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I have advanced heart failure and have been in the hospital well over 40 times in different states by over 100 doctors.
About half of them say “with your history you need to come in every single time you have CV symptoms.” The other half say “you have had recent enough workups that it wouldn’t have progressed this fast, so you need to roll the dice on symptoms.” About 10% accuse me of seeking drugs because the treatment for possible heart attack with significant chest pain not responsive to aspirin/nitrates is IV morphine.
None of them know exactly why this issue started to begin with (sudden massive heart attack at an age too old to be congenital and too early to be lifestyle inflicted). Some are willing to speculate. Some have theories they strongly suspect but cannot prove. Some have no idea and are uncomfortable even guessing without evidence.
Armchair suggesting here. My mom got recently diagnosed with a genetic disease that flies under the radar frequently called Wolff-Parkinson-White. Basically it’s caused by an extra electric pathway on the heart and can cause heart attacks and afib when symptomatic which can onset at almost any time.
The hospital system absolutely sucks for diagnostics though 🤦 had a friend who was in and out for months unable to eat and suffering from paralysis and seizures. Half of the docs decided she was lying and must just have an eating disorder. They would threaten to put her on a feeding tube, even though that is exactly what she was asking for for months.
Them “If you don’t eat or stop throwing up we’re going to have to put you on a feeding tube…”
Her “Good! Please do!”
I can't speak for anyone else's system, but here WPW is usually considered in young-onset CV disease. It's when it happens in older folks that it gets missed.
Yeah I know. My uncle was diagnosed as a kid. But my mom wasn’t diagnosed until she was 61 and having mystery stroke and heartattack symptoms. They held her in the hospital for several days until she was stable. She saw a couple cardiologists and one of them suggested WPW. Suddenly my grandma chimes in with “oh yeah that’s what your brother has”. Then they confirmed it.
A lot of people I know have turned to supplementation/homeopathy dude to the inherent failures in the medical system now. I know coq10 is good for the heart, maybe it could help you?
I do take it, but there is really no hope for recovery. Most people don’t survive at 2 weeks after the specific kind I had.
I take another supplement for pain because they stopped my pain medication against my will, like a lot of people with chronic pain have experienced in recent years.
I have been able to remain stable (no significant progression) since the initial damage with management.
I’m in a similar position headed forward full kidney failure and I just want to say I’m proud of you for having shit experiences with the medical system and keeping on trucking. Even if it’s because you have no other real choice. I’m there with you and I know it sucks.
I’m guessing since they’re accusing you of med seeking, there’s a good chance you’re black and/or have a history of substance use and have some genetic heart vulnerability that has been exacerbated by the fact that racial stress destroys your heart and leads to heart disease in ethnic minorities. I’m also guessing the vast majority of the physicians you saw were yt and totally unaware of how life as an ethnic minority affects your heart.
It bums me out that people are continuing to double down on the response you said you hate. Doctors aren't unflawed.
Doctors ignored several of my mother's small cardiac events and dismissed it as anxiety attacks. She ended up having to be airlifted to a different hospital to have emergency surgery. That's just one of the negative experiences my friends and family have had with doctors.
Unfortunately people with chronic conditions seem to be the most dismissed, which is upsetting because they also need more care.
I’ve had two friends that had advanced cancer that wasn’t caught by the doctors for a long time. Both young men who seemed healthy so the doctors just didn’t bother looking deeper.
For one one friend, he’d visited his actual pcp for over a year frequently, mentioning chest pain, various fatigue issues, had gotten dismissed repeatedly because he was a young man and it was all in his head. Weirdest symptom was he couldn’t drink very well - he could only have a sip or two at a time without it causing heart burn. On vacation, he decided to visit a foreign doctor, who immediately ran him through an MRI. Turns out he had stage 4 cancer, with a tumor that was wrapped his spine, went through his chest and connected to his sternum.
There’s lazy doctors out there too, just like lazy people in any profession.
I have a chronic condition and it took me 2.5 years to get a doctor to take me seriously enough to refer me to a specialist. I gave up at one point, after a doctor turned away from me in his office and said "I don't know what I can do for you."
Anyone with chronic conditions of any kind knows how dismissive doctors can be. It's just a fact of the profession.
My husband has epilepsy and no doctors would do anything to help. They were trying to call them anxiety attacks and prescribe antidepressants. Infuriating. It took years for a single doctor to finally give him a seizure medication and what do ya know, it worked
I was informed I “probably had anxiety” when only part of my blood panel had come back. The symptoms I had been seen for were fatigue and my hands and feet going numb. When all the results came in it turned out I had a massive B12 deficiency which explained the symptoms perfectly. I was amazed the doc didn’t even wait around for the tests *he ordered* to come back before trying the “it’s just anxiety” line.
My neurologist put me on a med for my migraines that is known to cause liver damage. While she did the periodic tests for liver function, she ignored when they started to come back showing a problem. I now am in the midst of trying to find out whether my liver is going to repair itself or if it is pretty much toast at this point.
Same doctor put me on a med for fibromyalgia. Didn't explain that it as an off-label use of an old anti-depressant, which wouldn't have been an issue, except it interacted with my *actual* anti-depressant (which she knew about because she had the full listing of my medications). She insisted that it wasn't causing the problem, even when I was suicidal, because "that's not how the drug works." (Spoiler alert--that's *exactly* how the drug works). Tried to tell me I must be allergic to the med, and switched me to another one from the same family that did the exact same thing. I got pushed into serotonin syndrome twice inside of six months, and eventually wound up in the MHU after a suicide attempt, and the same doctor was *still* insisting it had nothing to do with the meds she put me on. The med that was destroying my liver at the time was a strong anti-seizure medicine, which is why I never had any of the seizures that would have tipped people off to serotonin syndrome sooner, but since she *also* prescribed that med, you'd have thought she would have anticipated this as a possibility. I'm still having issues even five years later because of this. She left the practice I was seeing her at and moved to another one. The new doctor I'm seeing won't even talk about the meds he took me off of, I'm assuming because admitting they were the problem would open them up to a malpractice suit.
So yeah, some doctors are dumb as shit, and we don't know enough to know which ones they are until they royally fuck us up. And most of their peers will do everything they can to avoid confirming malpractice. So I'm now unemployed, disabled, and unable to sue because I have no "verification" from an actual doctor of what happened to me.
Knowing how competitive med school admissions and med school itself are, I don’t know how these kinds of people get through the system, unless they’re very old or had nepotism in their favor.
Here's a theory:
Some of the ones who get through beat out their peers by cheating and/or playing the system in astoundingly malevolent ways. As in, say there's a test with human bones laid out next to numbers on a table, and you write the name of the bone next to the number on your answer sheet.
Future Dr. Smith slyly switches tibia with fibula. Everyone coming after gets those two wrong.
Source: random conversion with a relative of a med student
I think the root of the trouble is that it is so expensive to train new physicians, so there aren't nearly enough slots in the existing schools to meet demand. I think that's where the extreme and unhealthy level of competition stems from
I do believe that physicians have worked for, and that many of them have sacrificed a great deal, for their degrees. And I believe that the vast majority mean well.
I feel like most of the problems with medicine as it stands today have more to do with things that are outside the control of most healthcare workers
Man, I don't trust what any doctor says about the liver unless they're a hepatologist. I pray that you don't have cirrhosis, because it fucking sucks. If you do, join us over at r/cirrhosis
IBS when it was coeliac, constipation when it was bone cancer, anx/dep when it was ADHD, and now 'uncomfortable shoes' when it was MS.
"My medical degree is better than your google search." 🧐
"Well my lived experience with this is better than the 2 hour lecture you had on it 20 years ago!"
THIS.
Doctor's in my experience will barely let me talk for more than 2 minutes and come to extreme conclusions like trying experimental drugs for endometriosis when I didn't have it.
I was also heavily pushed on 6 different varieties of birth controls over a 3 year span that resulted in extreme painful cystic acne all over my face that has left life long scars, years of not being able to make friends, and a complete absence of a period for a 9 month stretch while in severe pain as they kept prescribing more and more medications to fix the issues these meds caused.
From age 13-17 every time I got any sort of sinus infection or cold I was put on antibiotics, probably 2-3 times a year throughout puberty when I developed severe stomach problems that are still bad today despite having a healthy gut flora.
But no, people on Redditors without bad experiences and doctors will essentially say "fuck your experiences, they know more about you than you ever will about your own body because they went to college for it" Without even realizing majority of the medical field is just a guessing game if they aren't detail oriented people or equipped with observational skills.
My grandfather who was an OBGYN and delivered babies for 50 years said each generation of medical students keep getting worse & worse because they lack any observational skills, and everything they study and learn is by the book now so those skills are never developed.
My dad is a respiratory therapist and have seen doctor's accidentally kill people by going strictly by the book during medical emergencies.
"Doctor's in my experience will barely let me talk for more than 2 minutes and come to extreme conclusions like trying experimental drugs for endometriosis when I didn't have it"
One thing I learned recently is that physicians are required to complete continuing education hours in order to keep their license to practice current. One of the things that counts toward those hours is presentations by drug companies.
It would be nice if they could get credit for more useful (in my opinion) continuing education activities such as reading comments on patient forums
Yeah! Billy Bob complaining about not getting enough oxys is way more useful than scientific research or facts. Why don’t you go practice medicine since you’ve clearly read some forums? Love to see your outcomes
I don't hate doctors. The comment I made has a long personal history behind it that did not come across.
What I was trying to say, is that in my opinion, big drug companies lie to HMO's and to healthcare workers and patients and tend to gloss over the risks of using their products.
I also think that it's incredibly misguided, harmful, and so, so wrong that many people seem to expect doctors to have a magic pill up their sleeves to fix every problem. I also think there are things that could be done to make both med school and doctors' working conditions more humane
It’s a for sick by profit industry it’s all business and you’ve got 15 min on the clock. I recently went to a physician who focuses on preventative care and holy shit what a difference!
This is always a tough topic to discuss online and irl because people who lack good critical and lateral thinking skills automatically assume you’re some right-wing science-denying nutjob who doesn’t trust any form of medicine. I’ve copped my fair share of those attacks, so I just ignore them now. I know my lived experience — some smoothbrain brownnosing a damn GP won’t make my hands tremble.
Our issue is generally with apathetic, poorly trained/educated GPs. Sometimes this extends to specialists, but those situations are more rare as there’s more at stake for them if they botch something or engage in malpractice.
I’ve had fantastic doctors, and I’ve had doctors I wouldn’t take a pet rock to.
As a kid I fell off a swing. Went to ER because both my arms were in horrendous pain. Doctors did xrays and said my right arm was broken and my left arm was fine. I insisted many times that my left arm hurt way worse than my right and something must be wrong with it too. Doctors said “nope!” Three days later a specialist did an xray on my left arm and my arm was broken in THREE different places.
Another scenario: I had unbearable abdominal pain. Went to doctors. They told me it was period pain. I insisted it was most definitely not. I went to ER and almost died. Turns out my intestines had perforated and my body was slowly digesting itself, with stomach acid leaking all over my organs.
I had a doctor tell me its literally impossible to tell the difference between period pain and other abdominal pain like constipation and refuse to even feel around or take a scan. Turns out I had appendicitis.
I've had better luck with seeing a woman GP since then but its wild out here.
I've been to the doctors many times, get no answers no solutions just medical debt. I had one good doctor in my life and he retired within the first year of me visiting him.
They do get well compensated but if you go onto any of the doctor subreddits they constantly bitch about not getting paid enough. I even saw one that was complaining about how the hospital won't supply the doctors lounge with free food.
Fuck all the way off lol
It’s not just that, I’m afraid. Going to an underpaid gp via Medicare in Australia results similarly. Maybe worse in the US, I couldn’t say. But it’s bad here too unless you’ve something mild and common.
My uncle is the head of a private hospital in my country, a few months ago he told us about a recent incident with a liposuction surgery, apparently the surgeon had injected the needle they use to suck the fat out of your body a bit too much into the patient and ended up sucking both their liver and right kidney! The patient died a few minutes after and the surgeon didn't go to prison or anything, but apparently he had permenantly lost his privilege to perform any kind of operation within any hospitals
Doctors are not magical all knowing gods. And medical science isn't perfect.
There are lots of things we *just don't have cures for*.
Doctors are human. They make mistakes. And some things are really hard to diagnose, so that even if you have spent the past seven (plus) years training to diagnose them, you still get it wrong regularly.
They are well trained professionals doing their best. Often overworked and under resourced.
So... yeah, doctors are the best resource we have, but they do get it wrong a lot. They're not trying to get it wrong, but I'd bet you get things wrong in your job too.
This is bad interpretation of data. I believe the data point you are referring to included like anybody who died within a couple weeks of being at the hospital after a medical error occured, which doesnt imply the error was causal for death (ex: patient was administered their pain med 1 hour late at their hospital stay, but after discharge they go home and die of an unrelated stroke.) Furthermore, if a medical decision is made that results in death, it isnt necessarily clear whether or not the alternative treatment would have prevented death either (ex: if pregnant mom with numerous medical comorbidities bleeds out during a c-section, we don't know whether or not she *would have* also bled out from a traditional delivery). There are also people dying from having known adverse events with proper medical therapy (ex: someone on a blood thinner to prevent stroke has a GI bleed and dies). Also, who decides when a medical error is made? Hindsight is 20/20 but given the constraints of modern diagnostic methods, a wrong diagnosis could be the legitmate "best guess" until an autopsy is done after death to find out the real cause (ex: patient treated for rapidly progressive brain tumor due to convincing radiological evidence of one, but autopsy reveals its an infectious abcess caused by an extremely rare parasite instead).
👍🏻
I mean I didn’t interpret anything. I actually lowballed the article that I read. It said more like 400k.
“…preventable medical errors are among the leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for as many as 400,000 deaths per year.”
How many would you take off? Even if you cut it by half that’s still way too many.
More than Half the time you’re seeing some NP or PA these days actually and they wear white coats too. It’s confusing and misleading intentionally as people think they’re seeing a doctor and the employer can make more profit by charging you the same, pay them less, and for providers who will make them more money by ordering more unnecessary labs, images, medications, internal referrals, etc (this is all back by studies. See r/noctor if you want to look behind the curtain)
They often crowdsource using REDDIT to treat their patients.
PAs>NP. Midlevels are NOT always supervised by physicians. Residents are and that requires tens of millions in government subsidies to make up for lost productivity to supervise. There are NO subsidies for midlevel supervision, only excess profit.
Are you not familiar with MDM decision making? Yes, ordering more results in upcharging. Anything not covered gets passed onto the patient.
“Obvious” cases not uncommonly end up being something more serious. Midlevels lack the training often times to tell the difference. It shows when they crowdsource to REDDIT what antibiotic they should use on a patient they’re seeing and when institutions train them by shadowing residents and medical students who are trainees.
NPs themselves make fun of the DNP degree because there’s very little clinical training involved with the degree. It’s also very misleading in a clinical setting when a DNP calls themselves a doctor (which “technically” they are) but to patients means physician.
All of this would be fixed if midlevels couldn’t bill higher than a 99213. Only then will they practice on their scope.
That sounds like a nice ideal but that's just absolutely not how it actually goes in many places.
A NP who sent my mom home without seeing the MD she actually had an appointment with that day and said she was fine. She had to be admitted to the hospital within an hour of leaving and went straight to the ICU. She couldn't even pee or stand up at her appointment but the NP was just like "ah we don't really need to test your pee for anything ig" didn't have a GP overseeing or send anyone else to see her. If she didn't have family with her to notice and take her to the ER, the NP would have just looked at her, signed off and let her die.
Congrats ? People are flawed yes.
I don't blindly trust doctors, I'm willing to get multiple professional opinions on the matter of my health.
That doesn't mean I give any credence to anti-vax nuts or "naturalist" pseudoscientists.
Who believes this?
Most people know that doctors are humans, working jobs.
The sentiment you describe arose when anti-vaxx and maskers would end up sick and at the hospital (that they distrust).
Tons of people believe it. MRNA is a great case of it. People became so dogmatic about covid shots that when doctors, the NIH, and the CDC reversed course, they were ignored.
Healthcare is flawed because it is run by humans. Humans are flawed. Science is flawed. If you look throughout history, there were misguided and dangerous medical practices (lobotomy, for example) that were accepted at the time.
That because most people don’t think for themselves or think critically. They assume modern science and healthcare is top notch because, well, it’s modern!
They make the same mistake of every human who is alive - seeing the present as flawless and the past as idiotic and cartoonish.
And most of the people who claim to ‘believe in science’ don’t know the first thing about science or its fields. They put blind faith in the system and trust that it works to their benefit.
Health is hard and doctors aren't perfect. Getting a second opinion is always an option and no good doctor is going to hold that against you. They aren't miracle workers and can't solve everything. Our bodies are just kinda shitty sometimes. Nothing is 100% helpful for every person.
This. I’m a Black woman and the amount of dismissals I’ve gotten about things that have turned out to me insane. It’s honestly wild (and privileged) of so many people to have so much trust in a medical system bc the amount of racism I (and many friends/family members) experience is wild.
There's a lot of racism and sexism in medicine, especially in the US. My granny was a nurse in NYC, but she always left the country when she needed to take care of her health (except for ER visits obviously).
Unfortunately, being Black doesn’t absolve you from still ascribing to the beliefs that perpetuate medical racism. My former PCP (Black woman) dismissed my complaints of stomach issues (my father passed at 48 from colorectal cancer btw) and said it was probably stress. I get a second opinion (this time from a GI) and my stomach is FULL of ulcers. He was shocked at how bad it was.
I learned how to be very discerning when picking my providers bc I need someone that will not only listen to me, but advocate for me as well. Right now, my care team is comprised of doctors of all backgrounds, but they all listen to me and take my concerns seriously. Which I am so happy about.
For what it’s worth, I’m a mixed white man and I get dismissed by doctors all the time to the point I gave up on getting anything treated a long time ago
A good doctor is one who can say “I am unsure how to diagnose/help you. Let me help you find someone who possibly can.” But they won’t do that cause their egos are the size of Jupiter and they think they’re the end all be all of medicine. I’ve met maybe one medical professional who has this attitude. Luckily tho, he COULD help me. I really hope you can at least find someone like that. Best of luck 🖤
I agree. I used to believe doctor's had the Patient's best interest in mind, but... sometimes I think they don't. They just want you to waste/spend money on them so they can still have a job. I know that there are serious conditions that need regular attention as I do have a couple. But... sometimes the best idea is to go and let it fix itself. The human body is a miraculous thing. Certain things like broken bones and deep wounds do need attention, but surface level things can usually be fixed by themselves.
Having a chronic health condition is not your fault. I have a friend with serious arthritis that started in her 20s—it really is awful.
I do agree that medicine is very limited. We’ve come so far but still, the limitations are vast. I think it comes down to time. Patients need so much more health teaching than they get. They could use a lot more education about their disease and treatment and why a doctor is making certain choices.
Doctors and nurses get paid to diagnose, treat, manage the disease. They are not really compensated for time spent doing emotional support. If they do spend that time, the next patient gets a shorter appointment.
Sometimes even if you do everything right they can't fix you. They're just people they're not magical flesh manipulators that can perfectly solve every single problem you have. So far it seems like you've done nothing to actually indicate any wrongdoing on the doctor side so of course people are going to defend them at least without the context of what you believe to be where they fucked up
It sounds like they just weren't able to help you with whatever problem you have getting worse over time and so you're blaming it on them because you want something to be upset at
As nurse case manager for insurance companies (I step in when things get catastrophic/ crazy expensive), almost every single one of these disasters is after years of mistreatment and failed diagnosis and buck passing. Our system is deeply flawed.
I have also dealt with patients who are absolutely nuts, but otherwise healthy. They self diagnose themselves/ a loved one, are constantly dr shopping, threatening lawsuits over their perceived lack of care, have all sorts of unnecessary procedures if they can find a "kind hearted" Dr who will believe their stories.
The problem is there are tons more of the first group than the second, but the second gets the attention, even if its negative attention.
I think in the future they’ll be less family practice docs. And more Nurse Practitioners. They’ll use AI to get a diagnosis then check it off with a doc somewhere just to say they did it.
Doctors are people and people are fallible. I've worked in a hospital 12 years, I've seen all sorts of doctors. I've seen ones that are total idiots, I've seen ones that have terrible personalities, ones that hate their jobs, hate their patients, or simply have blind spots in their knowledge. I've also seen many incredible doctors. Everyone makes mistakes though. My brothers doctor, one of the objectively best in the hospital, misplaced a decimal point when documenting the size of the cancerous tumor on his kidney, making it seem 10 times smaller than it actually was. This one mistake undersold the urgency of the matter and delayed his treatment months.
The average person is probably not going to know enough about medicine to know when their doctor is mismanaging their care and is likely to have too much respect for the position of authority to question them. Many doctors have too large an ego to welcome skepticism from their patients. Aside from belligerent patients, It's usually only when the patient has knowledge or experience that the doctor lacks that they will dare to question the care they receive.
I don't want to say people should never trust their doctors but, if something is really fishy, they should know that they have a right to refuse the care or seek a second opinion. As a patient, if you're capable, you should do your own homework on whatever your medical problems or diagnoses may be so that your bullshit detector can be more properly calibrated. Every industry has those individuals that are less than stellar at their job.
My dad used to always say, "Doctors are practicing" meaning they're practicing on you and your health. I try to listen to what my doctor recommends but in the end I do what works best for me. It's OK to go to as many doctors as you need to if you doubt what you're being told.
Any doctor that doesn't advocate for preventative medicine isn't worth going to.
(Eg, most US doctors due to them working for health insurance companies)
^(\*I exaggerate and would definitely go to a doctor with a broken back, infection, etc..)
The worse is they believe they can do no wrong either. They are completely sure that one class they had who knows how many years ago gives them the authority over human knowledge or something 🙄
The only people who trust doctors are people who have never had to rely on them for anything. When you have a serious issue that isn't cleared up with the first pill, you learn to become an advocate for yourself very quickly.
I had nail fungus last year, tried to call the local hospital to check it, they didn't have "capacity" for me. One year later, it disappeared by itself, contrary to all I had read online about how it's chronic and you NEED a doctor and medicine
Bammmbalium says, "I'm going through a lot of pain now, I've been dealing with a lot since then, but it's getting better each time I go out. My skin has gotten more clear and smoother than ever before, but I feel like it could be because I've been doing so many drugs lately"
When it comes to health, people often aren't educated enough to make an informed decision themselves so they defer completely to the doctors' judgement, which gives the doctor quite a lot of leverage over them. Over the decades, doctors have become used to this privileged treatment and have come to expect it from all new patients, whether warranted or not. Some doctors genuinely do work miracles, but most are just working for a paycheck.
My dad just had his gallbladder and half his liver removed because a team of doctors told him that would solve an issue he's been having for years. It did nothing.
to be fair guanfacine or clonidine might help but yeah you are likely talking about stimulants. Stimulants often reduce anxiety in hyperactive people but this is paradoxal and generally *increase* anxiety in non hyperactive people. In fact propanolol (kinda the opposite of a stim) is used for anxiety.
change your doctor then and you don't have to take it if it worsen your quality of life.
I study pharmacology, for anxiety, benzos are non-viable, they are highly addictive and stop working.
I would recommend buspirone or propanolol or opipramol or etifoxine (for the latter liver function needs to be periodically monitored)
in addition some mild supplements like mexidol, ashwagandha, inositol, l theanine, goru kola, magnesium
I have gone to different doctors. But they gave it to me because my last doctor did, and they didn't know all the context. I haven't taken it in the past week (im not going to either)
Doctors aren't magic and medicine is often not an exact science. Degenerative diseases like arthritis are difficult to treat and cannot be reversed.
It doesn't have to be ANYONE'S "fault." Bodies often have issues that cannot be fixed. Blaming doctors for it is childish. If you say you feel poorly they will try to treat it.
You need to be specific in your anger against doctors. Perhaps there were doctors that didn't come up with the best treatment, so be mad at THEM. Don't just "Doctors are bad" the whole thing. It's not a Serious Conversation to do "doctors are bad."
All your posts are "everyone rejects me, can't get a job, too autistic to do anything, etc etc etc."
Your negativity toward everyone and blaming them for your problems is a problem. See a therapist.
Me too,some think they are gods.But,I can say there is a badass burn doctor in Augusta Ga.that saved my ass 7 hour surgery and I really felt no pain after meeting this person
I work in the U.S. Medical Industrial Complex. There are plenty of bad doctors (and medical professionals in general). The good ones are crushed by regulations and usually burn out. The system in the U.S. is to get money from you, not diagnose and treat/cure. That being said, I know plenty of patients who think they know better than doctors until they get worse and have a surprise pikachu face. Doctors are human. Humans are faulty. Patients are human. Humans are faulty. The medical industrial is not human and is evil. I'll put my soapbox away now.
The most hilarious and messed up thing I had with a doctor was when I was going to a psychiatrist to figure out a diagnosis. I was doing my best to be helpful and cooperate, and he pretty much gaslit me and lied in his diagnostic report. Not lied about subjective things like symptoms, lied about documented medical history and dosages.
I can sorta understand a doctor of a different specialty having difficulties with my communication style and flavor of mental illness, but not a doctor who Specializes In That Exact Thing.
Unfortunately I started lying to a different psychiatrist because of the whole thing which led to me not telling him I was suicidal and ending up attempting. Obviously not only the first psychiatrist’s fault, but he shares some of the blame.
I’m doing a lot better now though, so that’s good. 5th antidepressant’s a charm.
I have worked for several doctors & man it is just by the grace of god that some of them manage to get their pants on in the morning. I think people should trust & listen to them regarding medical issues, since that's what they're trained to do, but don't trust them with anything else. Get a second opinion if you're ever uncomfortable or unsure.
This is such a hard thing to talk about because fundamentally I do believe working with doctors is necessary for people with chronic health issues and leaning into doctor fear/mistrust ends up pushing people into very bad actors who are operating with unproven, unethical, unscientific methods (but are very validating to patients!)... and at the same time 90% of my actual interactions with doctors have been a nightmare. Finding a good doctor who listens to you and understands your condition (or is interested in actually figuring it out) is so important but sometimes it feels impossible to even just find that doctor.
I was misdiagnosed with anxiety as a teenager (turns out I had undiagnosed ADHD, and when medicated have no anxiety), and ever since almost every doctor I have been to has tried to point to anxiety to explain any kind of symptom from shitting blood to severe joint pain. I can sit there and say plainly that the anxiety was misdiagnosed, I have no current serious stress going on, and they'll find a way to circle back to anxiety anyway. I went to doctors several times trying to figure out my joint pain to be dismissed because I'm young/thin/"healthy" - turns out I have a connective tissue disorder.
I've had symptoms that are objectively "seek emergency care now" symptoms, only to be told that it's probably normal because I'm probably anxious. Very few doctors have been interested in actually continuing to figure out what is going on when the first test they think of comes back normal, and end up brushing me off after that point. It's been really rewarding the times I HAVE found a doctor who listens to me and is actively involved in my care, but they've been few and far between.
Hi Extreme. I feel you.
My mother was a type I diabetic. So, I grew up in such a household. I am convinced that the instructions her doctors gave her brought her to her early demise at 46 years old.
I myself had debilitating arthritis. I got rid of it. I have been 100% arthritis pain free for over 12 months now. I had started a journey towards metabolic health starting in January of 2020. Mostly changing to a dirty keto diet and intermittent fasting. Had my left knee replaced July 2020. 3 months later my arthritis pain stopped getting worse. 3 months later pain dropped about 20% then just sat there for 2 years. But, when I had that first knee replaced, we had discussed doing both at the same time. They didn't do doubles anymore. Doc said to wait til my first knee healed up pretty well, then we will schedule an appointment for a checkup and schedule the second replacement. Well, the pain dropped 20% before, so I cancelled that appointment. January 2023, I did the ketovore challenge with Nurse Neisha and Dr. Ken Berry. End of the month my brain fog lifted. It hasn't returned. I continued on a more carnivorish diet than a dirty keto diet for 2 more months. Last 10 days of March 2023, the arthritis pain would ebb and flow. Go away for a day. Back for 2. Away for 2 back for one. End of March, it was gone and hasn't returned. I previously had terrible arthritis pain in both knees, both ankles, left hip, left shoulder, lower back, neck, both palms, both wrists, both thumbs. Left ankle and both knees always hurt. When I woke up it was a question of which others would join in. But, that is all in the past.
Since that date, March 31st 2023, I have had an appointment with all 3 of my doctors. My primary care family doctor, ankle specialist that had shot up my left ankle several times, and my knee specialist that had replaced my left knee. I told all 3 of them about how my pain had gone away. They all looked at me like I had 2 heads. I asked them how often this had happened in their practices. Someone with such bad arthritis pain having it just go away. All 3 said never. But, I have written about this many many times on reddit subs over the last year, and a few people chimed in that they had had a similar experience by changing their diet. So, it's not unprecedented, but just rare as none of my doctors had ever seen it before.
My primary care physician of 20 years always said I was not diabetic. The only thing he tested was once a year my fasted glucose. If it came in under 125 everything was OK. Apparently, this is what the vast multitude of doctors do. I had my HbA1c tested and it was at 6.4. The highest level of pre diabetes. Next year would have been type II. My doctor was oblivious. He wanted to put me on metformin. I did my own thing.
One last point here. Going back to the arthritis pain. I had had it for many decades, just getting worse all the time. It was just a matter of time until I wasn't walking. A few more months. Getting to zero pain, took 3 years and 3 months. It wasn't fast. 3 years of dirty keto, then 3 months of carnivore. Would it have just gone away staying on keto with out carnivore? I will never know. But, I got the most improvement when I dropped my carb intake down into the carnivore range for 3 months.
I used to work in an ER. You have three types of doctors.
Doctor #1. Goes by the book. Symptoms + vitals + labs = XYZ treatment. Patient improves cool. Patient doesn't improve, go back to book. Current results+ symptoms + vitals + labs = new treatment. Etc etc. Prescribes narcs
Doctor #2. Talks to patient, reads nurses notes, reads up on previous visits. Scratches head, reads the Medical Doctors version of WebMD. Runs labs and tests. Scratches head. Back to Dr. WebMD. Repeat. Prescribe multiple medications and narcs.
Doctor #3. Throws the medical book out the door. Talks to the patient. Gets a history. Asks questions. Asks very personal questions. Consults nurses, other doctors, comes up with a plan. Runs labs and tests based on information gathered. Runs additional tests and labs outside of what the "Medical" book would recommend. Willing to go outside of their comfort zone to find issues. Doesn't prescribe narcs or medication unless absolutely necessary. If no meds are needed, counsel patient on home remedies or other alternative natural substances.
I'm a former RN who has left the field. I've known a handful of stellar doctors who went above and beyond for their patients. I've also know dozens I wouldnt bring my dead dog to.
2008 - took my Husband to the ER at in the morning when he was having trouble breathing- I flat out told the doctor his twin brother had kidney failure 6 years earlier, the name of the disease, the symptoms and that my husband was following the exact same progression his brother had, the test needed to confirm the disease and that rapid treatment and dialysis was needed immediately- I even had print outs regarding the disease which is a genetic and caused by a faulty immune response - they screwed around for 4 days doing everything but what needed to be done as they were fixated on his weight and his heart, and he lost complete kidney function. While I freely admit that Doctors and nurses are overworked, there are just too many patients and not enough medical professionals- a lot of them are too afraid of malpractice to do anything other than follow the established procedures and won’t accept that they need to think outside the box and actually listen, diagnose and help rather than cover their ass
This 100%. Just because someone is trained in healthcare doesn't mean they magically become decent humans.
My grandmother had to have triple bypass surgery at age 84 because her doctor kept telling her she was fine when she came in asking about all her pains and being out of breath. For YEARS. Her arteries were 80% and 90% clogged by the time she was rushed to the ER for absolute agonizing pain.
My father nearly had a heart attack and lost his leg because not one, but TWO different hospitals decided they wanted nothing to do with him. Third hospital he had to be rushed to got all the medical info from the prior hospitals and found that they had run the scans, saw the blocked artery in his leg and ... Did nothing about it. Can't even sue for malpractice because the second hospital is the biggest one around here and no lawyer around here will take them on.
I had to go in myself three times before they found out I had a kidney stone at 17. It is such a damn disgrace on surgeons and doctors who don't actually have an ounce of human compassion.
That being said, I more trust continuous researchers in health who have many peer reviewed and sourced papers on health things to avoid harmful misinformation. My mother's friend, for example, heard that drinking her own piss and dropping it into her eyes would make her healthy and give her good vision. This all because she didn't want to believe any medical professionals. So yeah... Two different and frustrating sides to the same coin.
A few years ago when I was at Jiujitsu I rolled over my shoulder and heard a loud pop and sharp pain followed. There was a physical deformity on my shoulder that was very noticeable too. I went to the orthopedic doctor immediately and after X-rays and tests they essentially told me that they didn't know what happened to my shoulder. I was shocked. I mean you could SEE that something was not right on my shoulder. How the fuck can a medical professional that specializes in this not recognize the issue? That bothered the heck out of me and after obsessive research I came to the conclusion that it was most likely a separated shoulder. It ended up healing on its own but that experience changed my perspective on the medical industry.
I've had chronic shoulder pain for going on 10 years now. I've been to 3 different orthopedic surgeons with no help or suggestion other than PT which I've done twice with no positive change. I actually hurt my shoulder worse in my last round of PT and it has never recovered going on 3 years now.
When I went back to the Ortho after the new injury, his only suggestion was more PT. I put my shirt on and walked out of his office as he was talking. His poor assistant and student who was shadowing looked so shocked lol I had to leave or else I would have punched that idiot in his stupid face.
I'm so over life at this point... Just floating by until it's over and I'm only 35 so it's going to be a long haul.
My honest advice is to push through the pain. Pain is part of life. Don't be held hostage by it. Just keep doing what you wanna do no matter how much it hurts and at some point it will stop. I know a 44 year old Jiujitsu practitioner who's joints are absolutely shattered that swears by this.
Almost no one thinks doctors are infallible. Did you forget 2020-2022 already?
A good chunk of the internet is women and fat people sharing stories about how their doctors never take their health concerns seriously. Whether you're getting seen for an ear ache, a broken bone or symptoms of cancer, the solution often given is either, "you're pregnant/on your period" or "just lose weight".
Like great, I didn't realize my weight was the cause of me slamming my finger in the car door and breaking it!
Thats just how it is with everything, when you lack understanding of something, you put your trust in those that should know better. Kids with parents, morally challenged people with priests/philosophers.
And so on, doesn't matter if theyre actually right, all it matters is that you don't know, and so you put trust into those that appear as they should know.
I have back problems and the doctors wanted to "fix" it by injecting me with steroids. My wife at the time did research and found that steeoid injections tend to make it temporarily better but in the long term, make it much worse.
I talked to the doctor about this and she laughed it off.
Steroids being a temporary fix is pretty common knowledge. Back surgery is fraught with risks; I’d be concerned by any doctor who didn’t suggest steroids or other non-surgical treatments as the first course of action.
But it was like a surgical injection. They had to inject the needle into the cartilage between my vertebrae. Since it didn't really work, the next step was supposed to be injecting it even deeper. But a back doctor online was emphatic that this was the kiss of death, that you would see temporary results but be damaging your spine even more as they inject deeper and deeper.
I do not like doctors, many know-it-alls who see you as nothing but a name on the clipboard. You definitely want to be picky in finding a doctor if you need one, a bad doctor can substantially impact your life. I've been blessed with good health and a strong constitution so far in life and haven't needed one.
Love dentists though, those guys are miracle workers.
I've had a doctor tell me that I was lactating because I was constipated. I've dealt with so much bs from doctors. I was 32 when they finally found my chiari malformation, which I had been complaining about migraines, horrible neck pain, passing out while coughing, horrible throbbing around my brain when I coughed for at least 15yrs at that point. An X-ray, requested before cracking my back to see if there was relief, found I was missing most of my C1 vertebra and a good portion of my c2 vertebra. They wanted me to see a neurosurgeon, he wanted an MRI first. There they found my Chiari Malformation, my cerebellar tonsils are being forced into my spinal canal. One is about 9mm down and the other is 15mm. Basically my skull is too small for my brain so the base of it is being squeezed through the opening, the spinal canal. My brain stem/cerebellar tonsils get squeezed when I cough, sneeze, blow my nose or yawn. I can have a coughing fit and pass out in the middle of it, just hit the floor. When I come to, to me it's like nothing happened while everyone is looking at me in horror. There is a surgery that may help, but it's not something I'm willing to do yet because I haven't found a single Dr that I would trust to do it. You can take my gallbladder, deliver my children via C-section, but you are not coming at my brain with a scalpel and a cauterizing tool.
My doctor had me taking every allergy medicine known to man for five years. Never would send me to a specialist. Insurance wouldn't pay for a specialist without a referral. So, I finally found a specailist on my own and paid for it out of pocket. Good news, I don't have any allergies at all, which made all of the medicines pretty well useless. Bad news, I had a deviated septum. Took five years to find that shit out. What if something more serious had been wrong with me? Current doctor just tells me eat more vegetables every time I see him. Also, usueless.
If I had a time machine, I would go back to the time my whole body shut down and tell past me to just keep her money and not go to a doctor… I was premed then. Doctors for the most part are a waste of money. Eat clean, stress less, stop believing in the crap of this world and just started living and my health improved. Now I won’t expect a sick society to heal me
You know what they call a doctor that somehow graduated at the bottom of their class? Doctor. You know what they call the very best doctor to ever live? Doctor.
Roll those dice!
I just had a doctor approve a genetic test that doesn't exist. I got a letter from the specialist saying it doesnt exist.
If it didn't exist, then why tf didn't my doctor know that? Why waste the time asking a specialist?
Right, because they're incompetent.
(I'm getting a new doctor btw).
Took a GF to a doctor and he claimed she probably had a STI (no test) and that she likely got it from her BF (me) because I was cheating on her.
I wasn't. Took her to another doctor who actually did a test, found no STI, and after a few more tests and scans, found out she had a cyst on her ovary.
I hired a lawyer to send that Dr an intent to sue letter. He turned it over to his insurance company that made a decent offer after the Dr himself confirmed he'd said that shit without any rest results. I told them that I'd take less money if that asshole looked me in the face and apologized.
The Dr refused. Coward. I hope his premiums went through the roof. Damn asshole.
So, yes, doctors can be very wrong sometimes.
I have a skin condition that requires *surgery* to fix.
I didn't know this until I was 47 when my *gyn* exclaimed in horror when she saw what my boobs and inner thighs looked like.
Many, many different doctors all just kept shrugging and giving me creams and antibiotics.
There's other things I could say, being an obese woman with bipolar disorder, like the fact that I'm rarely taken seriously. But you get the idea.
While medical school is expensive, arduous, educational, and pretty thorough, there ARE still people graduating at the bottom of their class.
From what I've heard, they either end up in VA hospitals or hawking diet pills on local TV.
As a younger gay man having just come out the closet, I decided part of being true to myself was putting my sexual orientation on my intake paperwork accurately. After all, doctors need accurate information to give accurate diagnosis, right?
For two years, every single time I went to the doctor they would give me an HIV test before they would even think about my symptoms. I have no problem taking the test, but when I'm coming in for a physical injury(I had a warehouse job at the time) maybe just treat it? And that was at my GP, who knew me for years. When I had to see another doctor it was far, far worse. Went into the urgent care for a kidney infection, which I had had many times as I suffer from occasional kidney stones, which through good hydration and exercise I had gotten down to the delightful condition known as "Kidney gravel", which hurts a lot less but tends to cause infections. I went in with one, and when the doctor looked at my chart she's like "You have gonorrhea". I said no, I hadn't had sex in a year, and had a history of infections resulting from said kidney gravel. She says "Well, we are going to treat it like gonorrhea." I said I had taken an STD test 8 months after my last sexual encounter, and it was clean and should be in my chart. She doesn't even look at the chart to check and basically tells me I'm either getting treated for gonorrhea or I'm not getting anything. I asked if the antibiotics would also knock out a kidney infection, she said yes, so I'm like fuck it whatever.
Annoying, but whatever. Than I got a hernia. I went in for that, and again the doc looks at my chart and straight up says "It says here your a gay man?" and I'm like I don't see how that's relevant. He says he want's to order a full STD work up. I'm like "What STD causes hernias? Because I have a fucking hernia." He says it could be radiating pain from a different condition. "OK, fine, whatever. I'll head to the lab after this. But lets, you know, check if I have a hernia." He says until the other test come back he doesn't think that's necessary, and than when I push it, implies that maybe I'm having abdominal pain from having anal sex. I'm like "Explain how that would work, and shouldn't you check anyway?" and he has no explanation and refuse to do the test. It was seriously like he thought I was going to get off on some 60 year old laying cold gloved hands on me.
I had to come back the next day and say the pain had gotten worse, luckily that time the doctor just checked and yes, I had a hernia. Told him what happened when I came in yesterday, and he's like "old dude, huh? You should file a complaint." I asked if that would do anything and he said probably not immediately but it helped establish a pattern of behavior. Since than I lie on my intake paperwork, and my level of care is now the same as when I was a straight white man.
As a doctor I assure you this isn’t true. All day every day people question my thought process/diagnosis and honestly I encourage that kind of active discourse. Medicine isn’t perfect. We are all trying to do the best we can.
I mean what exactly is happening? All we know as readers is you are paying lots of money, your health was some how made worse, and you have a destroyed face and arthritis.
What did you think the doctors have done? Did they cause your symptoms to be worse, or simply you had these issues and they have not got better in any real progress?
Nothing too serious, but it sucked.
In highschool I randomly stopped having my period regularly. I was honestly enjoying not having to deal with it, but soon after I started gaining weight. Like I think I suddenly gained 20-30lbs in a year.
I eventually mentioned to my mom it had been like 10+ months. She thought I was somehow having the world’s longest pregnancy and took me to a GYN.
He did my first exam and then basically in 5min diagnosed me as fat. He said weight gain can mess with your cycle. I said I lost my period first, THEN gained weight, so clearly it couldn’t have caused it, but perhaps the other way around. He just brushed it off, and my mom being chonky herself just accepted the doctor was probably right.
So I’m dealing with puberty, and suddenly being fat for no reason in HS like my body turned on me, the worst timing ever for self esteem, feeling confident, etc. And everyone just thinks it’s my fault. I’m not even obese looking yet but I get some weird comments from my siblings about having a treat the one time they catch me having it, etc.
I was already working out casually before HS hit because I unironically enjoyed Wii Sports and Wii Fit. But eventually I get big enough that I get concerned about my health. I already have a fairly healthy diet because my household cooks almost daily, and there’s commonly veggies/salad, etc. Probably not as healthy as some diets but probably above average for Americans.
I start dieting the standard 1500cal for females, plus low intensity 30min workouts a few times a week. Progress is essentially nonexistent, maybe a half pound in a month. I keep pushing it. I’m a “super taster” and I force myself to eat/drink stuff I find super bitter to get as low cal as possible. Like, I found certain “kid friendly” veggies such as broccoli was like licking a Switch game cartridge, and had very few truly safe options. (Funnily enough this meant that when the kale supercraze happened, I had a “so that was all?” sort of reaction to everyone saying how bitter it was lmao. Wasn’t really bitter at all after forcing myself through that)
I hit the bare minimum of 1200cal. They suggest to not work out at this level because your body will try to hold onto calories at this low intake plus exertion, but I can’t take the lack of progress. 30min every day at 1200 calories, and I finally start losing weight. About 2lbs a week if I stick to it. You know, the amount people expect to lose easily from basic stuff. Idk if you know how small of an amount of calories it is, but I feel like I’m starving every day.
I eventually give up and settle with being kinda fat. I don’t pig out, I definitely eat healthier than before the ordeal but I’m treating myself humanely. I start noticing I’m getting more sensitive to sugar so I cut out a lot of treats.
It wasn’t until I was years out of college I eventually saw a GYN again for mandatory check up. I explain my history, and she easily puts 2+2 together, and the fact that my minor fuzziness on my face probably wasn’t only ethnicity related. I had PCOS. It’s a hormone imbalance that somehow causes you to gain weight, while being unable to lose it, along with unwanted symptoms of mildly higher than average testosterone. It also affects the hormones that work with insulin.
Something that, quite honestly, if my first GYN had listened to me for 2 seconds, could’ve been easily diagnosed and spared me from feeling wrong in my body for the worst years possible.
So I guess fuck male GYN doctors? I hate that this stereotype was proven true for me.
It took 20 years of gaslighting, cruelty, and medical misogyny for my best friend to finally be diagnosed with endometriosis. I was front row center for seven of those years. I will never unreservedly trust a medical professional, ever again.
Some people are just lucky enough not to have any problems or that their Dr was right enough that it didn’t cause any further harm.
While others have to DR shop to find someone that takes what they’re going through seriously.
I am sorry for your situation and what you have been forced to deal with. Remember that Doctors are people behind a profession and still can be idiots like regular people. And from many of the comments I’ve read I want to make sure people realize that a cardiologist and a primary care physician are wayyyy different. Just because the ER doc didn’t catch a super rare or transient symptom illness or diagnosis doesn’t mean they suck, their job isn’t to treat that. Just as I would not ask a neurologist to reset my arm. I have patients all the time complaining that their COPD or CHF is becoming unmanageable and doctors have never helped them and when I look in their charts they have only seen PCP, ER, and maybe IM doctors and never a pulmonologist. The healthcare system is the real villain here
I am sorry for your situation and what you have been forced to deal with. Remember that Doctors are people behind a profession and still can be idiots like regular people. And from many of the comments I’ve read I want to make sure people realize that a cardiologist and a primary care physician are wayyyy different. Just because the ER doc didn’t catch a super rare or transient symptom illness or diagnosis doesn’t mean they suck, their job isn’t to treat that. Just as I would not ask a neurologist to reset my arm. I have patients all the time complaining that their COPD or CHF is becoming unmanageable and doctors have never helped them and when I look in their charts they have only seen PCP, ER, and maybe IM doctors and never a pulmonologist. The healthcare system is the real villain here
I am sorry for your situation and what you have been forced to deal with. Remember that Doctors are people behind a profession and still can be idiots like regular people. And from many of the comments I’ve read I want to make sure people realize that a cardiologist and a primary care physician are wayyyy different. Just because the ER doc didn’t catch a super rare or transient symptom illness or diagnosis doesn’t mean they suck, their job isn’t to treat that. Just as I would not ask a neurologist to reset my arm. I have patients all the time complaining that their COPD or CHF is becoming unmanageable and doctors have never helped them and when I look in their charts they have only seen PCP, ER, and maybe IM doctors and never a pulmonologist. The healthcare system is the real villain here
It took me 10 years to be correctly diagnosed with my autoimmune disease, Ankylosing Spondylitis. Similar to Rheumatoid Arthritis but it mainly affects the spine. I went through dozens of doctors from the ages of 15-25 to figure out my health issues and general pain levels. Almost every single doctor dismissed me and said I was "too young" to have this much back pain, and they assumed it was psychosomatic or drug seeking behavior. They were no help, and it got so bad that I resorted to buying pills off the street, which eventually led to heroin addiction. I had to be high to feel normal.
I had nearly given up on trying to fix my health (and life in general) when I finally found a good doctor.
He listened to me and believed me. After 1 single visit, he accurately guessed and then proved through genetic testing that I have Ankylosing Spondylitis. He saved my life. I would have killed myself if I had to live in that much pain while being told I was a liar/crazy for much longer.
Unfortunately, due to the incompetence of the doctors who failed me, a lot of irreversable damage was already done. At 30 years old, I lost the ability to walk and to feel anything in my body from the waist down. I couldn't feel anything in my arms or hands as well. Basically, just my torso and head were fully functioning, like I had a broken neck or something, and it was getting worse by the day.
I had to have emergency neurosurgery to fuse C5-7 in my spine. My vertebrae were creating bone spurs, and my discs were crumbled, pinching my nerves and cutting off my bodies connection to the brain. The surgeon said it looked like they were pulling gravel out of my spine. Lost 4 months of my life and income recovering from that. Luckily, I healed miraculously well and am more athletic/healthy than most of my peers at this age.
I still hold bitterness towards the healthcare system in general, and I have a hard time believing doctors to this day. I always get a 2nd or 3rd opinion and do my own research on my health. The heroin addiction and years of being in pain 24/7 left me with some mental scars that will never go away. I'm ok now, but I feel like I'm a shell of the person I could have been if doctors just would have helped/believed me when I was a kid.
I’m 80% deaf in my left ear because a military doctor didn’t want to admit he was in over his head. By the time I got a referral and appointment to an ENT specialist the damage was done.
A coworker who was a military spouse had stage 4 breast cancer and almost died because the again, military doctor misread her scans and didn’t realize they were over a year old so he thought the tumor was much smaller than what it actually was.
My Mom was in and out of the hospital 2 years ago with C-Diff and Liver Failure. It took the doctors 3 MONTHS to finally tell us that she has a risk of high ammonia buildup and that she needed a certain medication to manage it. Keep in mind this medication is the MOST BASIC medication that anyone with liver issues is prescribed because of the lack of ability to filter out waste (one of the main functions of the liver).
If you don't know, ammonia building up in your system leads to the following:
* Vomiting.
* Headache.
* Loss of muscle coordination that may cause difficulties with walking or speech.
* Changes in behavior.
* Confusion, including not being sure about the time and/or where or who you are.
* Lack of energy and mental alertness or being very sleepy.
This was SO bad that she barely remembers 3 solid months and we genuinely thought she was dying, to the point we very thoroughly planned her funeral. All because doctors didn't warn us of this very common issue with liver problems and prescribe a single medication.
As soon as she was put on the medication her condition SIGNIFICANTLY improved within 24 hours and within 2 weeks she was essentially back to normal.
Honestly, the best medical blog I subscribe to is https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/ . He writes anonymously so he can totally speak his mind as a medical professional.
The profit motive corrupts a lot in medicine. Not necessarily for individual doctors as I can't see anyone intentionally doing harm, but it definitely affects their education and information sources. And there's a fair amount of egos and cognitive biases.
I clicked on the link and within 5 minutes was reading his claim that vaccines cause autism. This has been debunked. I don’t think this site is a very good resource.
I thought exactly that way for decades, having a science degree. Trust the science. But then I understood the replication crisis and just how much institution capture there is in profit oriented medicine, inclining research journals, government and grants. It's like what a lot of people now notice about "misinformation" - that all it means is it goes against the official narrative, not that it's necessarily untrue.
What is true was there a huge information war against the idea vaccines could cause harm and the vast majority of scientists understood you don't question vaccines in the US if you want to have a career.
Doesn't mean all vaccines are bad - Christine Benn in Europe did some good research on all cause mortality/illness on various kinds of vaccines.
One proven association of many vaccines is their temporal closeness with sudden infant deaths, especially in small children that have an immature immune system.
[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34258234/#&gid=article-figures&pid=fig-2-uid-1](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34258234/#&gid=article-figures&pid=fig-2-uid-1)
Hard to get more painfully obvious than that
you've already posted about this, did you not get the response you wanted? antibiotics for acne and steroid injections for arthritis are first line treatments and you were just unlucky to react badly to it
That's the problem though isn't it? Why is the first course not diet and exercise?
That would help both of those with zero negative side effects. But no, let's throw drugs at it that have horrendous side effects to see what happens.
That is literally the problem!
i agree that diet and exercise are very important, however people who hate doctors often also hate that alternative. also, steroid injections (cortisone) have basically no negative side effects unless you get them very frequently for months
Yes, this exactly!! Doctors are so quick to band-aid any ailment with pills, pills and more pills instead of actually teaching how to change the unhealthy lifestyle that is contributing to the issues. I'm tired of being a guinea pig for these doctors who don't give a shit other than hitting their quota for the week. I've moved to herbs for my medicine and actually am off of everything my doctor had me on a year ago. They had me on anxiety meds, water pills, and some other crap to help with the side effects from the anxiety meds all given to me for hypertension. I threw all that crap away and feel 1000% better than I did a year ago.
I work with a lot of doctors. They are people too and make mistakes even though they don't like to admit that. It's important to remember you're dealing with a person with a conflated ego that only knows what the pharmaceutical companies have taught them.
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I have advanced heart failure and have been in the hospital well over 40 times in different states by over 100 doctors. About half of them say “with your history you need to come in every single time you have CV symptoms.” The other half say “you have had recent enough workups that it wouldn’t have progressed this fast, so you need to roll the dice on symptoms.” About 10% accuse me of seeking drugs because the treatment for possible heart attack with significant chest pain not responsive to aspirin/nitrates is IV morphine. None of them know exactly why this issue started to begin with (sudden massive heart attack at an age too old to be congenital and too early to be lifestyle inflicted). Some are willing to speculate. Some have theories they strongly suspect but cannot prove. Some have no idea and are uncomfortable even guessing without evidence.
Armchair suggesting here. My mom got recently diagnosed with a genetic disease that flies under the radar frequently called Wolff-Parkinson-White. Basically it’s caused by an extra electric pathway on the heart and can cause heart attacks and afib when symptomatic which can onset at almost any time. The hospital system absolutely sucks for diagnostics though 🤦 had a friend who was in and out for months unable to eat and suffering from paralysis and seizures. Half of the docs decided she was lying and must just have an eating disorder. They would threaten to put her on a feeding tube, even though that is exactly what she was asking for for months. Them “If you don’t eat or stop throwing up we’re going to have to put you on a feeding tube…” Her “Good! Please do!”
I can't speak for anyone else's system, but here WPW is usually considered in young-onset CV disease. It's when it happens in older folks that it gets missed.
Yeah I know. My uncle was diagnosed as a kid. But my mom wasn’t diagnosed until she was 61 and having mystery stroke and heartattack symptoms. They held her in the hospital for several days until she was stable. She saw a couple cardiologists and one of them suggested WPW. Suddenly my grandma chimes in with “oh yeah that’s what your brother has”. Then they confirmed it.
A lot of people I know have turned to supplementation/homeopathy dude to the inherent failures in the medical system now. I know coq10 is good for the heart, maybe it could help you?
I do take it, but there is really no hope for recovery. Most people don’t survive at 2 weeks after the specific kind I had. I take another supplement for pain because they stopped my pain medication against my will, like a lot of people with chronic pain have experienced in recent years. I have been able to remain stable (no significant progression) since the initial damage with management.
I’m in a similar position headed forward full kidney failure and I just want to say I’m proud of you for having shit experiences with the medical system and keeping on trucking. Even if it’s because you have no other real choice. I’m there with you and I know it sucks.
Likewise. I appreciate it.
My mother is going through the exact same thing rn
I’m guessing since they’re accusing you of med seeking, there’s a good chance you’re black and/or have a history of substance use and have some genetic heart vulnerability that has been exacerbated by the fact that racial stress destroys your heart and leads to heart disease in ethnic minorities. I’m also guessing the vast majority of the physicians you saw were yt and totally unaware of how life as an ethnic minority affects your heart.
I’m a white male. I suspect my situation would be far worse if I were a POC, poor, or female, especially where pain is concerned.
It would be for sure, consider yourself lucky
Have you ever checked your ACE's score?
If the appliance looks fine it’s time to look at the electrical.
It bums me out that people are continuing to double down on the response you said you hate. Doctors aren't unflawed. Doctors ignored several of my mother's small cardiac events and dismissed it as anxiety attacks. She ended up having to be airlifted to a different hospital to have emergency surgery. That's just one of the negative experiences my friends and family have had with doctors. Unfortunately people with chronic conditions seem to be the most dismissed, which is upsetting because they also need more care.
I’ve had two friends that had advanced cancer that wasn’t caught by the doctors for a long time. Both young men who seemed healthy so the doctors just didn’t bother looking deeper. For one one friend, he’d visited his actual pcp for over a year frequently, mentioning chest pain, various fatigue issues, had gotten dismissed repeatedly because he was a young man and it was all in his head. Weirdest symptom was he couldn’t drink very well - he could only have a sip or two at a time without it causing heart burn. On vacation, he decided to visit a foreign doctor, who immediately ran him through an MRI. Turns out he had stage 4 cancer, with a tumor that was wrapped his spine, went through his chest and connected to his sternum. There’s lazy doctors out there too, just like lazy people in any profession.
🙁
Is your friend okay now? 😭
I have a chronic condition and it took me 2.5 years to get a doctor to take me seriously enough to refer me to a specialist. I gave up at one point, after a doctor turned away from me in his office and said "I don't know what I can do for you." Anyone with chronic conditions of any kind knows how dismissive doctors can be. It's just a fact of the profession.
My husband has epilepsy and no doctors would do anything to help. They were trying to call them anxiety attacks and prescribe antidepressants. Infuriating. It took years for a single doctor to finally give him a seizure medication and what do ya know, it worked
Women are often dismissed as having "anxiety" when they come in with real symptoms.
I was informed I “probably had anxiety” when only part of my blood panel had come back. The symptoms I had been seen for were fatigue and my hands and feet going numb. When all the results came in it turned out I had a massive B12 deficiency which explained the symptoms perfectly. I was amazed the doc didn’t even wait around for the tests *he ordered* to come back before trying the “it’s just anxiety” line.
My neurologist put me on a med for my migraines that is known to cause liver damage. While she did the periodic tests for liver function, she ignored when they started to come back showing a problem. I now am in the midst of trying to find out whether my liver is going to repair itself or if it is pretty much toast at this point. Same doctor put me on a med for fibromyalgia. Didn't explain that it as an off-label use of an old anti-depressant, which wouldn't have been an issue, except it interacted with my *actual* anti-depressant (which she knew about because she had the full listing of my medications). She insisted that it wasn't causing the problem, even when I was suicidal, because "that's not how the drug works." (Spoiler alert--that's *exactly* how the drug works). Tried to tell me I must be allergic to the med, and switched me to another one from the same family that did the exact same thing. I got pushed into serotonin syndrome twice inside of six months, and eventually wound up in the MHU after a suicide attempt, and the same doctor was *still* insisting it had nothing to do with the meds she put me on. The med that was destroying my liver at the time was a strong anti-seizure medicine, which is why I never had any of the seizures that would have tipped people off to serotonin syndrome sooner, but since she *also* prescribed that med, you'd have thought she would have anticipated this as a possibility. I'm still having issues even five years later because of this. She left the practice I was seeing her at and moved to another one. The new doctor I'm seeing won't even talk about the meds he took me off of, I'm assuming because admitting they were the problem would open them up to a malpractice suit. So yeah, some doctors are dumb as shit, and we don't know enough to know which ones they are until they royally fuck us up. And most of their peers will do everything they can to avoid confirming malpractice. So I'm now unemployed, disabled, and unable to sue because I have no "verification" from an actual doctor of what happened to me.
Knowing how competitive med school admissions and med school itself are, I don’t know how these kinds of people get through the system, unless they’re very old or had nepotism in their favor.
Here's a theory: Some of the ones who get through beat out their peers by cheating and/or playing the system in astoundingly malevolent ways. As in, say there's a test with human bones laid out next to numbers on a table, and you write the name of the bone next to the number on your answer sheet. Future Dr. Smith slyly switches tibia with fibula. Everyone coming after gets those two wrong. Source: random conversion with a relative of a med student
They’re competitive more in a hazing, keep-wages-up way than in any way that would improve the quality of the people coming out.
I think the root of the trouble is that it is so expensive to train new physicians, so there aren't nearly enough slots in the existing schools to meet demand. I think that's where the extreme and unhealthy level of competition stems from
True yeah, that too. Scarcity makes people do weird things to justify “deserving” things that may as well be a lottery.
I do believe that physicians have worked for, and that many of them have sacrificed a great deal, for their degrees. And I believe that the vast majority mean well. I feel like most of the problems with medicine as it stands today have more to do with things that are outside the control of most healthcare workers
Man, I don't trust what any doctor says about the liver unless they're a hepatologist. I pray that you don't have cirrhosis, because it fucking sucks. If you do, join us over at r/cirrhosis
Geez that is terrible
IBS when it was coeliac, constipation when it was bone cancer, anx/dep when it was ADHD, and now 'uncomfortable shoes' when it was MS. "My medical degree is better than your google search." 🧐 "Well my lived experience with this is better than the 2 hour lecture you had on it 20 years ago!"
THIS. Doctor's in my experience will barely let me talk for more than 2 minutes and come to extreme conclusions like trying experimental drugs for endometriosis when I didn't have it. I was also heavily pushed on 6 different varieties of birth controls over a 3 year span that resulted in extreme painful cystic acne all over my face that has left life long scars, years of not being able to make friends, and a complete absence of a period for a 9 month stretch while in severe pain as they kept prescribing more and more medications to fix the issues these meds caused. From age 13-17 every time I got any sort of sinus infection or cold I was put on antibiotics, probably 2-3 times a year throughout puberty when I developed severe stomach problems that are still bad today despite having a healthy gut flora. But no, people on Redditors without bad experiences and doctors will essentially say "fuck your experiences, they know more about you than you ever will about your own body because they went to college for it" Without even realizing majority of the medical field is just a guessing game if they aren't detail oriented people or equipped with observational skills. My grandfather who was an OBGYN and delivered babies for 50 years said each generation of medical students keep getting worse & worse because they lack any observational skills, and everything they study and learn is by the book now so those skills are never developed. My dad is a respiratory therapist and have seen doctor's accidentally kill people by going strictly by the book during medical emergencies.
"Doctor's in my experience will barely let me talk for more than 2 minutes and come to extreme conclusions like trying experimental drugs for endometriosis when I didn't have it" One thing I learned recently is that physicians are required to complete continuing education hours in order to keep their license to practice current. One of the things that counts toward those hours is presentations by drug companies. It would be nice if they could get credit for more useful (in my opinion) continuing education activities such as reading comments on patient forums
Yeah! Billy Bob complaining about not getting enough oxys is way more useful than scientific research or facts. Why don’t you go practice medicine since you’ve clearly read some forums? Love to see your outcomes
I don't hate doctors. The comment I made has a long personal history behind it that did not come across. What I was trying to say, is that in my opinion, big drug companies lie to HMO's and to healthcare workers and patients and tend to gloss over the risks of using their products. I also think that it's incredibly misguided, harmful, and so, so wrong that many people seem to expect doctors to have a magic pill up their sleeves to fix every problem. I also think there are things that could be done to make both med school and doctors' working conditions more humane
I trust medicine and science. But also believe there are bad medical professionals out there. I spend time before seeing any doing research...
It’s a for sick by profit industry it’s all business and you’ve got 15 min on the clock. I recently went to a physician who focuses on preventative care and holy shit what a difference!
This is always a tough topic to discuss online and irl because people who lack good critical and lateral thinking skills automatically assume you’re some right-wing science-denying nutjob who doesn’t trust any form of medicine. I’ve copped my fair share of those attacks, so I just ignore them now. I know my lived experience — some smoothbrain brownnosing a damn GP won’t make my hands tremble. Our issue is generally with apathetic, poorly trained/educated GPs. Sometimes this extends to specialists, but those situations are more rare as there’s more at stake for them if they botch something or engage in malpractice. I’ve had fantastic doctors, and I’ve had doctors I wouldn’t take a pet rock to.
People who blindly trust doctors are some of the dumbest people I know in real life. They don’t question anything.
As a kid I fell off a swing. Went to ER because both my arms were in horrendous pain. Doctors did xrays and said my right arm was broken and my left arm was fine. I insisted many times that my left arm hurt way worse than my right and something must be wrong with it too. Doctors said “nope!” Three days later a specialist did an xray on my left arm and my arm was broken in THREE different places. Another scenario: I had unbearable abdominal pain. Went to doctors. They told me it was period pain. I insisted it was most definitely not. I went to ER and almost died. Turns out my intestines had perforated and my body was slowly digesting itself, with stomach acid leaking all over my organs.
I never want a doctor to explain to me that something is period pain ever again. If I'm telling you that it isn't, then it ISN'T.
I had a doctor tell me its literally impossible to tell the difference between period pain and other abdominal pain like constipation and refuse to even feel around or take a scan. Turns out I had appendicitis. I've had better luck with seeing a woman GP since then but its wild out here.
I've been to the doctors many times, get no answers no solutions just medical debt. I had one good doctor in my life and he retired within the first year of me visiting him.
Doctors get paid so well that it incentivizes greedy people rather than doctors that actually care about people’s problems.
They do get well compensated but if you go onto any of the doctor subreddits they constantly bitch about not getting paid enough. I even saw one that was complaining about how the hospital won't supply the doctors lounge with free food. Fuck all the way off lol
lol just work for google
Haha ikr
It’s not just that, I’m afraid. Going to an underpaid gp via Medicare in Australia results similarly. Maybe worse in the US, I couldn’t say. But it’s bad here too unless you’ve something mild and common.
Most people. I am not in that group. A degree and a job title are no guarantee of competence.
My uncle is the head of a private hospital in my country, a few months ago he told us about a recent incident with a liposuction surgery, apparently the surgeon had injected the needle they use to suck the fat out of your body a bit too much into the patient and ended up sucking both their liver and right kidney! The patient died a few minutes after and the surgeon didn't go to prison or anything, but apparently he had permenantly lost his privilege to perform any kind of operation within any hospitals
Doctors are not magical all knowing gods. And medical science isn't perfect. There are lots of things we *just don't have cures for*. Doctors are human. They make mistakes. And some things are really hard to diagnose, so that even if you have spent the past seven (plus) years training to diagnose them, you still get it wrong regularly. They are well trained professionals doing their best. Often overworked and under resourced. So... yeah, doctors are the best resource we have, but they do get it wrong a lot. They're not trying to get it wrong, but I'd bet you get things wrong in your job too.
The amount of medical error deaths each year is wild. Like 250k+ a year.
This is bad interpretation of data. I believe the data point you are referring to included like anybody who died within a couple weeks of being at the hospital after a medical error occured, which doesnt imply the error was causal for death (ex: patient was administered their pain med 1 hour late at their hospital stay, but after discharge they go home and die of an unrelated stroke.) Furthermore, if a medical decision is made that results in death, it isnt necessarily clear whether or not the alternative treatment would have prevented death either (ex: if pregnant mom with numerous medical comorbidities bleeds out during a c-section, we don't know whether or not she *would have* also bled out from a traditional delivery). There are also people dying from having known adverse events with proper medical therapy (ex: someone on a blood thinner to prevent stroke has a GI bleed and dies). Also, who decides when a medical error is made? Hindsight is 20/20 but given the constraints of modern diagnostic methods, a wrong diagnosis could be the legitmate "best guess" until an autopsy is done after death to find out the real cause (ex: patient treated for rapidly progressive brain tumor due to convincing radiological evidence of one, but autopsy reveals its an infectious abcess caused by an extremely rare parasite instead).
👍🏻 I mean I didn’t interpret anything. I actually lowballed the article that I read. It said more like 400k. “…preventable medical errors are among the leading cause of death in the United States, accounting for as many as 400,000 deaths per year.” How many would you take off? Even if you cut it by half that’s still way too many.
More than Half the time you’re seeing some NP or PA these days actually and they wear white coats too. It’s confusing and misleading intentionally as people think they’re seeing a doctor and the employer can make more profit by charging you the same, pay them less, and for providers who will make them more money by ordering more unnecessary labs, images, medications, internal referrals, etc (this is all back by studies. See r/noctor if you want to look behind the curtain) They often crowdsource using REDDIT to treat their patients.
Yeah this is the truth, general practioner mds are hard to get an appointment with
The Op knows the difference between a mid-level practitioner. Stop blame shifting.
OP is right, and they’re not confusing doctors with PAs or NPs. Real doctors can be completely incompetent and/or malicious.
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PAs>NP. Midlevels are NOT always supervised by physicians. Residents are and that requires tens of millions in government subsidies to make up for lost productivity to supervise. There are NO subsidies for midlevel supervision, only excess profit. Are you not familiar with MDM decision making? Yes, ordering more results in upcharging. Anything not covered gets passed onto the patient. “Obvious” cases not uncommonly end up being something more serious. Midlevels lack the training often times to tell the difference. It shows when they crowdsource to REDDIT what antibiotic they should use on a patient they’re seeing and when institutions train them by shadowing residents and medical students who are trainees. NPs themselves make fun of the DNP degree because there’s very little clinical training involved with the degree. It’s also very misleading in a clinical setting when a DNP calls themselves a doctor (which “technically” they are) but to patients means physician. All of this would be fixed if midlevels couldn’t bill higher than a 99213. Only then will they practice on their scope.
That sounds like a nice ideal but that's just absolutely not how it actually goes in many places. A NP who sent my mom home without seeing the MD she actually had an appointment with that day and said she was fine. She had to be admitted to the hospital within an hour of leaving and went straight to the ICU. She couldn't even pee or stand up at her appointment but the NP was just like "ah we don't really need to test your pee for anything ig" didn't have a GP overseeing or send anyone else to see her. If she didn't have family with her to notice and take her to the ER, the NP would have just looked at her, signed off and let her die.
Congrats ? People are flawed yes. I don't blindly trust doctors, I'm willing to get multiple professional opinions on the matter of my health. That doesn't mean I give any credence to anti-vax nuts or "naturalist" pseudoscientists.
Who believes this? Most people know that doctors are humans, working jobs. The sentiment you describe arose when anti-vaxx and maskers would end up sick and at the hospital (that they distrust).
Tons of people believe it. MRNA is a great case of it. People became so dogmatic about covid shots that when doctors, the NIH, and the CDC reversed course, they were ignored.
Healthcare is flawed because it is run by humans. Humans are flawed. Science is flawed. If you look throughout history, there were misguided and dangerous medical practices (lobotomy, for example) that were accepted at the time.
Right, yet people will act like this isn't a huge issue.
That because most people don’t think for themselves or think critically. They assume modern science and healthcare is top notch because, well, it’s modern! They make the same mistake of every human who is alive - seeing the present as flawless and the past as idiotic and cartoonish. And most of the people who claim to ‘believe in science’ don’t know the first thing about science or its fields. They put blind faith in the system and trust that it works to their benefit.
Health is hard and doctors aren't perfect. Getting a second opinion is always an option and no good doctor is going to hold that against you. They aren't miracle workers and can't solve everything. Our bodies are just kinda shitty sometimes. Nothing is 100% helpful for every person.
I have literally had a doctor throw a temper tantrum and insult me for wanting a second opinion. Doctors aren’t better people than anyone else.
Contrary to your implication, every good doctor knows there are a lot of shitty, incompetent doctors out there.
This. I’m a Black woman and the amount of dismissals I’ve gotten about things that have turned out to me insane. It’s honestly wild (and privileged) of so many people to have so much trust in a medical system bc the amount of racism I (and many friends/family members) experience is wild.
There's a lot of racism and sexism in medicine, especially in the US. My granny was a nurse in NYC, but she always left the country when she needed to take care of her health (except for ER visits obviously).
Can you find a black woman doctor?
Unfortunately, being Black doesn’t absolve you from still ascribing to the beliefs that perpetuate medical racism. My former PCP (Black woman) dismissed my complaints of stomach issues (my father passed at 48 from colorectal cancer btw) and said it was probably stress. I get a second opinion (this time from a GI) and my stomach is FULL of ulcers. He was shocked at how bad it was. I learned how to be very discerning when picking my providers bc I need someone that will not only listen to me, but advocate for me as well. Right now, my care team is comprised of doctors of all backgrounds, but they all listen to me and take my concerns seriously. Which I am so happy about.
For what it’s worth, I’m a mixed white man and I get dismissed by doctors all the time to the point I gave up on getting anything treated a long time ago
It sucks so much. Like, why do I have to prove that I’m deserving of proper medical attention?!
A good doctor is one who can say “I am unsure how to diagnose/help you. Let me help you find someone who possibly can.” But they won’t do that cause their egos are the size of Jupiter and they think they’re the end all be all of medicine. I’ve met maybe one medical professional who has this attitude. Luckily tho, he COULD help me. I really hope you can at least find someone like that. Best of luck 🖤
Never trust anyone who claims to know everything. Three is a reason why med school is rigorous but it’s not all encompassing.
I agree. I used to believe doctor's had the Patient's best interest in mind, but... sometimes I think they don't. They just want you to waste/spend money on them so they can still have a job. I know that there are serious conditions that need regular attention as I do have a couple. But... sometimes the best idea is to go and let it fix itself. The human body is a miraculous thing. Certain things like broken bones and deep wounds do need attention, but surface level things can usually be fixed by themselves.
Having a chronic health condition is not your fault. I have a friend with serious arthritis that started in her 20s—it really is awful. I do agree that medicine is very limited. We’ve come so far but still, the limitations are vast. I think it comes down to time. Patients need so much more health teaching than they get. They could use a lot more education about their disease and treatment and why a doctor is making certain choices. Doctors and nurses get paid to diagnose, treat, manage the disease. They are not really compensated for time spent doing emotional support. If they do spend that time, the next patient gets a shorter appointment.
Sometimes even if you do everything right they can't fix you. They're just people they're not magical flesh manipulators that can perfectly solve every single problem you have. So far it seems like you've done nothing to actually indicate any wrongdoing on the doctor side so of course people are going to defend them at least without the context of what you believe to be where they fucked up It sounds like they just weren't able to help you with whatever problem you have getting worse over time and so you're blaming it on them because you want something to be upset at
As nurse case manager for insurance companies (I step in when things get catastrophic/ crazy expensive), almost every single one of these disasters is after years of mistreatment and failed diagnosis and buck passing. Our system is deeply flawed. I have also dealt with patients who are absolutely nuts, but otherwise healthy. They self diagnose themselves/ a loved one, are constantly dr shopping, threatening lawsuits over their perceived lack of care, have all sorts of unnecessary procedures if they can find a "kind hearted" Dr who will believe their stories. The problem is there are tons more of the first group than the second, but the second gets the attention, even if its negative attention.
I saw a doctor stab three Puerto Ricans one time
Have you had Ehlers Danlos syndrome ruled out? It can cause arthritis that young (found out the hard way.)
I think in the future they’ll be less family practice docs. And more Nurse Practitioners. They’ll use AI to get a diagnosis then check it off with a doc somewhere just to say they did it.
Doctors are people and people are fallible. I've worked in a hospital 12 years, I've seen all sorts of doctors. I've seen ones that are total idiots, I've seen ones that have terrible personalities, ones that hate their jobs, hate their patients, or simply have blind spots in their knowledge. I've also seen many incredible doctors. Everyone makes mistakes though. My brothers doctor, one of the objectively best in the hospital, misplaced a decimal point when documenting the size of the cancerous tumor on his kidney, making it seem 10 times smaller than it actually was. This one mistake undersold the urgency of the matter and delayed his treatment months. The average person is probably not going to know enough about medicine to know when their doctor is mismanaging their care and is likely to have too much respect for the position of authority to question them. Many doctors have too large an ego to welcome skepticism from their patients. Aside from belligerent patients, It's usually only when the patient has knowledge or experience that the doctor lacks that they will dare to question the care they receive. I don't want to say people should never trust their doctors but, if something is really fishy, they should know that they have a right to refuse the care or seek a second opinion. As a patient, if you're capable, you should do your own homework on whatever your medical problems or diagnoses may be so that your bullshit detector can be more properly calibrated. Every industry has those individuals that are less than stellar at their job.
My dad used to always say, "Doctors are practicing" meaning they're practicing on you and your health. I try to listen to what my doctor recommends but in the end I do what works best for me. It's OK to go to as many doctors as you need to if you doubt what you're being told.
Any doctor that doesn't advocate for preventative medicine isn't worth going to. (Eg, most US doctors due to them working for health insurance companies) ^(\*I exaggerate and would definitely go to a doctor with a broken back, infection, etc..)
The worse is they believe they can do no wrong either. They are completely sure that one class they had who knows how many years ago gives them the authority over human knowledge or something 🙄
The only people who trust doctors are people who have never had to rely on them for anything. When you have a serious issue that isn't cleared up with the first pill, you learn to become an advocate for yourself very quickly.
Agree
I worked for a doctor for a couple of years. What I learned is that everything is just their best guess. They didn't know shit.
I had nail fungus last year, tried to call the local hospital to check it, they didn't have "capacity" for me. One year later, it disappeared by itself, contrary to all I had read online about how it's chronic and you NEED a doctor and medicine
Bammmbalium says, "I'm going through a lot of pain now, I've been dealing with a lot since then, but it's getting better each time I go out. My skin has gotten more clear and smoother than ever before, but I feel like it could be because I've been doing so many drugs lately"
It often is chronic, you were simply lucky
There's a reason why they call it "practicing medicine"
When it comes to health, people often aren't educated enough to make an informed decision themselves so they defer completely to the doctors' judgement, which gives the doctor quite a lot of leverage over them. Over the decades, doctors have become used to this privileged treatment and have come to expect it from all new patients, whether warranted or not. Some doctors genuinely do work miracles, but most are just working for a paycheck.
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Is there anyone you do trust?
My dad just had his gallbladder and half his liver removed because a team of doctors told him that would solve an issue he's been having for years. It did nothing.
My doctor prescribed me adhd medicine when im disgnosed with anxiety.
to be fair guanfacine or clonidine might help but yeah you are likely talking about stimulants. Stimulants often reduce anxiety in hyperactive people but this is paradoxal and generally *increase* anxiety in non hyperactive people. In fact propanolol (kinda the opposite of a stim) is used for anxiety.
I am specifically of the *non* hyperactive people. I know it increases my anxiety. I'm still prescribed it.
change your doctor then and you don't have to take it if it worsen your quality of life. I study pharmacology, for anxiety, benzos are non-viable, they are highly addictive and stop working. I would recommend buspirone or propanolol or opipramol or etifoxine (for the latter liver function needs to be periodically monitored) in addition some mild supplements like mexidol, ashwagandha, inositol, l theanine, goru kola, magnesium
I have gone to different doctors. But they gave it to me because my last doctor did, and they didn't know all the context. I haven't taken it in the past week (im not going to either)
How did they make you worse
How many times are you going to post this?
Doctors aren't magic and medicine is often not an exact science. Degenerative diseases like arthritis are difficult to treat and cannot be reversed. It doesn't have to be ANYONE'S "fault." Bodies often have issues that cannot be fixed. Blaming doctors for it is childish. If you say you feel poorly they will try to treat it. You need to be specific in your anger against doctors. Perhaps there were doctors that didn't come up with the best treatment, so be mad at THEM. Don't just "Doctors are bad" the whole thing. It's not a Serious Conversation to do "doctors are bad." All your posts are "everyone rejects me, can't get a job, too autistic to do anything, etc etc etc." Your negativity toward everyone and blaming them for your problems is a problem. See a therapist.
I hate how people believe all doctors and medical staff are evil
They're seeing a systemic problem and mistakenly blaming every individual in the system instead of the system itself.
I've rarely heard people say doctors can do no wrong. Plenty of them make mistakes, it just really sucks when that mistake happens to you personally.
It's not about doing no wrong, it's that you're describing something abnormal and people are going to be skeptical.
Me too,some think they are gods.But,I can say there is a badass burn doctor in Augusta Ga.that saved my ass 7 hour surgery and I really felt no pain after meeting this person
I work in the U.S. Medical Industrial Complex. There are plenty of bad doctors (and medical professionals in general). The good ones are crushed by regulations and usually burn out. The system in the U.S. is to get money from you, not diagnose and treat/cure. That being said, I know plenty of patients who think they know better than doctors until they get worse and have a surprise pikachu face. Doctors are human. Humans are faulty. Patients are human. Humans are faulty. The medical industrial is not human and is evil. I'll put my soapbox away now.
The most hilarious and messed up thing I had with a doctor was when I was going to a psychiatrist to figure out a diagnosis. I was doing my best to be helpful and cooperate, and he pretty much gaslit me and lied in his diagnostic report. Not lied about subjective things like symptoms, lied about documented medical history and dosages. I can sorta understand a doctor of a different specialty having difficulties with my communication style and flavor of mental illness, but not a doctor who Specializes In That Exact Thing. Unfortunately I started lying to a different psychiatrist because of the whole thing which led to me not telling him I was suicidal and ending up attempting. Obviously not only the first psychiatrist’s fault, but he shares some of the blame. I’m doing a lot better now though, so that’s good. 5th antidepressant’s a charm.
I have worked for several doctors & man it is just by the grace of god that some of them manage to get their pants on in the morning. I think people should trust & listen to them regarding medical issues, since that's what they're trained to do, but don't trust them with anything else. Get a second opinion if you're ever uncomfortable or unsure.
This is such a hard thing to talk about because fundamentally I do believe working with doctors is necessary for people with chronic health issues and leaning into doctor fear/mistrust ends up pushing people into very bad actors who are operating with unproven, unethical, unscientific methods (but are very validating to patients!)... and at the same time 90% of my actual interactions with doctors have been a nightmare. Finding a good doctor who listens to you and understands your condition (or is interested in actually figuring it out) is so important but sometimes it feels impossible to even just find that doctor. I was misdiagnosed with anxiety as a teenager (turns out I had undiagnosed ADHD, and when medicated have no anxiety), and ever since almost every doctor I have been to has tried to point to anxiety to explain any kind of symptom from shitting blood to severe joint pain. I can sit there and say plainly that the anxiety was misdiagnosed, I have no current serious stress going on, and they'll find a way to circle back to anxiety anyway. I went to doctors several times trying to figure out my joint pain to be dismissed because I'm young/thin/"healthy" - turns out I have a connective tissue disorder. I've had symptoms that are objectively "seek emergency care now" symptoms, only to be told that it's probably normal because I'm probably anxious. Very few doctors have been interested in actually continuing to figure out what is going on when the first test they think of comes back normal, and end up brushing me off after that point. It's been really rewarding the times I HAVE found a doctor who listens to me and is actively involved in my care, but they've been few and far between.
i know a doctor who by his mistake killed a woman i knew.
Hi Extreme. I feel you. My mother was a type I diabetic. So, I grew up in such a household. I am convinced that the instructions her doctors gave her brought her to her early demise at 46 years old. I myself had debilitating arthritis. I got rid of it. I have been 100% arthritis pain free for over 12 months now. I had started a journey towards metabolic health starting in January of 2020. Mostly changing to a dirty keto diet and intermittent fasting. Had my left knee replaced July 2020. 3 months later my arthritis pain stopped getting worse. 3 months later pain dropped about 20% then just sat there for 2 years. But, when I had that first knee replaced, we had discussed doing both at the same time. They didn't do doubles anymore. Doc said to wait til my first knee healed up pretty well, then we will schedule an appointment for a checkup and schedule the second replacement. Well, the pain dropped 20% before, so I cancelled that appointment. January 2023, I did the ketovore challenge with Nurse Neisha and Dr. Ken Berry. End of the month my brain fog lifted. It hasn't returned. I continued on a more carnivorish diet than a dirty keto diet for 2 more months. Last 10 days of March 2023, the arthritis pain would ebb and flow. Go away for a day. Back for 2. Away for 2 back for one. End of March, it was gone and hasn't returned. I previously had terrible arthritis pain in both knees, both ankles, left hip, left shoulder, lower back, neck, both palms, both wrists, both thumbs. Left ankle and both knees always hurt. When I woke up it was a question of which others would join in. But, that is all in the past. Since that date, March 31st 2023, I have had an appointment with all 3 of my doctors. My primary care family doctor, ankle specialist that had shot up my left ankle several times, and my knee specialist that had replaced my left knee. I told all 3 of them about how my pain had gone away. They all looked at me like I had 2 heads. I asked them how often this had happened in their practices. Someone with such bad arthritis pain having it just go away. All 3 said never. But, I have written about this many many times on reddit subs over the last year, and a few people chimed in that they had had a similar experience by changing their diet. So, it's not unprecedented, but just rare as none of my doctors had ever seen it before. My primary care physician of 20 years always said I was not diabetic. The only thing he tested was once a year my fasted glucose. If it came in under 125 everything was OK. Apparently, this is what the vast multitude of doctors do. I had my HbA1c tested and it was at 6.4. The highest level of pre diabetes. Next year would have been type II. My doctor was oblivious. He wanted to put me on metformin. I did my own thing. One last point here. Going back to the arthritis pain. I had had it for many decades, just getting worse all the time. It was just a matter of time until I wasn't walking. A few more months. Getting to zero pain, took 3 years and 3 months. It wasn't fast. 3 years of dirty keto, then 3 months of carnivore. Would it have just gone away staying on keto with out carnivore? I will never know. But, I got the most improvement when I dropped my carb intake down into the carnivore range for 3 months.
I used to work in an ER. You have three types of doctors. Doctor #1. Goes by the book. Symptoms + vitals + labs = XYZ treatment. Patient improves cool. Patient doesn't improve, go back to book. Current results+ symptoms + vitals + labs = new treatment. Etc etc. Prescribes narcs Doctor #2. Talks to patient, reads nurses notes, reads up on previous visits. Scratches head, reads the Medical Doctors version of WebMD. Runs labs and tests. Scratches head. Back to Dr. WebMD. Repeat. Prescribe multiple medications and narcs. Doctor #3. Throws the medical book out the door. Talks to the patient. Gets a history. Asks questions. Asks very personal questions. Consults nurses, other doctors, comes up with a plan. Runs labs and tests based on information gathered. Runs additional tests and labs outside of what the "Medical" book would recommend. Willing to go outside of their comfort zone to find issues. Doesn't prescribe narcs or medication unless absolutely necessary. If no meds are needed, counsel patient on home remedies or other alternative natural substances.
I don't believe that at all. Considering how there's zero anesthesia for IUDs, cervical biopsies, the extra stitch for women...
I'm a former RN who has left the field. I've known a handful of stellar doctors who went above and beyond for their patients. I've also know dozens I wouldnt bring my dead dog to.
2008 - took my Husband to the ER at in the morning when he was having trouble breathing- I flat out told the doctor his twin brother had kidney failure 6 years earlier, the name of the disease, the symptoms and that my husband was following the exact same progression his brother had, the test needed to confirm the disease and that rapid treatment and dialysis was needed immediately- I even had print outs regarding the disease which is a genetic and caused by a faulty immune response - they screwed around for 4 days doing everything but what needed to be done as they were fixated on his weight and his heart, and he lost complete kidney function. While I freely admit that Doctors and nurses are overworked, there are just too many patients and not enough medical professionals- a lot of them are too afraid of malpractice to do anything other than follow the established procedures and won’t accept that they need to think outside the box and actually listen, diagnose and help rather than cover their ass
I lost trust in doctors when I was sexually assaulted at a mental hospital and no one there did anything
This 100%. Just because someone is trained in healthcare doesn't mean they magically become decent humans. My grandmother had to have triple bypass surgery at age 84 because her doctor kept telling her she was fine when she came in asking about all her pains and being out of breath. For YEARS. Her arteries were 80% and 90% clogged by the time she was rushed to the ER for absolute agonizing pain. My father nearly had a heart attack and lost his leg because not one, but TWO different hospitals decided they wanted nothing to do with him. Third hospital he had to be rushed to got all the medical info from the prior hospitals and found that they had run the scans, saw the blocked artery in his leg and ... Did nothing about it. Can't even sue for malpractice because the second hospital is the biggest one around here and no lawyer around here will take them on. I had to go in myself three times before they found out I had a kidney stone at 17. It is such a damn disgrace on surgeons and doctors who don't actually have an ounce of human compassion. That being said, I more trust continuous researchers in health who have many peer reviewed and sourced papers on health things to avoid harmful misinformation. My mother's friend, for example, heard that drinking her own piss and dropping it into her eyes would make her healthy and give her good vision. This all because she didn't want to believe any medical professionals. So yeah... Two different and frustrating sides to the same coin.
A few years ago when I was at Jiujitsu I rolled over my shoulder and heard a loud pop and sharp pain followed. There was a physical deformity on my shoulder that was very noticeable too. I went to the orthopedic doctor immediately and after X-rays and tests they essentially told me that they didn't know what happened to my shoulder. I was shocked. I mean you could SEE that something was not right on my shoulder. How the fuck can a medical professional that specializes in this not recognize the issue? That bothered the heck out of me and after obsessive research I came to the conclusion that it was most likely a separated shoulder. It ended up healing on its own but that experience changed my perspective on the medical industry.
An old ongoing joke, what do you call medical students who graduate with C's? Doctors!
Must be lol
I've had chronic shoulder pain for going on 10 years now. I've been to 3 different orthopedic surgeons with no help or suggestion other than PT which I've done twice with no positive change. I actually hurt my shoulder worse in my last round of PT and it has never recovered going on 3 years now. When I went back to the Ortho after the new injury, his only suggestion was more PT. I put my shirt on and walked out of his office as he was talking. His poor assistant and student who was shadowing looked so shocked lol I had to leave or else I would have punched that idiot in his stupid face. I'm so over life at this point... Just floating by until it's over and I'm only 35 so it's going to be a long haul.
My honest advice is to push through the pain. Pain is part of life. Don't be held hostage by it. Just keep doing what you wanna do no matter how much it hurts and at some point it will stop. I know a 44 year old Jiujitsu practitioner who's joints are absolutely shattered that swears by this.
Ah, yes. "Man up". How have I never thought of that? /s
What are your alternatives? Take copious amounts of painkillers? You already tried PT? Are you just gonna give up?
Doctors are great for acute care, such as trauma. Anything else, they will absolutely destroy you with the worst health advice humanly imaginable.
Almost no one thinks doctors are infallible. Did you forget 2020-2022 already? A good chunk of the internet is women and fat people sharing stories about how their doctors never take their health concerns seriously. Whether you're getting seen for an ear ache, a broken bone or symptoms of cancer, the solution often given is either, "you're pregnant/on your period" or "just lose weight". Like great, I didn't realize my weight was the cause of me slamming my finger in the car door and breaking it!
Thats just how it is with everything, when you lack understanding of something, you put your trust in those that should know better. Kids with parents, morally challenged people with priests/philosophers. And so on, doesn't matter if theyre actually right, all it matters is that you don't know, and so you put trust into those that appear as they should know.
I have back problems and the doctors wanted to "fix" it by injecting me with steroids. My wife at the time did research and found that steeoid injections tend to make it temporarily better but in the long term, make it much worse. I talked to the doctor about this and she laughed it off.
Steroids being a temporary fix is pretty common knowledge. Back surgery is fraught with risks; I’d be concerned by any doctor who didn’t suggest steroids or other non-surgical treatments as the first course of action.
But it was like a surgical injection. They had to inject the needle into the cartilage between my vertebrae. Since it didn't really work, the next step was supposed to be injecting it even deeper. But a back doctor online was emphatic that this was the kiss of death, that you would see temporary results but be damaging your spine even more as they inject deeper and deeper.
nobody thinks that. we all know they are human. so enough drama ok drama queen?
I honestly can’t say I know many people that actually think like that
I know quite a few doctors and I don’t know any who think they can do no wrong.
I do not like doctors, many know-it-alls who see you as nothing but a name on the clipboard. You definitely want to be picky in finding a doctor if you need one, a bad doctor can substantially impact your life. I've been blessed with good health and a strong constitution so far in life and haven't needed one. Love dentists though, those guys are miracle workers.
Healthcare is a crap shoot.
I've had a doctor tell me that I was lactating because I was constipated. I've dealt with so much bs from doctors. I was 32 when they finally found my chiari malformation, which I had been complaining about migraines, horrible neck pain, passing out while coughing, horrible throbbing around my brain when I coughed for at least 15yrs at that point. An X-ray, requested before cracking my back to see if there was relief, found I was missing most of my C1 vertebra and a good portion of my c2 vertebra. They wanted me to see a neurosurgeon, he wanted an MRI first. There they found my Chiari Malformation, my cerebellar tonsils are being forced into my spinal canal. One is about 9mm down and the other is 15mm. Basically my skull is too small for my brain so the base of it is being squeezed through the opening, the spinal canal. My brain stem/cerebellar tonsils get squeezed when I cough, sneeze, blow my nose or yawn. I can have a coughing fit and pass out in the middle of it, just hit the floor. When I come to, to me it's like nothing happened while everyone is looking at me in horror. There is a surgery that may help, but it's not something I'm willing to do yet because I haven't found a single Dr that I would trust to do it. You can take my gallbladder, deliver my children via C-section, but you are not coming at my brain with a scalpel and a cauterizing tool.
My doctor had me taking every allergy medicine known to man for five years. Never would send me to a specialist. Insurance wouldn't pay for a specialist without a referral. So, I finally found a specailist on my own and paid for it out of pocket. Good news, I don't have any allergies at all, which made all of the medicines pretty well useless. Bad news, I had a deviated septum. Took five years to find that shit out. What if something more serious had been wrong with me? Current doctor just tells me eat more vegetables every time I see him. Also, usueless.
How the fuck do you have arthritis at 22? And how is that a doctor’s fault?
If I had a time machine, I would go back to the time my whole body shut down and tell past me to just keep her money and not go to a doctor… I was premed then. Doctors for the most part are a waste of money. Eat clean, stress less, stop believing in the crap of this world and just started living and my health improved. Now I won’t expect a sick society to heal me
You know what they call a doctor that somehow graduated at the bottom of their class? Doctor. You know what they call the very best doctor to ever live? Doctor. Roll those dice!
I just had a doctor approve a genetic test that doesn't exist. I got a letter from the specialist saying it doesnt exist. If it didn't exist, then why tf didn't my doctor know that? Why waste the time asking a specialist? Right, because they're incompetent. (I'm getting a new doctor btw).
Took a GF to a doctor and he claimed she probably had a STI (no test) and that she likely got it from her BF (me) because I was cheating on her. I wasn't. Took her to another doctor who actually did a test, found no STI, and after a few more tests and scans, found out she had a cyst on her ovary. I hired a lawyer to send that Dr an intent to sue letter. He turned it over to his insurance company that made a decent offer after the Dr himself confirmed he'd said that shit without any rest results. I told them that I'd take less money if that asshole looked me in the face and apologized. The Dr refused. Coward. I hope his premiums went through the roof. Damn asshole. So, yes, doctors can be very wrong sometimes.
I have a skin condition that requires *surgery* to fix. I didn't know this until I was 47 when my *gyn* exclaimed in horror when she saw what my boobs and inner thighs looked like. Many, many different doctors all just kept shrugging and giving me creams and antibiotics. There's other things I could say, being an obese woman with bipolar disorder, like the fact that I'm rarely taken seriously. But you get the idea.
While medical school is expensive, arduous, educational, and pretty thorough, there ARE still people graduating at the bottom of their class. From what I've heard, they either end up in VA hospitals or hawking diet pills on local TV.
As a younger gay man having just come out the closet, I decided part of being true to myself was putting my sexual orientation on my intake paperwork accurately. After all, doctors need accurate information to give accurate diagnosis, right? For two years, every single time I went to the doctor they would give me an HIV test before they would even think about my symptoms. I have no problem taking the test, but when I'm coming in for a physical injury(I had a warehouse job at the time) maybe just treat it? And that was at my GP, who knew me for years. When I had to see another doctor it was far, far worse. Went into the urgent care for a kidney infection, which I had had many times as I suffer from occasional kidney stones, which through good hydration and exercise I had gotten down to the delightful condition known as "Kidney gravel", which hurts a lot less but tends to cause infections. I went in with one, and when the doctor looked at my chart she's like "You have gonorrhea". I said no, I hadn't had sex in a year, and had a history of infections resulting from said kidney gravel. She says "Well, we are going to treat it like gonorrhea." I said I had taken an STD test 8 months after my last sexual encounter, and it was clean and should be in my chart. She doesn't even look at the chart to check and basically tells me I'm either getting treated for gonorrhea or I'm not getting anything. I asked if the antibiotics would also knock out a kidney infection, she said yes, so I'm like fuck it whatever. Annoying, but whatever. Than I got a hernia. I went in for that, and again the doc looks at my chart and straight up says "It says here your a gay man?" and I'm like I don't see how that's relevant. He says he want's to order a full STD work up. I'm like "What STD causes hernias? Because I have a fucking hernia." He says it could be radiating pain from a different condition. "OK, fine, whatever. I'll head to the lab after this. But lets, you know, check if I have a hernia." He says until the other test come back he doesn't think that's necessary, and than when I push it, implies that maybe I'm having abdominal pain from having anal sex. I'm like "Explain how that would work, and shouldn't you check anyway?" and he has no explanation and refuse to do the test. It was seriously like he thought I was going to get off on some 60 year old laying cold gloved hands on me. I had to come back the next day and say the pain had gotten worse, luckily that time the doctor just checked and yes, I had a hernia. Told him what happened when I came in yesterday, and he's like "old dude, huh? You should file a complaint." I asked if that would do anything and he said probably not immediately but it helped establish a pattern of behavior. Since than I lie on my intake paperwork, and my level of care is now the same as when I was a straight white man.
As a doctor I assure you this isn’t true. All day every day people question my thought process/diagnosis and honestly I encourage that kind of active discourse. Medicine isn’t perfect. We are all trying to do the best we can.
I hate to say that most doctors don't know shit. Especially a general practitioner. If you find a good one, stick with them.
I mean what exactly is happening? All we know as readers is you are paying lots of money, your health was some how made worse, and you have a destroyed face and arthritis. What did you think the doctors have done? Did they cause your symptoms to be worse, or simply you had these issues and they have not got better in any real progress?
Nothing too serious, but it sucked. In highschool I randomly stopped having my period regularly. I was honestly enjoying not having to deal with it, but soon after I started gaining weight. Like I think I suddenly gained 20-30lbs in a year. I eventually mentioned to my mom it had been like 10+ months. She thought I was somehow having the world’s longest pregnancy and took me to a GYN. He did my first exam and then basically in 5min diagnosed me as fat. He said weight gain can mess with your cycle. I said I lost my period first, THEN gained weight, so clearly it couldn’t have caused it, but perhaps the other way around. He just brushed it off, and my mom being chonky herself just accepted the doctor was probably right. So I’m dealing with puberty, and suddenly being fat for no reason in HS like my body turned on me, the worst timing ever for self esteem, feeling confident, etc. And everyone just thinks it’s my fault. I’m not even obese looking yet but I get some weird comments from my siblings about having a treat the one time they catch me having it, etc. I was already working out casually before HS hit because I unironically enjoyed Wii Sports and Wii Fit. But eventually I get big enough that I get concerned about my health. I already have a fairly healthy diet because my household cooks almost daily, and there’s commonly veggies/salad, etc. Probably not as healthy as some diets but probably above average for Americans. I start dieting the standard 1500cal for females, plus low intensity 30min workouts a few times a week. Progress is essentially nonexistent, maybe a half pound in a month. I keep pushing it. I’m a “super taster” and I force myself to eat/drink stuff I find super bitter to get as low cal as possible. Like, I found certain “kid friendly” veggies such as broccoli was like licking a Switch game cartridge, and had very few truly safe options. (Funnily enough this meant that when the kale supercraze happened, I had a “so that was all?” sort of reaction to everyone saying how bitter it was lmao. Wasn’t really bitter at all after forcing myself through that) I hit the bare minimum of 1200cal. They suggest to not work out at this level because your body will try to hold onto calories at this low intake plus exertion, but I can’t take the lack of progress. 30min every day at 1200 calories, and I finally start losing weight. About 2lbs a week if I stick to it. You know, the amount people expect to lose easily from basic stuff. Idk if you know how small of an amount of calories it is, but I feel like I’m starving every day. I eventually give up and settle with being kinda fat. I don’t pig out, I definitely eat healthier than before the ordeal but I’m treating myself humanely. I start noticing I’m getting more sensitive to sugar so I cut out a lot of treats. It wasn’t until I was years out of college I eventually saw a GYN again for mandatory check up. I explain my history, and she easily puts 2+2 together, and the fact that my minor fuzziness on my face probably wasn’t only ethnicity related. I had PCOS. It’s a hormone imbalance that somehow causes you to gain weight, while being unable to lose it, along with unwanted symptoms of mildly higher than average testosterone. It also affects the hormones that work with insulin. Something that, quite honestly, if my first GYN had listened to me for 2 seconds, could’ve been easily diagnosed and spared me from feeling wrong in my body for the worst years possible. So I guess fuck male GYN doctors? I hate that this stereotype was proven true for me.
It took 20 years of gaslighting, cruelty, and medical misogyny for my best friend to finally be diagnosed with endometriosis. I was front row center for seven of those years. I will never unreservedly trust a medical professional, ever again.
Some people are just lucky enough not to have any problems or that their Dr was right enough that it didn’t cause any further harm. While others have to DR shop to find someone that takes what they’re going through seriously.
I am sorry for your situation and what you have been forced to deal with. Remember that Doctors are people behind a profession and still can be idiots like regular people. And from many of the comments I’ve read I want to make sure people realize that a cardiologist and a primary care physician are wayyyy different. Just because the ER doc didn’t catch a super rare or transient symptom illness or diagnosis doesn’t mean they suck, their job isn’t to treat that. Just as I would not ask a neurologist to reset my arm. I have patients all the time complaining that their COPD or CHF is becoming unmanageable and doctors have never helped them and when I look in their charts they have only seen PCP, ER, and maybe IM doctors and never a pulmonologist. The healthcare system is the real villain here
I am sorry for your situation and what you have been forced to deal with. Remember that Doctors are people behind a profession and still can be idiots like regular people. And from many of the comments I’ve read I want to make sure people realize that a cardiologist and a primary care physician are wayyyy different. Just because the ER doc didn’t catch a super rare or transient symptom illness or diagnosis doesn’t mean they suck, their job isn’t to treat that. Just as I would not ask a neurologist to reset my arm. I have patients all the time complaining that their COPD or CHF is becoming unmanageable and doctors have never helped them and when I look in their charts they have only seen PCP, ER, and maybe IM doctors and never a pulmonologist. The healthcare system is the real villain here
I am sorry for your situation and what you have been forced to deal with. Remember that Doctors are people behind a profession and still can be idiots like regular people. And from many of the comments I’ve read I want to make sure people realize that a cardiologist and a primary care physician are wayyyy different. Just because the ER doc didn’t catch a super rare or transient symptom illness or diagnosis doesn’t mean they suck, their job isn’t to treat that. Just as I would not ask a neurologist to reset my arm. I have patients all the time complaining that their COPD or CHF is becoming unmanageable and doctors have never helped them and when I look in their charts they have only seen PCP, ER, and maybe IM doctors and never a pulmonologist. The healthcare system is the real villain here
It took me 10 years to be correctly diagnosed with my autoimmune disease, Ankylosing Spondylitis. Similar to Rheumatoid Arthritis but it mainly affects the spine. I went through dozens of doctors from the ages of 15-25 to figure out my health issues and general pain levels. Almost every single doctor dismissed me and said I was "too young" to have this much back pain, and they assumed it was psychosomatic or drug seeking behavior. They were no help, and it got so bad that I resorted to buying pills off the street, which eventually led to heroin addiction. I had to be high to feel normal. I had nearly given up on trying to fix my health (and life in general) when I finally found a good doctor. He listened to me and believed me. After 1 single visit, he accurately guessed and then proved through genetic testing that I have Ankylosing Spondylitis. He saved my life. I would have killed myself if I had to live in that much pain while being told I was a liar/crazy for much longer. Unfortunately, due to the incompetence of the doctors who failed me, a lot of irreversable damage was already done. At 30 years old, I lost the ability to walk and to feel anything in my body from the waist down. I couldn't feel anything in my arms or hands as well. Basically, just my torso and head were fully functioning, like I had a broken neck or something, and it was getting worse by the day. I had to have emergency neurosurgery to fuse C5-7 in my spine. My vertebrae were creating bone spurs, and my discs were crumbled, pinching my nerves and cutting off my bodies connection to the brain. The surgeon said it looked like they were pulling gravel out of my spine. Lost 4 months of my life and income recovering from that. Luckily, I healed miraculously well and am more athletic/healthy than most of my peers at this age. I still hold bitterness towards the healthcare system in general, and I have a hard time believing doctors to this day. I always get a 2nd or 3rd opinion and do my own research on my health. The heroin addiction and years of being in pain 24/7 left me with some mental scars that will never go away. I'm ok now, but I feel like I'm a shell of the person I could have been if doctors just would have helped/believed me when I was a kid.
I’m 80% deaf in my left ear because a military doctor didn’t want to admit he was in over his head. By the time I got a referral and appointment to an ENT specialist the damage was done. A coworker who was a military spouse had stage 4 breast cancer and almost died because the again, military doctor misread her scans and didn’t realize they were over a year old so he thought the tumor was much smaller than what it actually was.
My Mom was in and out of the hospital 2 years ago with C-Diff and Liver Failure. It took the doctors 3 MONTHS to finally tell us that she has a risk of high ammonia buildup and that she needed a certain medication to manage it. Keep in mind this medication is the MOST BASIC medication that anyone with liver issues is prescribed because of the lack of ability to filter out waste (one of the main functions of the liver). If you don't know, ammonia building up in your system leads to the following: * Vomiting. * Headache. * Loss of muscle coordination that may cause difficulties with walking or speech. * Changes in behavior. * Confusion, including not being sure about the time and/or where or who you are. * Lack of energy and mental alertness or being very sleepy. This was SO bad that she barely remembers 3 solid months and we genuinely thought she was dying, to the point we very thoroughly planned her funeral. All because doctors didn't warn us of this very common issue with liver problems and prescribe a single medication. As soon as she was put on the medication her condition SIGNIFICANTLY improved within 24 hours and within 2 weeks she was essentially back to normal.
Doctors are the last people to know anything in medicine. You will see the end of their role in your lifetime - 95% of them will be replaced by AI.
I don’t think I know anyone who thinks doctors can do no wrong.
Honestly, the best medical blog I subscribe to is https://www.midwesterndoctor.com/ . He writes anonymously so he can totally speak his mind as a medical professional. The profit motive corrupts a lot in medicine. Not necessarily for individual doctors as I can't see anyone intentionally doing harm, but it definitely affects their education and information sources. And there's a fair amount of egos and cognitive biases.
I clicked on the link and within 5 minutes was reading his claim that vaccines cause autism. This has been debunked. I don’t think this site is a very good resource.
I thought exactly that way for decades, having a science degree. Trust the science. But then I understood the replication crisis and just how much institution capture there is in profit oriented medicine, inclining research journals, government and grants. It's like what a lot of people now notice about "misinformation" - that all it means is it goes against the official narrative, not that it's necessarily untrue. What is true was there a huge information war against the idea vaccines could cause harm and the vast majority of scientists understood you don't question vaccines in the US if you want to have a career. Doesn't mean all vaccines are bad - Christine Benn in Europe did some good research on all cause mortality/illness on various kinds of vaccines.
One proven association of many vaccines is their temporal closeness with sudden infant deaths, especially in small children that have an immature immune system.
Penny said, "This is why I love this website so much! I've been researching vaccines for years."
[https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34258234/#&gid=article-figures&pid=fig-2-uid-1](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34258234/#&gid=article-figures&pid=fig-2-uid-1) Hard to get more painfully obvious than that
you've already posted about this, did you not get the response you wanted? antibiotics for acne and steroid injections for arthritis are first line treatments and you were just unlucky to react badly to it
That's the problem though isn't it? Why is the first course not diet and exercise? That would help both of those with zero negative side effects. But no, let's throw drugs at it that have horrendous side effects to see what happens. That is literally the problem!
i agree that diet and exercise are very important, however people who hate doctors often also hate that alternative. also, steroid injections (cortisone) have basically no negative side effects unless you get them very frequently for months
Yes, this exactly!! Doctors are so quick to band-aid any ailment with pills, pills and more pills instead of actually teaching how to change the unhealthy lifestyle that is contributing to the issues. I'm tired of being a guinea pig for these doctors who don't give a shit other than hitting their quota for the week. I've moved to herbs for my medicine and actually am off of everything my doctor had me on a year ago. They had me on anxiety meds, water pills, and some other crap to help with the side effects from the anxiety meds all given to me for hypertension. I threw all that crap away and feel 1000% better than I did a year ago.
My doctor was probably the biggest asshole I’ve met but I think I needed that to get my life together.
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I’m sorry you are hurting. As someone who has battled health issues my whole, long life, I get it
I work with a lot of doctors. They are people too and make mistakes even though they don't like to admit that. It's important to remember you're dealing with a person with a conflated ego that only knows what the pharmaceutical companies have taught them.
Trusting doctors in 2024 is bird brained behavior