What doctors don't tell you

[Bernard]

Physician David Newman has written a book about the secrets your doctor keeps from you. But he's not talking about "secret cures" that sell books on alternative medicine. Instead, his new book, Hippocrates' Shadow: Secrets From the House of Medicine (Scribner), is all about the secrets that hide in plain sight in medical journals and hospital hallways:

• Doctors don't know as much as you think they do. For example, they don't know what causes most cases of back pain or what makes it better.
• Doctors do know that many of the tests, drugs and procedures they order and prescribe either do not work or have not been proved to work. Case in point: They keep prescribing antibiotics for colds and bronchitis.
• Doctors disagree, often, about everything, including whether that chest X-ray you just had really shows pneumonia.
• Doctors like ordering tests better than they like listening to you.

...

What doctors don't tell you

[Georgiagirl88]

Bernard,
I can totally believe this. Thankfully, our Drs. are really conservative about antibiotics..that's why we have all the strong strains of bugs that are drug resistant..overly prescibed antibiotics for sniffles, which are viruses. They are only human too..not miracle workers like we would like them to be sometimes.

Michelle

[Cint]

Thanks Bernard,

So true!! Their philosophy seems to be drugs, drugs, and more drugs!!!!

Cindy

[Meetz1064]

Which is why my doctors and I "discuss" EVERYTHING.............and I usually win!!!

[brain]

What doctors don't tell you

I love my Doctors!



And before I say why let me quote from the link
above:

"Doctors think patients want a prescription," Newman says. They also know, he says, that patients feel better once they get that "magic pill."

All of my Doctors knows I hate meds and I have
knowledge of it as well. My own Doctors will
actually have to TELL me that I have to take this
and why, they aren't "script happy". They will even
SCOLD me if "I" am not better or improved by xx
days ... they know I hadn't been taking it!

HOWEVER - they are also HONEST too; take my
Primary or Neurologist for example, when they have
to add another med temporarily - and will let me know
it will make me sick or do this (and yes, I do sulk and
not a bit of a happy camper), and I can understand.
There's been times I have had a problem or problems
with the medication(s) - and then they would give
me advisories of something else to do with it, such
as cutting it in half or quartering it, but I have to take
it or moving it to a time schedule or something.

At least they're honest enough to say "You're going to
get sick before you get better".

I can't remember which Doctor I said this to "I'd rather
eat grass... like my cats do." *laughs*

I hate drugs, simple as that, I hate to the fact that I
have to take these stupid Anti-Epileptic Drugs, but I
know I don't have much of a choice, and I often wished
there was a "magic" pill, where I could just take just 1,
and not a whole bunch of them throughout the day, like
I have for decades!

I know it's very difficult to find a Physician of any type
that's not "script happy" and that "will listen to you",
but if you ever come across one - cherish them! They're
priceless and more valuable than all the gold and diamonds
in this world!

[RobinN]

I am not sure if I dislike the conventional medical style or the insurance companies hold on the medical community more.

I am frustrated that conventional doctors don't keep up to date and I am also frustrated that they are not able (or willing) to give me information, even if the insurance company won't approve of it.

It appears that you need to learn the lingo of the "times" when you go in for an appt.
As an example, when asking for a specific test, which is not an "approved" test by the insurance company the doctor will tell you that it isn't needed. Yet if you were to say if I were to pay out of pocket would this test be useful... they might be willing to say yes and use this other lab.

All labs are not alike, and the insurance company has made it impossible to make these choices. All tests are not alike too.
Unless you the consumer keep up to date on all that is known to a particular disorder, you will be walked through tests that have no relevance. Yet you will believe that you are getting the best of care. When Rebecca was tested for celiac, there were blood draws. However, reading the request for the test, I realized that the ones that are currently suggested by the celiac community, were not on the request form. So they take advantage of our ignorance.

[BuckeyeFan]

I am not sure if I dislike the conventional medical style or the insurance companies hold on the medical community more.

I know, I know, I know the answer to this one. INSURANCE companies

When you get into the 'business' side of medical care, insurance dictates all. Hang on in the states, because it is only going to get worse.

Article in USA Today stated that only 2% of medical students were planning on becoming primary physicians. Insurance has made that the worst place to be for a doctor financially. Sure, they still make good money, but not as much as others.

Net result, you get the "less talented" doctors filling the need for primaries that goes beyond 2%. They are the ones that can't make it in a specialty. This doesn't apply to all - but a good portion of those greater than that 2% who will want to be there.

[RobinN]

(what a terrible sentence that was.. glad you understood it)

[haird18]

That is why I am now just down to two doctors The doctors would rather prescribe meds. before running the approriate test and not listening to my concerns! Now these two drs' work together and work with me to resolve the problems before changing anything now!
David

[brain]

*groans*

And how I loathed the HMO Physicians!

And yet every time I went into their office:

• arrives 10 minutes early
• fill this forms out, if anything has changed
  and why you are here today?
• your insurance card please?
• co-payment (WHAT? I'm fully covered!)
• waits nearly 30 to 45 minutes or even over an hour
• finally my name's called
• Nurse comes in does vitals and asks why I'm here
  (Umm, doesn't anyone read the papers that I just
  filled out?)
• Nurse then either tells me to put on a gown or
  tells me to be seated and the Doctor will be here in
  a moment. (DEFINE MOMENT PLEASE!)
• look at watch - 10, 20, 30 minutes passes
• Doctor comes in, looks at paperwork, and checks
  the vitals; and says - "Lab Work" and leaves room.
• Another Nurse comes in and takes me down the
  hallway to the station and I'm seated there with other
  patients waiting to have their blood, pee, or what-not
  done.
• Get blood drawn and then sent back to room and
  being instructed that Doctor will be with you in a moment.
  (Why don't you just state Doctor will be with you within
  now to eternity?)
  
• Doctor finally shows up, and mumbles, and can't
  do anything until lab work results return, will see me in
  1 week, sends me off to front desk to be scheduled for
  another appointment.

And the HMO Cycle Repeats itself! One would have to be
100% Insane! And you can imagine what it was like having
to go through all those Dilantin / Pheytoin blood level (or
some other anti-epileptic drug) checks!

Or if I was going in for a check-up, they still ordered up
tests or lab work. Send me off to here, there, there, and
there.

[darkmarkshark]

My current doctors all know I don't like meds but as the neurologist explained it to me there was virtually no chance of my ever being med-free again, Actually I don't even like going to the doctor when sick - i always used to figure that if I can suffer through it medicine isn't necessary. I once showed up to work with an allergic reaction to bath soap over my face and arms. Everyone kept asking if I had went to the doctor or was taking something (benadryl, I think), and I just kept saying "No, its not bad enough for me to need to take anything." I've had doctors tell me "You need to be on this medicine. You don't have a choice and you will feel much better when you do take it."

I've left all the doctors who accused me of making up symptoms prior to getting diagnosed

[RobinN]

Wanna know what doctors really think? Reader's Digest offered a couple dozen of them the chance to spill the beans, and spill they did. For example:

•"I used to have my secretary page me after I had spent five minutes in the room with a difficult or overly chatty patient," a California cancer specialist told the magazine. "Then I'd run out, saying, 'Oh, I have an emergency.'"

•"Sometimes it's easier for a doctor to write a prescription for a medicine than to explain why the patient doesn't need it," a Maine cardiologist said.

•"It's pretty common for doctors to talk about their patients and make judgments, particularly about their appearance," a Washington, D.C., family doctor said.

Not all of the doctors were brave enough (foolish enough?) to allow Reader's Digest to use their real names, but Doug Farrago, "the official king of medicine," did. Farrago, a full-time family doctor in Auburn, Maine, somehow manages to find time to put out the bi-monthly Placebo Journal, "The Only Medical Journal That Will Make You Laugh...On Purpose!"

A typical Farrago-ism from the Reader's Digest piece: "So let me get this straight: You want a referral to three specialists, an MRI, the medication you saw on TV, and an extra hour for this visit. Gotcha. Do you want fries with that?"

Many comments on the article praised Farrago for telling it like it is with humor. But one commenter noted: "These articles do NOTHING to help doctors and patients work together."

What do you think your doctor would say?

http://blogs.usatoday.com/betterlife...know-what.html

[darkmarkshark]

I'd say that the reason the patient is asking for a referrel to three specialists and an mri is that the current doctor isn't believing they have legitimate concerns and they know they are experiencing valid serious problems.

Look at how many of weren't believed when we first saw a doctor about our nonconvulsive seizures

[tinasmom]

I do like the doctors that we have now. I'm sure that doctors run a whole lot of tests, because it generates revenue. I have been working in our local health system for the last 2 years and I sure am learning alot. There will always be good doctors and bad doctors. I think that some doctors stop researching and trying to further their knowledge once they get their degree. I believe that these are the ones that turn into bad doctors. Then there are the ones that keep up on everything and want to keep learning so they can help their patients by giving them the best possible care (these are the good doctors). We do have to remember that doctors are human like the rest of us and we all make mistakes.

My husband was referred to our local pain doctor for his phantom pains due to amputation of his leg (below knee). His Ortho doctor had sent him there for nerve blocks only. The pain doctor said that he need to take all these pain pills instead. My husband told him that he doesn't want to be hooked on pain meds and the doctor said that if he didn't take all these pills, he would be blacklisted and never receive any pain meds again. The doctor also made the statement that he is the doctor. My husband did not take the prescriptions for the meds and has never been back there. We did report this to the health system and nothing was really done. They told us that he was talked to. I also know that about 85% of his patients end up in drug counseling to get off the meds. This is definitely a bad doctor.

[haird18]

Out here in West Texas in the last five years we had numerous doctors have their license revoked and put in prison! And you want to know why these doctors were only taking advantage of patients insurance like medicaid and medicare. They were not concerned about patient care! The FBI put in prison over 12 doctors in the last 5yrs for insurace fraud in our area.
David

[BuckeyeFan]

*groans*

• arrives 10 minutes early
• fill this forms out, if anything has changed
  and why you are here today?
• your insurance card please?
• co-payment (WHAT? I'm fully covered!)
• waits nearly 30 to 45 minutes or even over an hour
• finally my name's called
• Nurse comes in does vitals and asks why I'm here
  (Umm, doesn't anyone read the papers that I just
  filled out?)
• Nurse then either tells me to put on a gown or
  tells me to be seated and the Doctor will be here in
  a moment. (DEFINE MOMENT PLEASE!)
• look at watch - 10, 20, 30 minutes passes
• Doctor comes in, looks at paperwork, and checks
  the vitals; and says - "Lab Work" and leaves room.
• Another Nurse comes in and takes me down the
  hallway to the station and I'm seated there with other
  patients waiting to have their blood, pee, or what-not
  done.
• Get blood drawn and then sent back to room and
  being instructed that Doctor will be with you in a moment.
  (Why don't you just state Doctor will be with you within
  now to eternity?)
  
• Doctor finally shows up, and mumbles, and can't
  do anything until lab work results return, will see me in
  1 week, sends me off to front desk to be scheduled for
  another appointment.

My neurologist is pretty good about getting my labs done. When I leave an appointment, he gives me orders for lab work needed for my next appointment. That way I can get the lab work done about 10 days in advance and he always has the results when I arrive.

I sometimes still need other tests as a result of the appointment, but this at least takes care of some of them.

[brain]

Hey Bucky:

That was the "PAST" under the HMO Insurances,
I don't have a problem with that these days now.
But that was what I had to undergo years ago.
I'm surprised I survived!

PS: Do I get a HMO "Survivor T-Shirt"?