Wednesday, January 31, 2018

Family Doctor...........

Dh and I had another chat about our family doctor the other day and we both said the same thing again, we are fed up with him.  Have to admit, it was me doing the most complaining this time, but he is in total agreement with me.

Gone are the days when what the doctor said was not to be questioned.  Thanks to the Internet and media, we as patients are more informed than ever.  We are also not afraid to question what doctor's tell us.  Now to be fair to doctor's what we read on the Internet needs to be taken with a pinch of salt, but you can get a vague idea of what could/might be going on and with that question what the doctor is saying.

As an example, my dh was pretty sick last year with his chest, and he had the most awful cough.  Our doctor's solution was to prescribe him a couple of things and send him to a specialist.  After going back and forth, dh found out via the Internet one of his medications may be causing the terrible cough.  Mentioned it to the doctor and he said, oh yes, and changed his medication.  The result his cough has gone.  One of the strong steroid puffers that he was also told to take, was stopped when he saw the specialist as that too wasn't helping and could have made things worse.

Then there is me.  I am coming up to 54 years of age, and I think I know my own body by now.  Every month is an absolute delight nightmare of crazy things happening to my body.  It's even worse now due to my age.  Who knew menopause could be so interesting😕  Every month brings another set of issues.  Since last year I have been fighting on with my stomach, which includes, bloating, gas and constipation.  I mentioned this to my doctor and he thinks it could be celiac or IBS.  I said no, I think it's hormonal due to menopause, and he said no.  I go to see the specialist and guess what, he says he can more or less guarantee it's hormonal.  He didn't even think it was necessary to have a colonoscopy, but if I wanted one I could have one.  So I am having one, as the other test every two years grosses me out, the poo on a stick test.

Our son and daughter-in-law have been through hell and back these past couple of weeks, due to various medical personnel diagnosing something that was totally incorrect.  Luckily the doctor's at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, got to the bottom of it and everything is perfectly fine with the pregnancy.  

At the end of the day we have to be our own advocates when it comes to our health and do our due diligence.  Doctor's are very hard to come by where we live, and we are still capable of driving the 75 minutes to see ours, but if/when we move we will be finding a new doctor, as enough is enough.

In defense of our doctor he sees hundreds of patients every week, he is human and I am sure not all his patients are pleasant and/or easy to deal with, but it was his choice to be a doctor.............and as I always say, a family doctor knows a little of everything but is not an expert, that is why we have specialists.

Your thoughts?



4 comments:

Boyett-Brinkley said...

I don't care for doctors but they are a necessary evil. I agree with you that you have to be your own advocate and question things that you don't understand or agree with or just have questions about. The days are gone when we just went to the doctor and accepted what they had to say -- too much information out there to be had.

Susan said...

I hear you. I'm dumping my dentist, he gets upset way to easily. I'm not there to tip toe around his fragile psyche.

William Kendall said...

To me the mark of a good doctor is one who asks a lot of questions.

Winifred said...

Thankfully ours is great. She always listens to you and then asks questions. If you feel something is wrong she takes it onboard unlike many who think they know everything. Thanks to her listening to my husband who said he was worried when the medication she gave him didn't work, she sent him for tests. The tests diagnosed oesophageal cancer & it was treated successfully very quickly.

On a slightly different tack Mr Trump was wrong, the NHS is working very nicely thank you but is now being underfunded by the current government & in danger of being privatised. That's why people were marching in London not because they were complaining about the NHS! Odd that someone in such a high position gets so many things wrong and so regularly!

Can't you change your doctor? I know you have a long drive to your doctor but surely there are others.

{{{SIGH}}}

Tuesday was a mixed bag type of day. Had the appliance repair guy come again to install another circuit board in the fridge.  When hubby got...