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| Taking responsiblity for your own health care - |
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victims cry
 Posted:
Wed Jun 21, 2006 10:44 pm |
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Taking responsiblity for your own health care
I have been a fanatic about good doctors.. forget good, the absolute best and that includes the best family physician in the city, all my life.
A family doctor is the starting point,one that listens, that sends you to the best specialists and gets consults when not sure.
I say one that listens because its VITAL. Watch "mystery diagnoses" a few times and you will see how often doctors stick with the normal or dont think out of the box.
Mine has rarely ever made a mistake (yes i looked up lawsuits etc lol), and he is a professor in family medicine training students, as well as the director of the largest hospitals family medicine center (i found him 10 years before that)
His biggest strong point is LISTENING. He says, "i think its xyz" and i can say.. that doesnt fit, i think its yzx and he thinks. Normally his answer is "that would be unusal, but i am going to test for it".
When scootch first got ill, and i had a sick braveheart and linus had a cough and sweetheart had an eye ulcer, i looked up possible diseases. it was beyond my comprehension that all 4 could have different illnesses, and i faxed my vet a differential on what i found and what i thought was the correct diagnoses for all of them. (he had only seen 2 of the cats). He agreed when he saw my full history of 4.
Each time I get something or my cat does, i expect the doctor or vet to my partner in my own health care. if they dont listen or respect my opinions and give GOOD answer why i am wrong or its not necessary to test, then i find another doctor.
More importantly if the doctor gives you an answer that doesnt fit your gut then you should do more research and if he still doesnt listen find another doctor.
Doctors are like the rest of us, they have personal views/habits/attitudes. The ones who think they are god and patients are supplicants are dangerous.
An example:
I admit im proactive, when i suspected diabetes i got a glucometer, started eating a low sugar/carb diet and walked in with 2 weeks worth of charting of glucose numbers. Funny cause it was a student who saw me, (gary always see me but on occasion, i agree to see a resident when he is supervising), and the student says "well we need more tests" I stared. Said excuse me? you dont need to be a rocket scientist to know that i have diabetes from these numbers.
I had also gotten suspicious about WHY i suddenly had diabetes, even though there was a family history of type two. My symptoms were odd. It was 2 to 3 months after a new antidepressant had been prescribed. So i reseached it. Discovered what made it different was it also had a neuronal anti histamine that affected one of the neurotransmitters. Then i looked further. This particular drug had caused acute pancreatitis and Diabetic Ketoacidosis as well as type two in 5 anecdotal reports. So i went deeper and discovered that unlike regular antihistamines, neuronal ones had caused problems with the hypothalmus which regulates the pancreas.
When i walked in and told the student this as well, he shook his head-said its known for weight gain which resulted in diabetes. I said go get gary, because i am going off this drug. Gary walked in, looked at the studies i printed out, got a beep and said "unbelievable, the regulatory agency says there is no link between remoran and type 2". He still wasnt sure, so cut the dose in half. My sugar dropped in half. Went off and it was normal (with a very low dose of metiform)
Next appt he had the hospital pharmacologist in to talk to me, and they were writing a report on it to warn other physicians that forget weight gain . there is a direct cause as well and they must be aware of it. Also to advise not giving it to diabetics unless prepared to increase their medication.
If i hadnt taken responsibility for me, those 5 reports, and then the science backing them up wouldnt have come up. If i didnt have an excellent doctor he wouldn't have listened.
So i think its just as important for patients to be responsible for the health care choices as to expect docs to have the answers.
if you dont get satisfaction from one doctor then see another. They arent gods.
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On Vacation!
Joined: 22 Mar 2006
Posts: 9307
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| pax
Posted:
Thu Jun 22, 2006 12:53 am |
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Quite true. If you don't feel right about the first opinion, get another.
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Joined: 23 Mar 2006
Posts: 16326
Location: Wish You Were Here
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| hisss
Posted:
Thu Jun 22, 2006 8:45 am |
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VC, you have made some very good points. Good medical care has to be an interaction between the doctor and the patient. Doctors need to sit down with a patient who is not proactive and explain that they are responsible for themselves, and that providing all of the information about themselves that they have gathered is very important.
In the "old days" there was no emphasis in medical school on how to interact with patients. Doctors were left with learning to develop this skill on their own, sad to say that many didn't.
If this exchange isn't happening, then by all means find another doctor you are comfortable to work with. As you mentioned, checking a doctor's credentials and history is very important. If a person is ever faced with surgery, it is especially important to find out how many times the surgeon has done the procedure, also the mortality rate of the hospital.
I am so against the drug companies and their inane advertising on TV, such as "Ask your doctor for the purple pill". There are so many other questions people should be asking.
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** Banned **
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