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Doctors typically use tests to find problems. What the dr. was asking for was quite typical on any yearly exam. The fact that you hadn't seen a doctor in 20 years, and now are trying to find one, indicates that you might have a problem, and those tests are standard tests.
Keep in mind that vague strange symptoms can indicate a myriad of problems. A doctor, in order to find a problem, has to start ruling out things that it could be from a long list of possibilities, based on your symptoms.
SEISG, if you want stretching exercises for knotted muscle, go see a Chiropractor. This is what they DO without pain medications, or unnecessary tests. Both my SIL and my now 8 months pregnant daughter go to one. Her back bothers her occasionally from carrying a very big fetus. Just looking at her, it's pretty obvious why her back hurts without a myriad of pointless tests looking for another cause. She doesn't want pain medication during pregnancy. A Chiropractor's expertise is to relieve pain WITHOUT medication.
Well if you were there for BACK pain, your kidneys are in your back and urine is made in your kidneys.
Also, pain medications and others are broken down in the kidneys. The Dr. needs to know that your kidneys are functioning properly in deciding how to prescribe treatment.
Which is true, but normally the doctor would make that descision about testing after she's seen the patient and taken a history. I would be surprised if insurance would pay for a test when the doctor has never met the patient and there is no clinical indication.
If something ends up happening and someone catches it, yes. The last time at work they were trying to write someone up was because there was a negative UPREG reported out and they sent a person into scan/x-ray. Something must've came up because UH OH they suddenly ordered a BHCGQ and it was positive---not barely positive where a UPREG might miss it. (They think the urine might have been mislabeled. Mislabeled specimens are unfortunately more common than one would hope.)
In the hospital, CAT SCAN will harass you for the UPREG/HCG results before doing anything. The doctor/pharmacy will also wait on those results depending on the medication. I'm not sure why that's so hard to believe---they are always going to do that to cover themselves.
Because I've had several CT scans, plus Xrays, medications, etc, and the only time they've ever done a pregnancy test is before surgery.
I would think the doc would do the exam THEN order whichever labs, urine or blood, he felt you needed based upon his impressions during the exam.
Asking for a urine sample prior to the exam seems really odd to me. Docs normally order labs specific to the pt, and prior to the exam have no idea what that pt will need ordered.
Quote:
Originally Posted by reneeh63
Yes, for those who are convinced the doc just was looking out to help diagnose some issue, why no blood work? CBC, etc. are ordered much more than a urinalysis...unless the intent truly was to test for drugs.
Exactly. You don't order tests without seeing the patient FIRST, to determine what sort of tests might be needed (if any), that's putting the cart before the horse.
People saying this is 'routine', to test for drugs before prescribing pain-killers or whatever are completely out of your minds.
It's pretty plain to me that this doc has found a way to pad his bills. That's one of the problems with 'insurance', people think "Hey, *I'm* not paying for it. WTH do I care?" if they even think at all. I think the truth is that too many sheeple just do what someone with 'authority' says, and don't even think to question it, and the doc gets to bill the insurance co. for a bunch of extra stuff that isn't needed.
Some people may think "Oh, it's a 'Doctor', he/she must be super smart, knows everything and would never do anything wrong. If a doctor says it's so, then it must be so."
Well, it ain't. Just as in other professions, there are greedy, crooked, and even downright STUPID doctors. A degree from a prestigious university and M.D. with a bunch of other letters added to their name is no guarantee that they are not any of those things.
There's a certain doctor with a Harvard degree, published in JAMA and others, that very nearly killed me...and *would* have had I not questioned her and her so-called 'expertise'. She wasted my time and money (co-pays) sending me for invasive, painful, stressful and *very* expensive tests. When those tests turned up nothing, she told me to "...go home and take Ibuprofen, you just have a pulled muscle."
Yeah, not. I know what pulled muscles feel like and this was not it. I had described symptoms that had been increasing and getting worse over a period of years, but she refused to listen and continued to insist that it was 'just' a pulled muscle.
I was griping about this to a friend, a drywall contractor with no medical training, and he asked me to describe the symptoms. When I did, he said "Gee, that sounds like a gall-bladder problem. A cheap ultra-sound test will confirm it." What? Huh? Really?
So, I called my doc. I wanted a referral to a thoracic doc for the ultra-sound. She refused. I argued. Finally I insisted that I was going to go (in fact, the appointment was *already* made) if I had to pay for the whole thing out of my own pocket, and that if something turned up I would sue her for malpractice and recover that much and more. I got the referral.
Guess what? I got the ultra-sound, the tech said "The doc will read the results and call you in a few days." I asked for more info, I told the tech that I was pretty sure that he must have some idea of what was going on, but he insisted that he couldn't say anything. OK, fine, so I got in my car and headed home, about a 12 mile drive.
By the time I got home, there was a message on my answering machine, from the doc- "Call me NOW. You need surgery IMMEDIATELY, it cannot wait." My gall-bladder was swollen more than four times normal size and in danger of bursting.
Guess who I saw in the hallway of the hospital after my surgery? Yeah, my PCP. She wouldn't even look at me, the thoracic doc must have ripped her a new one. Sometimes I think I should have sued her anyway, or at least insisted on reporting her and getting her officially sanctioned.
Always ask questions. Do not just blindly trust a doctor. There are greedy doctors, there are crooked doctors, and there are stupid doctors.
I've NEVER had a PCP order a bunch of tests BEFORE seeing me. I think the OP was right to run from this one, it doesn't pass the smell test.
My husband has a pain management doctor who required drug testing. Of course, he was a bit offended, but he understood, from the doctor's point of view, and now there are Federal guidelines that require new rules. Perhaps since you were there because you were in pain, the testing was necessary for them to help you. They didn't know you, so cut them some slack. You could have been a drug seeking junky. As usual, a few dishonest people ruin it for everyone else.
I have never been required to do any sort of testing at a first appointment with a new GP. It is more often a meet and greet and treatment of some minor thing that brought me there. Any doctor who is taking you on as a new patient after that, should insist on routine lab tests in order to properly treat you. You owe it to yourself to have a doctor who knows you, and you need to give the doctor the tools he needs to accurately take care of your health.
So, you got off to a bad start with that doctor, so start fresh with another one.
Okay I'm going to say this for one poster particular who said they trust their doctor . Okay I never trust any doctor, never have . In my lifetime I have seen quite a few and they all contradict each other and most people these days have white coat syndrome . In other words most people treat drs like they are Gods . Sorry but they put their clothes on the same way we do . If you ever get a chance to look at your medical records try and read them and I can almost guarantee that you will find contradictions out the wazoo . Now as for the OP I understand him being reluctant to get a urinalysis before speaking with the dr . I mean most drs I know pad the bill and the urinalysis and blood test etc are one way they do it . I don't think the American public should have to pay the dr for a career choice he made not us .I think they should make a living wage and that is it .
I know what you mean. I have noticed that doctors seem to like any opportunity to pass you around to different specialists. I am lucky that my GP seems to be able to fix whatever ails me herself, and my last one did that also, but I've heard horror stories from friends who get bumped all over the place and still don't get fixed.
Doctors typically use tests to find problems. What the dr. was asking for was quite typical on any yearly exam. The fact that you hadn't seen a doctor in 20 years, and now are trying to find one, indicates that you might have a problem, and those tests are standard tests.
Keep in mind that vague strange symptoms can indicate a myriad of problems. A doctor, in order to find a problem, has to start ruling out things that it could be from a long list of possibilities, based on your symptoms.
No, this is NOT typical - typical would have been to also have BLOOD labs done - CBC, etc. To ONLY do a urinalysis seems strange. I've had blood taken FAR more often than a urinalysis.
No, this is NOT typical - typical would have been to also have BLOOD labs done - CBC, etc. To ONLY do a urinalysis seems strange. I've had blood taken FAR more often than a urinalysis.
The patient was never a patient of this doctor before. Instead of finding a doctor, having the initial consultation to meet the patient, and then to a first official physical to establish a medical history basis with the new doctor, this patient showed up with a specific complaint.
That complaint was pain.
The patient DID have bloodwork information, and other labs from a recent insurance history exam, but CHOSE to withhold this information from the new doctor. The doctor didn't know that the patient had any labwork done recently because the patient chose not to tell him about it. His excuse: The doctor didn't ask me.
It's the patient's job to be as forthcoming as possible about his own medical history. It's not the doctor's job to suck the information out of him.
Since the patient intentionally neglected to mention this information, the doctor had no basis from which to even make a cursory examination. And so, he decided to eliminate the most obvious, and work backward from there. The most obvious, when some random stranger walks into a doctor's office proclaiming that they're in pain, and they're not bleeding, limping, or otherwise visibly infirm: the person is looking for pain meds.
And so - the doctor wanted to eliminate or at least reduce that possibility. The way to eliminate or reduce that possibility is with a urinalysis. You do that first. If the test comes back negative, then you know at the very least it's not a drug addict looking for another fix for himself (it still could be one looking for an rx to sell to actual drug addicts), and you work backward from there. That is the least invasive method of eliminating or reducing the obvious. Anything more would require touching the patient.
A urinalysis will also detect infection in the urinary tract, and infections in the urinary tract can absolutely cause pain. So it'll eliminate that possibility as well.
Not only did the patient refuse to provide pertinent medical history information of himself, he refused to take the urinalysis.
The doctor wasn't able to move past that. If the patient isn't willing to do that much for his own benefit, then there's no point in me wasting a moment's time further.
What if he had done a full exam, and then told the patient "well I don't know what's wrong, let's take a urinalysis" - and he'd already gone to the bathroom before stepping into the exam room? Or if he just didn't want to pee in a jar for the doctor? He would've wasted all that time with the patient for absolutely no reason at all. Yes he'd get paid anyway but there are people who were more cooperative that he could've seen and potentially treated, instead of this one guy who refused to cooperate.
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Mislabeled specimens are unfortunately more common than one would hope.)
