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Have you ever been prescribed a med and not filled the scrip? Ordered to have a test and not done it? Not because you were procrastinating but b/c you just were not going to do it. How about telling the doc, "No I'm not going to do that?" If you were 90 and had a lump in your breast, would you see a doc or let it go? I'm just curious about how many people stand up to their doc since I know so many people who would never dream of doing that.
When I get to 90, I will! I told my mother's doctors "no more" when she was 93. They wanted to put in a pace-maker. I had her POA and put her on hospice care as I knew that was what she wanted.
I was told I needed an EGD to be sure if i had an ulcer and I refused to do it. About a week later, I asked for it as I was not getting better.
The main reason I go to doctors is to get a diagnosis, when something is wrong. Depending on what the diagnosis is, I might, or might not ask for treatment recommendation. Sometimes the doctor will prescribe a treatment without my asking for it. And at those times, I might or might not comply with the treatment recommendation.
I used to get seasonally chronic asthmatic bronchitis. I'd get it every winter and every spring, and it'd last a couple of months, and it'd sound like I was dying. I'd usually feel just fine, but the coughing was insane. I'd go to the doctor just to make sure it wasn't turning into pneumonia (which it did, once). My treatment for it was nyquil, more water than usual, a hot-air humidifier in the house with that vick's stuff in it, and keeping my feet warm. Since it was chronic, there really wasn't much else TO do about it. It'd go away all by itself when it was good and ready to do so. I just needed relief from the symptoms til that happened.
Typically the doctor would try and push antibiotics on me. And every time he did that, I'd ask him "is this a viral infection or a bacterial infection?" And every time I asked, he'd say he didn't know. Every time he said that, I'd say thanks, and toss the prescription in the trash when I got home. Really, I just wanted to make sure I didn't have pneumonia. If I -did- have pneumonia, I'd treat it more aggressively and check myself into a hospital if the doctor felt it was bad enough.
Anyone has the right to decline treatment or testing at any time.
However, you supposedly are going to a physician in order to take advantage of his knowledge and expertise. Why bother to go if you do not wish to follow his advice?
It also seems a bit dishonest to just toss the script.
Why not ask the doc, "What will happen if we do not follow this line of treatment at this time?"
For example, many people put off having a colonoscopy because they dread the prep and they find the procedure embarrassing. The consequences of not doing the test can be a cancer down the road that could have been prevented by removing a polyp.
As far as procedures in the over 90 age group are concerned, keep in mind that not every person in that age group has dementia. Some are even still living independently or semi-independently. For such a person, the insertion of a pacemaker could be very worthwhile with a significant improvement in quality of life.
Some tests are done for diagnosis, such as a colonoscopy in someone who has had bleeding, and some are done for screening, such as a colonoscopy in someone with no symptoms at all.
Blood tests done for screening often come back normal, which is good. You would never find out about diabetes if you never had your blood sugar tested, though.
The fact that a test comes back normal does not mean that it was not indicated.
At the end of every visit to your doctor, you should understand what your diagnosis is, the alternatives for treatment, and what to expect if you do or do not have the treatment that the doc recommends. This requires a dialog. If you just sit there, take the script, and then throw it away, you mislead the doctor into thinking you understand his reasoning. If you never ask what the rationale behind his thinking is, you may make a decision that would be different from what you would have made if you asked a few more questions.
Then you can make an informed decision that you and the doc both agree on. Be prepared, though. If you are confrontational, challenge everything the doc says, and refuse things the doc feels are reasonable and prudent, you may be asked to find another physician because the doc does not want to deal with the potential fallout of your decisions down the road.
I absolutely have rejected the advice of doctors before and will surely do it again. They are mostly a bunch of drug pushing, money grubbing ghouls. Here's my last negative experience, a very recent one. I went to a gynecologist to be examined for fibroids, something I was sure I have. She sent me to get a pelvic sonogram which confirmed that I was right. She took a very painful biopsy to make sure they aren't cancerous - I knew that they weren't but I went along with it. Went back for the follow up appointment at which time she informed me that they aren't cancerous. She told me that the 3 fibroids were 5 cms each while making hand gestures that revealed a size of about 12 cms. I asked for clarification, and she answered "sorry but I don't have your records in front of me." She then told me that my best course of action would be to have a hysterectomy. You are recommending a serious surgical procedure when you can't even be bothered to bring the results of my sonogram to our meeting? I told her straight up that the answer is NO, you will not perform a hysterectomy on me. She responded that it is the only option I have, which turns out is a LIE. She later called be to request that I set up another appointment with her, but I declined. I'm getting a new doctor instead.
Four or five years ago my blood pressure was sky high, about 168/110. My doctor said that I must immediately get on medication to bring it down. He did not ask me about my lifestyle, he did not ask me about my diet... what if he questioned me and learned that I was drinking 10 cups of coffee a day? Wouldn't it be better to get me off coffee for a few weeks then check my bp again? Not to the pill-pushing ghouls. Take these pills and be done with it! Well I refused, did my own research, and brought my bp down using natural means and by tweaking my diet.
Now my new GP, on the other hand, is excellent. He is Japanese, was educated at the University of Tokyo, so he has a totally different mindset than our US doctors. He would have never written me a script for bp meds without questioning me about my lifestyle.
I absolutely have rejected the advice of doctors before and will surely do it again. They are mostly a bunch of drug pushing, money grubbing ghouls. Here's my last negative experience, a very recent one. I went to a gynecologist to be examined for fibroids, something I was sure I have. She sent me to get a pelvic sonogram which confirmed that I was right. She took a very painful biopsy to make sure they aren't cancerous - I knew that they weren't but I went along with it. Went back for the follow up appointment at which time she informed me that they aren't cancerous. She told me that the 3 fibroids were 5 cms each while making hand gestures that revealed a size of about 12 cms. I asked for clarification, and she answered "sorry but I don't have your records in front of me." She then told me that my best course of action would be to have a hysterectomy. You are recommending a serious surgical procedure when you can't even be bothered to bring the results of my sonogram to our meeting? I told her straight up that the answer is NO, you will not perform a hysterectomy on me. She responded that it is the only option I have, which turns out is a LIE. She later called be to request that I set up another appointment with her, but I declined. I'm getting a new doctor instead.
I have the exact same dx and was also ordered to get a hysterectomy but chose to get a second opinion from a better doc and glad I did b/c he laughed and said that it would not be necessary and told me about a much more minor surgery that I could get instead but I haven't done that either--partly for financial reasons and partly b/c at 52 I should surely be done with this pretty soon anyway.
I went to another doc years ago to find out why my hair was falling out in bunches and she brushed that over to talk to me about my more troubling cholesterol reading and tried to put me on statins but I didn't take them and elected to work on my lifestyle instead. Lowering my fat consumption did nothing but lowering my carb consumption did help. Oh, and I did manage the solve my hair problem on my own with homeopathic medicine. It worked within a week, after months of hair fall, and started growing back in right away.
Can you believe that a doctor would tell me to get one at the age of 41??? I would most likely start going through menopause as a result... At 41! She was like, "well you really don't need any a uterus or ovaries since you aren't trying to have a child."
Do people routinely recommend that men get castrated? Because that is what a hysterectomy is like for women. It's an epidemic, unneeded hysterectomies, because so many doctors are money-grubbing ghouls.
I wish you lived in NYC, I would ask you to refer me to your doctor! Can you tell me about the minor surgery recommended to you?
Quote:
Originally Posted by stepka
I have the exact same dx and was also ordered to get a hysterectomy but chose to get a second opinion from a better doc and glad I did b/c he laughed and said that it would not be necessary and told me about a much more minor surgery that I could get instead but I haven't done that either--partly for financial reasons and partly b/c at 52 I should surely be done with this pretty soon anyway.
I went to another doc years ago to find out why my hair was falling out in bunches and she brushed that over to talk to me about my more troubling cholesterol reading and tried to put me on statins but I didn't take them and elected to work on my lifestyle instead. Lowering my fat consumption did nothing but lowering my carb consumption did help. Oh, and I did manage the solve my hair problem on my own with homeopathic medicine. It worked within a week, after months of hair fall, and started growing back in right away.
Oh, and I did manage the solve my hair problem on my own with homeopathic medicine. It worked within a week, after months of hair fall, and started growing back in right away.
By the time you noticed the hair loss, new hair had started to grow. It is the new hair growing in that pushes the old hair out of the follicle.
In one day, a hair will grow 0.3 to 0.4 millimeters. That is 2.1 to 2.8 mm per week. A hair follicle is about 4 mm long. That means a new hair has been growing about two weeks before it even emerges at skin level. So, if your homeopathic product appeared to work after one week, it was because the problem causing the hair loss had already resolved and the new hair was already growing when you started using whatever you did.
You most likely had something called telogen effluvium, which is self correcting.
Can you believe that a doctor would tell me to get one at the age of 41??? I would most likely start going through menopause as a result... At 41! She was like, "well you really don't need any a uterus or ovaries since you aren't trying to have a child."
Do people routinely recommend that men get castrated? Because that is what a hysterectomy is like for women. It's an epidemic, unneeded hysterectomies, because so many doctors are money-grubbing ghouls.
I wish you lived in NYC, I would ask you to refer me to your doctor! Can you tell me about the minor surgery recommended to you?
The women I know who have had hysterectomies frequently comment that their only regret is not doing it sooner. The only people who can decide if a hysterectomy is "needed" or not are the patient and her physician. And most gynecologists do not make as much as you might think they do. A hefty percentage of what they collect goes to pay liability insurance premiums.
Hysterectomy for fibroids need not include removal of the ovaries. It is removal of the ovaries that results in immediate menopause. In the past, many women over the age of forty would opt to have their ovaries removed, even if they were normal, to reduce the risk of ovarian cancer. Estrogen replacement was offered to treat the symptoms of menopause. These days, unless the woman has factors that increase her risk of ovarian cancer, the ovaries are usually not removed, because estrogen replacement has fallen from favor.
There are now procedures that can treat the fibroids without doing a hysterectomy.
One option is to simply remove the fibroid(s) and leave the uterus. That is about as much surgery as doing a hysterectomy, though, with much the same complication risks. It is usually reserved for women who do want a pregnancy. Removing multiple or large fibroids can be difficult and result in significant scarring of the uterus. New fibroids can grow.
Another involves placing a catheter into the arteries supplying the uterus and using tiny spheres to block the blood flow to the fibroids. This causes them to shrink. The procedure is done by a radiologist.
This procedure is not really "minor" and also not foolproof. Some women end up having a hysterectomy anyway.
For fibroids just below the uterine lining, removal using a telescope --- the hysteroscope --- is possible.
For bleeding problems, if the cavity of the uterus is not too distorted, it may be possible to destroy the uterine lining and leave the fibroids alone, a procedure called endometrial ablation. This will not help with symptoms due to enlargement of the uterus and pressure on the bladder and other organs though.
There is a medication that can shrink fibroids, but it is expensive and really not suitable for long term use. It causes menopausal symptoms.
Any woman who has fibroids deserves to know what her options are, but that includes the option of hysterectomy. Many women choose it for themselves because it is the only procedure that can pretty much guarantee fixing the problem permanently with one procedure.
Just because you feel that hysterectomy is not for you does not mean that all hysterectomies are unneeded and gynecologists are "money-grubbing ghouls".
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