Patient knowledge may be accepted for diseases that are rare but well know, but for stuff in foreign territory you'll find that kind of attitude.
2. You tell them you read about your condition on the internet. Even though the majority of the health information on the internet is utter garbage.
3. You then get offended when they tell you to not trust what is on the internet. Although again they are 100% spot on here.
4. You are confused why they are dismissive of you. When you chose to see them, paid money for their expert advice and then wanted to dismiss it in favour of your expert advice. Except that your expert advice = 5 mins of Google and theirs = 20 years of schooling.
I really do feel really sorry for GPs to have to go through this 100x a day.
Actually you are. Doctors have a carefully protected monopoly on ordering diagnostic tests and on prescribing treatments. At least where I live, if you want diagnostic tests or drug treatments you need a prescription from a member of the cartel.
Yes, that they couldn't help me is not the problem. The problem is that they behaved unprofessionally and mocked me.
>2. You tell them you read about your condition on the internet. Even though the majority of the health information on the internet is utter garbage.
>3. You then get offended when they tell you to not trust what is on the internet. Although again they are 100% spot on here.
- I am 100% OK with a doctor disagreeing with me. A few of the doctors I've met I respect immensely - even though I disagree with them - simply because they were respectful in their disagreement of what I had to say and had an adult answer for me that didn't involve mockery.
- They did not tell me not to trust what is on the Internet. They mocked me and gave up trying to treat me. They became aggressive. And they still wanted to get paid even after deciding I wasn't worthy enough for them to try!
I am an expert in my field, yet I don't dare imagine what would happen if I mocked a client who asked a "stupid" question! And even if there were no consequence, I'd never do it. Why is this somehow OK in medicine?
>4. You are confused why they are dismissive of you. When you chose to see them, paid money for their expert advice and then wanted to dismiss it in favour of your expert advice. Except that your expert advice = 5 mins of Google and theirs = 20 years of schooling.
I did not dismiss their advice. I took it, for decades. You underestimate the hubris of some of these people - they mocked me even if I took their advice, simply for reporting what happened to me.
>I really do feel really sorry for GPs to have to go through this 100x a day.
Oh those poor snowflakes, having to speak to non-expert clients without mocking them!
There exists no other industry where the expert can be so ineffective, yet at the same time aggressively mock the client outright, even deciding not to do the work because the client is not to his/her liking, while still getting paid.
Indeed; it boggles my mind that people are so forgiving of doctors. Why do we not demand the same level of respectful conduct from them as we do from others?
Is there a "Code of Conduct" in the medical community?
There are doctors out there who get this. They are hard to find.
So much aggression...
2. Poster remarks "Poor expert"
3. I make a retaliatory post highlighting how ludicrous it is to say that the expert who mocked the client is also the victim somehow
Your "OMG look who's aggressive" deliberately ignores pretty much all the events being discussed.
Given that the doctor can't know my symptom history as well as I do...
Or as well as Google from tracking my previous symptom searches.
What's the chance Google search algorithms point me in a more productive direction than an MD?
Anecdata: Doctors prescribed me antidepressants and muscle relaxers. The internet introduced me to healthy eating, keto, stretching, and mindfulness.
I'm happy to report that I stayed away from the former. And the latter has been unbelievably life changing, for the better.
Edit: add two unnecessary surgeries, kidney stone removal after passing the stone and septoplasty for nasal inflammation, to the doctor cons list.
That being said, outright scolding a patient who did some research without inquiring on what they read is not acceptable.
Their expertise is not exhaustive. The patient may have something to teach them, especially for cases that don't fit the mold.
That's what a good doctor should be like.
No they don't. They try to give you the best advice that they can at that point in time. But I've never met a medical professional who thought they knew everything and anything.
What are you saying is really quite rude and dismissive.
I have hypercortisolemia since 25 years at least. I have been to various endocrinologists to investigate this.
It has caused numerous serious problems including blinding me in my left eye (from a cortisol related condition), osteoporosis, weakened immune system and other problems.
Every time they test me for a tumour, find no tumour and in every case I was told, "there is no problem".
Even though the high cortisol is screwing up my health. They do not know the cause so there is no problem.
Once the recipe book is exhausted they are just totally lost.
My brother had a problem that was eventually found to be due to salycilate intolerance. But in the meantime, until this was found, he was told he was neurotic, imagining it etc etc.
My mother was prescribed anti-anxiety medications when she actually had hypothyroidism due to a tumour, with classic symptoms.
Just about everyone you speak to has a story of delayed or misdiagnosis, problems being dismissed or denied because they didn't fit someone's cookbook.
The sooner we have AIs doing diagnosis the better as far as I am concerned.
Overworked humans suck at being humane.
The golden hammer mentality is widespread, and your disease better has to be a nail.
You know this since you have a medical degree, but to inform general readers, here's what takes to become a doctor in the USA[1]:
K-12
4 years college, perhaps pre-med emphasis
4 years medical school
3 to 7 years residency
1 to 4 years fellowship (for specialization)
Perhaps the right answer is even more specialization? Maybe that's where places like the Mayo Clinic come in? Maybe an organization like that is big enough that they can have specialists who can recognize and treat all the rare conditions that are "not in the book"?
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medical_school#United_States
Ask many genuine scientists who have been doing research in a field for 30+ years and they can tell you how small the book knowledge is compared to the unexplored territory.
We're also taught by "genuine" scientist, people with PhDs, PhD/MD, and MDs on a daily basis about what we don't know.
I really appreciate this being taught, and from what little you wrote, I appreciate the humility shown. Please don't ever become a "big shot" that's too good to talk openly to people who are afraid about their health.
And you have a warped view of what Doctors are. They are not Research Scientists. They are not there to try out cutting edge techniques and medicines. They are not there to be the world's foremost knowledge on everything medical.
They are there to give you conservative, boring advice vetted by the authorities for specific ailments. Anything more serious they recommend you to see specialists.
Many (most?) doctors work as if their knowledge was exact and exhaustive, and every symptom that's not in the book is binned as psychosomatic or psychiatric, and basically blamed on the patient.
Paired with the fact that many doctors don't understand that credibly behaving as if the patient's well-being is important for the therapeutic relationship (the social part of the placebo effect, health being a mean, not an end), and you understand why BS alternative medicines are so popular.