> The only way though the mine field is to take personal ownership over your Healthcare
Shortly after graduating from university, when I no longer had access to student health, I started hunting for a regular family physician. The guy I found... my first "let's get to know each other/annual physical" kind of appointment he said "Look, I don't know if you noticed but there are a lot of people out in the waiting room. My staff here is great, but things happen. Maybe they call you with test results and you miss the voicemail. Maybe the lab forgets to send the results. Maybe the fax from the lab gets stuck to another piece of paper. We're all human here, and I try really hard to treat each one of my patients as a real human and not just a list of symptoms on a page. If I'm going to be your doctor, there's only one thing I ask: be your own advocate. If you're expecting to hear back from us and you don't, or if you feel like we've missed something, or you have questions, or... anything really, please don't hesitate to follow up. I promise I'm going to do my best to look after your health, but you care about it more than anyone else in the world. Does that work for you?"
He was, by far, the best damned doctor I've ever had. And then, apparently, one day he had a serious family emergency back home and vanished, never to return :(.
He know the realities of the system and is doing his best to get his patients good care.
It's like my first day of high school. I had a history teacher. The entire first class of history in high school was devoted to knowing yourself. He told us in basic terms how our bodies worked, that we shouldn't try to dp homework after a big meal, how we should use our resources, how we should be respectful, how learning the laws and history of our country could personally impact or protect us from injustice.
He treated us like equal human beings he truly wanted to help, not just work he had to do that day.
You're doctor did the same, blessings on him.
I have seen this in my personal life time and again. I have seen it in my professional life time and again.
The only way though the mine field is to take personal ownership over your Healthcare, you need to learn more about what ailes you than the doctors know. You need to be confident in this knowledge enough to challenge them and walk out to receive better care at any moment. This is why people say that healthcare us such a trap in the US particularly. If you are injured and incapacitated you can't advocate for yourself, and if you don't have the support infrastructure in place in your personal life we are just one medical event away from financial and physical ruin.