Letter: Reason to pester the doctor Take sore throats seriously

IN THE article "How to treat your doctor" mention is made of "heart sink" patients, who suffer from "Tatt" (Tired All The Time).

I must have been the ideal patient. I suffered from "Tatt" from the early 1970s until 1994. In fact, it wasn't just Tatt, it was "Noad" - Nodding Off All Day, plus "Omkad" - "On My Knees All Day", but since I had three children and a full-time job, I just thought it was normal, and I was always too somnambulant to visit a doctor. I didn't set foot inside a surgery for 15 years, and I was proud of it.

Then someone suggested to me that I might have an underactive thyroid. One little blood test showed that I did. In retrospect I realise that this treatable deficit had had a seriously detrimental effect on my physical and emotional quality of life for almost a quarter of a century.

N Gillott

High Barnet, Hertfordshire