sort of special method (that I don't know any details about). He's called Viktor Żenni and is in Poland. Have you come across him?

Edit.
I just had a look on Google and he has a website:
zenniviktor.pl

I've never heard of him... It sounds like some charlatan stuff... If his method worked on all the stuff he claims it works, he would get a Nobel Prize in Medicine...

His claims are pretty impressive, aren't they. It seems to cure almost everything.


I only know him to say hello to. He seems OK however I've no idea about how (or if) his method works. A family friend in the U.K. has the same illness and although she can certainly afford any fancy private treatment going, she still as far as I know has the illness.

Nevertheless, it seem to happen in a lot of different cities in Poland and somebody (a doctor) suggested it for something else.

Yes, if some "method" claims to cure everything then it usually means it's bollocks... I googled this method in both Polish and English and I've found nothing in any serious media.

Here are some opinions:

forum.gazeta.pl/forum/w,22,15803056,15803056,Dr_Zenni_metoda_leczenia_tarczycy_skuteczna_.html#A


Because there's no cure for Hashimoto disease. If you develop hypothyroidism due to "Hashi" (and I did) you have to take the artificial thyroid hormone for the rest of your life and that's it. You also suplement certain stuff like selenium, vitamin B12, witamin D3, omega−3 fatty acids and avoid certain stuff, like iodine, for example.

Relax. I mentioned something I'd come across (without recommending it), and since you'd not heard of it, it was something new to you. Whether it's of interest to you is another matter. It's still worth reading about though, even if it's an inapt treatment for that condition.

For the record, I feel the same about miracle cures and declined treatment using that method for a particular issue.

It is however potentially an example of the (very often quack) treatments that go around Poland like those oxygen chambers and a few others.. I was dismayed to learn that some Americans here were practising the quack treatment called chiropractic in Warsaw. A dangerous con that can often do more harm than good. Homeopathy and a few other very dodgy things too, sadly.

BTW, 'bollocks' isn't generally used that way in English, however it's a very strong word for anything other than a part of the male anatomy that's best used very sparingly indeed.