I'm kinda stumped by our Medical Profession (blood tests, doctors, prescriptions)

[JayN]

As my grandfather says, the recipe to good health is eating fruit and vegetables, not smoking and staying away from doctors. He's 86 and has never taken a pill in his life.

[nmnita]

well we have certainly had the opposite experience. We have rarely found a doctor that did not care: can they always find out what is wrong? No, but they do care. We are going through something right now, that many of you might be reading about: Hubby has swelling in his legs, feet and hands, his leg muscles and even arm muscles are barely working. I have to help him up from the chair sometimes, and test after test shows nothing. Our doctor is caring, keeps sending him to specialists and we are thankful for her, even though we really are not sure we will her as our primary care doctor. So, lack of compassion isn't our problem, solving the mystery certainly is..

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

Nita, I have had similar experiences in caring doctors. Of course, I pick mine carefully. I research their training and experience. I currently have 3 Indian (East India not Native Am.) doctors, all of whom trained at the Mayo Clinic. I easily understand what they say, they explain in detail and answer my questions. I have had the same experience with my US-born doctors.

I moved to a new state last year and it isn't easy finding doctors who take Medicare. Only my dentist is near my house but I pay cash so no problem finding a dentist.

[cremebrulee]

I want to thank you all for your input and kindness, our medical profession is going down the tubes but fast...and it's only going to get worse....
we're all in for a huge shock come 2014

[Mikala43]

I have had some crappy doctors, which is something that easily fixed..... I found ones I liked.

I have a GP, dermatologist, rheumatologist, gastroenterologist, and others that are no longer needed.

My doctors are awesome, heck, my gastro has returned my call at 2am.

Nothing scares me as much as the thought as the government providing my healthcare.

[key4lp]

Where did say in this discussion that doctors don't care? I think most doctors do care but lets be realistic
that there are many doctors who may seem like they care but are not thorough. If you read the health forum
their are desperate people asking advice regarding their health. They should be seeing a doctor or have seen
doctors but are still ill or confused.
Kudos to those who never had a problem, you were and are lucky. I have also researched doctors however,
can you believe everything you read? I once had to help a friend. Her husband was told he had brain cancer.
My friend was in a panic and asked if I could take them to a major city near us. Now, my friends husband
was told he needed surgery & chemo & maybe had 6 months left to live (btw, he was seeing the best doctors
in town). Long story short, at the major hospital in the city, it ended up he only had a virus.

[DauntlessDan]

cremebrulee, I am not quite your age and I do sympathize with you. I remember when my wife and I were dating, about 30 years ago, going to the doctor for various things like the required blood test to get married. He performed everything in his office and his nurse/receptionist would call us with results. The fee was $20 for just about anything one needed done unless one needed special tests or had to go to the hospital. He was in his 70s then and was semi-retired. Oh..the good old days of Marcus Welby type medicine when doctors kept people in the hospital until they were well.

I work in the medical field now, have for about 14 years. Yes, where I work, a lot of "extra tests" are performed and as some have said "for liability sake and I have also observed that it varies somewhat from doctor to doctor what is done. Some doctors/providers seem more experienced with certain things than others or are able to assess things better. And protocol sometimes dictates that you run tests x, y and z. Not that I agree or disagree. We are even in the habit of releasing patients sometimes before they are ready to go home because I sometimes see a patient come back in for the same thing that they were discharged for a little while before. I can't understand the reasoning behind this except maybe there is a shortage of beds and/or the patient does not follow the discharge instructions like they should and remains ill.

As for the new "health maintenance" paradym I am not totally for it myself. For instance went to a newer practicing dentist that was practicing this and they ended up filling teeth they "thought" would prove to be troublesome in the future. People if it is not broken, don't try to fix it. Removed my ceramic fillings as well and replaced them with amalgam fillings when I told them I preferred ceramic. I ended up dropping them and writing a letter to my insurance company about them. I don't want to be "maintained" by anyone but myself. I just want a dentist/doctor when something goes wrong that I cannot fix.

[rural lady]

I agree with the OP those days are gone when you had one doctor who took care of you, if he happened to die his son usually took care of you, No More! and its hell.

I have an ongoing illness almost a year now, first off ER doesn't take you seriously if you don't fit into their criteria of symptoms, I went to ER 6 times last year. Once I rec'd pain med in an IV

I go to my dr and of course test's are done, meanwhile I am going thru hell, one test this week, one 2 wks later and another and another and still ongoing, my dr. says "we must get your BP down" well its not going to come down unless I am out of pain.

Finally get to Neuro, I have a muscle biopsy and he gives me an rx for Vicodin 1 tablet 5-500mg after a few weeks it's not helping and other symptoms are happening.

I go back and say look "I'm not a child asking for another piece of candy" I can't walk & I'm not riding those scooters when in this day & age pain med's are available.

By his grace himself I'm allowed 2 Vicodin now, that's back in January.

I work seasonal, because of this illness I lost many customers last year, if you cannot keep up with the demand customers go elsewhere.

A month ago, I call Neuro, this illness is out of control, they rx a larger dose of another med, the med is making me feel sick. I call again and now the Dr. wants me to go to a clinic out of town.

Now I have to go there and of course it involves the cost of hotels and transportation

The new Neuro doesn't think I have what the 1st Neuro said and now he wants me to come back to the out of town clinic for a skin biopsy, by this time I am so PO I could scream, my neuro apparently figured his dx was wrong or he wanted it confirmed (4 mo later?) or he got tired of me calling, it's as if you are bothering them, you leave messages they don't return your call's and when you talk to the people there they don't hear a damn word you're saying, they don't check that you called earlier, it's as if their heads are up their A^&*

All of this has me PO to the max, having to drive 200 miles and I cannot take the right dose of pain meds, needing to keep my legs in the same position to drive and ready to collapse when I get there, what a GD joy our health system is!

I was in bad shape the other night, our ER does nothing they have no knowledge of some Neuro diseases so there is no sense of going there. I call my Dr. they say we are doing all we can. No their not, they are following some kind of protocol written by their board of directors at that hospital and the health insurers.

It's been almost a year, you would think in all of this time they could have just admitted me and ran all those damn test in a few days last summer.

Why are they allowed to play with our lives like this? Who do you file a complaint to? I cannot even look into that at the moment.

I'll be seeing my GP in a few days, I can hardly wait for that probably some kind of lecture of how they are doing all they can, most likely I will be there for nothing and will need to make an appt with pain mgmt. wonder how long that will take, I have had it!

A person can only take so much, I've held on the best I can but it's wearing me down, I can really understand how people can snap and lose it.

Don't these doctors realize that? How in the H can they sleep at night? They must realize this is all A backwards.

Most likely the hospital's care about their profits and the H with the patients, so I assume the doctors do nothing to change the rules, just do their jobs, see that we come in and get us out in a 1/2 hr. like cattle and on to the next patient.

[Swack]

This is an old thread, but I thought I could throw in my 2 cents..

1) Most doctors are overworked, they can see upwards of 100 patients a week. They may see a patient for 5-15 minutes, but will actually chart for an additional 10-20 minutes per patient.

2) Medical knowledge has advanced quite a bit over the last 50 years, many of the things learned in medical school today were completely unknown 50 years ago

3) Medical school admission has actually (believe it or not) become more competitive

4) Doctors make less now than they did 20-30 years ago.

5) Doctors make money by either fixed salary or production, sometimes a combination of both. They make money by generating RVUs (relative value units). These are generated by seeing more patients or performing more procedures and ordering more lab tests.

6) Money that doctors make from Medicaid/Medicare/Insurance companies is prenegotiated. Fees paid to the doctor are largely controlled by these entities.

7) The current pay system does NOT encourage long visits, or extensive counseling.

8) Most people who come into the emergency room do not have emergencies.

9) This may sound harsh, but for most doctors, if it is not life-threatening, it is not very important.

10) If someone is able to walk into an ER and sit and wait for several hours, they probably do not have something life-threatening. If they have had the problem for several months or even years, they probably do not have something life-threatening. Again, if they have had the problem for years and they are able to visit the ER multiple times, probably not something life-threatening.

11) Missing something life-threatening is probably the biggest fear of most doctors. For example an earlier poster, Charolastra00, had Hodgkin's lymphoma that was missed. This would have been a nightmare for most doctors.

12) Unfortunately, daily diarrhea, daily vomiting, a chronic rash (things I saw pointed out earlier in the thread); these things may not necessarily be life-threatening, so knowing this, some doctors may ignore them.

13) Most people are under the false assumption that good bedside manner = good doctor; interestingly, when doctors rate their peers, they see the best doctors as the ones who not only make the most accurate diagnoses but also make the fewest mistakes. These doctors may not necessarily have the best bedside manner.

14) Studies have shown that doctors who are the most highly rated by their patients also overtreat and over-prescribe. They order more tests and prescribe more medications than necessary.

[Pikantari]

I have to say something about my internist. I love her to pieces. I started seeing her about a year ago and she was wonderful the first time I met her. She sat with me, going over all of my issues and taking my history, and there is a lot. She soon learned that I have a complex case.

I will never forget one time, and I don't even remember what was the matter with me, but I just broke down. It was just too much. What did she do? She gave me a hug. She is caring and compassionate.

I saw her again yesterday. She was concerned I may have a clot in my lung and I had to go for a stat CT scan of my Chest. I have RA so there are so many other issues that can come up with me due to that. She either knows about those things or has taken the time to find out about them for my case. She does not treat my RA, I have another dr for that, and she is wonderful.

Yesterday I just sat there in the exam room thinking that it was just too much. For being 39, there is just too much, and more than I can handle. At least for that moment and I tried not to cry but it didn't quite work.

What did I get? A hug. She always calls me personally with any results or with any instructions she has for me to do medically. I have found a true gem in this doctor. It has taken a while, but I think I finally have found a set of doctors that are good for me. I have her, my Rheumatologist, and my Neurologist that I see pretty regularly and finally I have found good doctors. They are out there, you just have to find them.