Guest blog by Lesabre500
One of the most important things about staying healthy I think is a good doctor. He will be able to keep an eye on you, jump on anything that’s not right and help you get immediate treatment.
I had one that wasn’t so great, give me antibiotics for 2 years because he thought I had an infection.
It turned out three years later my cheekbone and sinus were smashed together and that's why I couldn't breath properly through my nose.
If he would have sent me for x-rays and to a specialist in the first place, I might have avoided surgery to fix my face and nose. While I'm on this topic, I'll tell you about something even worse.
In August 2006, I went to the local emergency room by ambulance. I couldn't move my legs and knew something was seriously wrong.
The doctor at the hospital thought I was trying to get drugs and sent me home with crutches.
A day later I collapsed, was rushed back to the hospital where they found two serious infections in my heart.
I almost died, put into a drug induced coma, was on life support for weeks, and ended up spending 9 months in the hospital.
I developed severe arthritis - a complication from the infection and had to have a total hip replacement. I'm looking at a knee replacement as well.
It's been 28 months from when I first went into the hospital and I still cannot walk unless I use 2 canes.
I had a concrete finishing company before and built concrete silo's. Now It takes me about 2 minutes to go 15 feet from my couch to the kitchen.
If that doctor in emergency would have checked me instead of having an attitude, I probably wouldn't be like this. My family wouldn't have been scared out of their wits when they were told to sign the DNR (do not resuscitate) order and plan my funeral.
Having a decent doctor is one way to stay healthy. You need to do some of the work yourself though. Make sure your doctor is reliable from the start and be prepared when you see him.
This puts a new meaning to doctor-patient relationship. How well does your doctor know you? Do you get a thorough exam or a quick and rushed one?
Comments (25)
you're right. It is imperative to work WITH your doctor. If you don't have one who will talk with you, learn who you are and what your ongoing concerns are it's time to go searching for another.
"How well does your doctor know you? Do you get a thorough exam or a quick and rushed one?"
All thee doctors know me like the back of thir hands! They are wonderful. Anytime I have a suspision, they send me to gt tests.
I can't that for an ER visit one time though! I went into the hospital because I could not produce a BM with out excrusiating pain, blood in my stool, blood in urine, and severe back pain.
The hospital said fissures, and gave me cream.
The pain got worse so I went to a different hospital:
Sever kidney infection, fissures, internal hemroid that burst, yeast infection, and infection in my rectum. LOVELY!
I was put on a NUMBING cream, pain meds, and antibiotics.
If you feel something isn't right GO GET A SECOND OPINION!
It took me 2 weeks to feel better, I still have trouble with my one deep fissure, but I'll make it!
@the_real_anna@xanga - I have a similar story.
I was 15 at the time. I developed a UTI and it spread from there to my kidneys & into my bloodstream.
My doc thought i was being rebellious and trying to get out of school and my parents agreed [marks werent so good at that time] so, i went untreated.
I developed a higher fever, the chills got worse and i could not get up without begining in ridicolous amount of pain & oh yeah was vomiting all over the place.
Finally my mum, took me to emergancy because i had passed out. (dehydration, peeing hurt so i tried not to drink too much, and then i was vomiting, not a good mix)
Turns out the kidney infection had gotten into my bloodstream.
and i could have lost my kidneys if i hadnt have been taken to emergancy.
The best bit is the doc that didnt treat me, lost his job.
it's true....if the specialists all put down their big egos and ACTUALLY listened instead of being all holier than thou, there would be alot fewer of these cases. sadly, it's not uncommon or unheard of.
yea you have to watch it with these dr's now days . it seems they dont care about us just hurry you and get you out of their office ...
i been through hell with dr's ugh...
wowwww. thats insane. that doctor needs to be repremanded like crazy. i dont ever go to the doctor so i dont really know mine.
That sinus thing worries me because I have pain on my right side of my face and my sinues and my cheekbone is involved. I think I have an infection that has went into the bone. I am going to get it checked out in a day or two. I hope that it is nothing serious.
What a shame we now have to prove ourselves INNOCENT of drug abuse, criminal behavior ect... We use to be innocent until it was proven we were guilty. Wow, a sad day and time for our country.
I've learned to go with my instinct, and if a doctor doesn't listen to make them, or find a new doctor.
I basically hate doctors.
Doctors should do their job and treat patients, not judge them. And if they don't do their job they should be fired.
Our health system is so broken. Government contractors are out of control and this permieates all of health care. A good doctor finds it so diffucult to take care of thier patients in this atmosphere. I pray the new USA administration means it when they say they want to 'change' things. But the 'gravy train' of skimming the public funds to many of the contractors will end and many in 'power' have a financial incentive to not let things get better. I an dealing with a twenty year horror story of my own complicated by it being a Federal Job injury and political appointees abusively breaking the law and no one accountable. To compound the problem is the National HealthInsurance Data Base maintained by Group Health for the entire insurance industry. Under the HIPPAA law the patient is supposed to have acces to all medical records and to file a correction statement. Group Health is ignoring this law. Some of my doctors have found that what they sent in on claims was changed inside the contractors and they can't get a correction either. In a busy emergency room, ones medical care is being directed by what a medical staff person reads on that site. Not only are their horror stories like yours, but the Congressman Pete Stark's Subcommittee has a study that hundreds of thousands have died because some doctor was too busy to check out its accuracy. In 2/07, I learned in an emergency room that the doctor couldn't even access the medical records of his own hospital to compare an EKG with prior records on file in his own hospital. A doctor years ago, told me , " once your are 'blackballed' by the 'peer organization' it is difficult from then on to get good medical treatment. I had four serious problems that took months and long delays to get taken care of, but in the first ten days as I had to go long distances, etc and find doctors on my own, I was offered narcotics 6 times and I had to refuse to take the prescriptions home with me as my pulmonologists and cardiologists have warned me for years not to 'mask' unusual pain until the cause was discovered and treated. It could be medically dangerous. When I finally got the surgery that was required, 5 months later, I did take some pain pills for a few days. I also had a 'super bug infection' and no special precautions were taken at the hospital. So it can work both ways. And I have THREE insurances. So, no doctor or hospital should have worried about getting paid. I got turned away from the first hospital, and my husband took me to another one and some tests were run, but due to "illegal gag orders" I was not told the results. I sent my husband in the next day with a signed release to get the test results and discovered the problem diagnosed by radiologist and then called the right kind of specialist and eventually three sugeries later, I am still here. This has been going on for twenty years. Many of my co-workers have died of their injuries over the years and many who were younger than me. We do need an overhaul of our health care system, but no plan will work until the greed and corruption ends at the highest levels of our government. When you have a political appointee who thinks all they have to do is issue a contract and hand out a check and never check back to see if the contractor is doing their job, this permeates all of the health care system, even into the private insurers, who probably also have government contracts. Lawlessness is anarchy and unfortunately over the last twenty years it has only gotten worse. We the people must demand better.
How well does your doctor know you?
She thinks she knows me better than she does.
Do you get a thorough exam or a quick and rushed one?
It's rushed. GPs here are limited to 10-minute sessions. I can't remember the last time she actually physically examined any part of my body.
Yeah, when I went to the ER for what turned out to be a dead internal organ, and I was screaming at the top of my lungs in excruciating pain, the ER nurses/doctors were avoiding giving me pain meds because they thought I was seeking. The only reason they gave me any/enough to stop the screaming (after an hour or two of me howling) was that my hysterically crying boyfriend bullied them into it.
Yeah, I kind of hate that hospital with an undying passion now. I'll only go to the one that's farther away but affiliated with my regular doctor, who is awesome. My normal doctors were appalled when they heard what happened at that hospital...apparently you're supposed to give pain meds to the patient even if you suspect they're seeking because you just might be a moron LOL
It's important to be persistent sometimes. When I was in fourth grade, I was having severe abdominal pains. My dad did a little self-diagnosing of his own and suspected appendicitis --my parents rushed me to the hospital, where the doctors tried to turn them away saying it was indigestion. Fortunately, my parents insisted, and it turned out to really be appendicitis. There were complications from it being delayed, but since they didn't give up and go home, they weren't too bad.
Of course, there are times when the doctor really does know better. I think it's ALWAYS good to get a second or third opinion, but idk about getting a twentieth. If many doctors independently assess you and come up with the same diagnosis...they might be right.
Can you say medical malpractice lawsuit?
I've had both good and bad doctors. Bad ones are pariahs to the world. Good ones are the angels we've all been waiting to find in our time of need.
I think it is interesting how a lot of doctors think patients are drug seeking who aren't. The biggest irony is that a lot of them are sympathetic to people who truly are drug seeking and don't see that there is a real problem there.
Who'd have guessed?
That's really scary. I hope you meet some extremely good doctors in the new year :)
That doctor is ... wow. Seriously.
Eeeeey, I don't think my doctor know's me well.
We have annual check up's, that's all.
Wise words.
This is actually an issue affecting my life now, as well. I just turned 20, so I'm still in that awkward transition between going to the family pediatrician to seeing an internist. My pediatrician knew me so well, he'd been treating me since I was in the womb, no joke.
But now my new doctor is a bit... less sympathetic. I went to him for a routine sinus infection; my pediatrician knew about them, I get 2 a year, have since I was 7 or so. But my doctor insisted it was nothing, refused to perscribe antibiotics, and told me to lose weight. "You've gained 10 pounds in a year, that is unhealthy! You need to lose them or I will put you on a strict diet plan and recommend you to a nutritionist" He refused to accept that I'd just gone to college and put on "the freshman 10".
Did you sue?
Since I became an adult and dropped from my mother's health insurance, I haven't had a regular doctor. I've just been going to whatever doctor was the closest to where I lived and covered under the insurance. I guess that is nto a good thing. But I am a great proponent of getting a second opinion and a third or fourth.
yeah, did you sue? sounds like you've been through alot ! both physical and mental. you should sue!
I remember having very thorough exams in childhood and teen years. Now I'm 19, and have very rushed exams. It's annoying because I'm asthmatic and have bouts with mental illness, and I feel like my primary doctor should spend a little more time checking those things instead of just doing my vitals and saying I'm fine.
I highly recommend the book How Doctors Think for anyone who wants to be able to communicate better with their doctor. It's written for patients to understand the medical system better and to learn how to get doctors to pay better attention to them.
Sometimes there's a good reason for their behavior, sometimes they're being jerks, but I think the important thing is to figure out how to deal with it.