Doctors: Allies or Adversaries?

[Retired]

What has been your experience with the doctors in your life...have they been working to help you through your difficulty or have they been the cause of more difficulty?

Do you see your doctor on a regular basis for preventative care or do you make an appointment reluctantly when all else fails and you're feeling terrible?

 

[boi]

hey TSOW
I have had good experiences with doctors. I haven't really had any physical health problems except for mental health but overall, I had doctors that would try and help me. I usually just see my dr for my physical every year. I rarely get sick so I haven't had the need to go otherwise.

 

[texasgirl]

Steve,

I see my regular doctor about twice a year unless I get sick. I have a good regular doctor.

TG

 

[forgetmenot]

i only go to my doctor GP if i am very sick He is kind. My one psychologist i was ask to see when my daughter came ill i thought cared but did not. He abandoned me causing me alot of pain and increased my mistrust in people. It took me awhile to see new psychologist but he is kind learning to trust him as he doesn't make me feel small.

 

[NicNak]

Both my Psychiatrist and my Family Physician have "open door" policies. My Psychiatrist takes phone calls when ever in his office.

My Family Physician I can make an appointment, when ever I feel I need to talk as well. She is very involved in my mental health, she treats me in my entirety. Any pains, even if suspected to be related to my depression etc, she takes seriously and runs tests to ensure everything is fine otherwise. Not once have I been made to feel like I am wasting her time. She is truly a heaven send, but she is so humble about it .

Any doctor she refers me to, seems to have a good level of compassion too.

Even my Dentist is very understanding about the anxiety I feel during appointments and makes great efforts to help me be comfortable.

I cannot say enough about the Medical help I get.

 

[Jackie]

My Doctor is is very good. I see him quite often, no fear of going if somethings wrong

 

[Retired]

Even my Dentist is very understanding about the anxiety

Good point, as many people (me included) had horrible experiences with dental procedures in years gone by when dentists were not trained as well.

Dentistry has come a long way in the last twenty five years or so, since training includes taking a person's anxiety about procedures into consideration.

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My one psychologist i was ask to see when my daughter came ill i thought cared but did not

What kind of behaviour in a health professional causes a patient/client to feel alienated or unwelcome? If you were able to tell this psychologist where you feel things went wrong, what would you say?

 

[forgetmenot]

hi TSOW I would say i think he was in too much of a rush to get things done.

he wasn't going at my pace but his and he brought so much pain out in me then left me to deal with it on my own. I would tell him i didn't know the rules of how to accept help and i don't understand what i did wrong for him to just walk away. i wish i knew what i did wrong. i tried so hard to do what he asked but it wasn't enough and it was going against everything in myself to do.

 

[Halo]

I have had some really horrible experiences with medical doctors, gp's, psychiatrists and dentists.

I don't trust many, if any of them and don't have faith in their abilities or that they have my best interests at heart. I have been put down, ignored, yelled at, insulted and used by many of them.

The less doctors I have to deal with the better.

 

[Retired]

don't have faith in their abilities or that they have my best interests at heart.

I have no doubt that you may have had unhappy experiences, based on your description, Halo.

And while I can agree there is variation in the competence level of some physicians (not everyone is an A student) and there is variation in "bedside manner", by your comment, though, the infference is that your medical consultants were all incomptetent and would have had sinister motives in the treatment they proposed.

Have you not had one satisfactory experience with a medical professional?

 

[Halo]

Steve,

What I specifically said was this:

I don't trust many, if any of them and don't have faith in their abilities or that they have my best interests at heart.

It is not that I have not had one competent medical professional but it is that I have not had many great experiences and there may be one or two medical professionals that I have dealt with over the course of my life who I feel are competent, caring and looking out for my best interests, most are not. I feel like a number and an inconvenience to most of them.

 

[Mari]

I have had some really horrible experiences with medical doctors, gp's, psychiatrists and dentists.

Unfortunately this is also true for me. I do not always speak up for myself but even when I do it does not seem to help much. I will go if necessary but often postpone appointments because of my fear of mistreatment. Some of it has been quite abusive. Mari

 

[Halo]

Mari,

I can absolutely relate to everything you wrote, especially this part:

but often postpone appointments because of my fear of mistreatment.

I honestly don't think that some people can understand that not all doctors that one encounters are 100% great.

 

[Mari]

I think I would have ignored this thread until Halo spoke up and that got me thinking and now I am really shaking from recalling some incidents. The doctor and the counselor I presently see are both okay. I would like to find a better dentist. Mari

 

[Jazzey]

I think I would have ignored this thread until Halo spoke up and that got me thinking and now I am really shaking from recalling some incidents. The doctor and the counselor I presently see are both okay. I would like to find a better dentist. Mari

You're your best advocate Mari. I almost died in 1998 because I believed in my doctor more than I did myself. After years of being dismissed for some of the symptoms I was experiencing, I had a medical emergency that landed me in the emergency room - I never went back to that particular doctor...

 

[NicNak]

One time when I had to go to the hospital, I was treated as a over dramatic crazy person. Sent me home saying I had a bladder infection, and a prescription for antibiotics. This doctor was a She was so rude to me as well as her head nurse. I was in agony and they would not give me any pain meds. I infact had kidney stones.

A week later I was back in with the pain again.

There was a nice nurse there the first time and she remembered me the second time and said "I knew you would be back" She told the attending doctor that day that I was in a week prior. He was not impressed that half the tests were not done and I was just fluffed off. He had me on pain relievers almost immediately and kept checking on me to make sure I was comfortable while I was waiting to go for further tests. The tests were run and they found the kidney stone.

The rest of the Medical people for the tests and surgery, luckily, were nice to me.

I just consider myself lucky to have the Family Physican, Psychiatrist and Dentist I have.

I have heard many horror stories though.

I have had Family Physicians who were awful before I found my current one.

 

[Into The Light]

i've been treated in mixed ways as well. from doctors and dentists who didn't want to explain anything to me and were still of the "i'm an authority so just take my word" mindset :yuck:, nurses and interns who treated me with no respect and were dismissive to a couple of great doctors, dentist, and my current therapist.

i also think that having been unable to speak up for myself in the past has affected the kind of treatment i got from some "professionals".

i'd say overall it's been about 75% not so great and 25% good for me.

 

[Halo]

Its interesting that others have spoke up about how they have not been impressed with their medical care. I appreciate hearing from others and their experiences.

I will say that my current GP just writes scripts for whatever my psychologist suggests. My GP has no idea of what my diagnoses are and has no interest in knowing. He just always confirms that I am still seeing my psychologist. I have had a dentist that performed unnecessary procedures on me as a guinea pig for my brother, I have had a therapist fall asleep on me, another doctor/specialist make reference to my weight in an extremely negative way, a therapist who made rude comments and refused to go at my pace and thought she was the only one that knew best and finally a therapist who left after an 8 year relationship with no warning and only typed letter.

On a more positive note, my current dentist and psychologist are great and I really like them. What's that song.....2 out of 3 aint bad

And this is not even mentioning the current medical experiences and ordeals that I am going through. That is definitely a mixture of both positive and negative experiences.

 

[forgetmenot]

I also had bad experiances in emergency being an identical twin. I went in with awful pain in my stomach and was left in a back room for hours. No one came in to even take vitals blood work nothing. I find out later they thought I was my twin who gets mistreated all the time because she has schizophrenia and is an alcoholic. I knew after this treatment what she had and is going through from the medical sector. The 2nd time I went into emergency I made it clear I was not my twin so don't be treating me like they treated her. I got immediate attention blood work done and found I too had kidney stones and was rushed into hospital for emergency surgery. The professional staff there were not professional at all doctors nurses and police officers all made fun of my sister and treated her like she was disposable I now know how degrading someone can make you feel.

 

[Retired]

To what extent is poor medical service the result of an overloaded medical system that adversely affects otherwise well motivated medical professionals?

We all hear reports of discouraged doctors having to see more patients than they can comfortably see in a day, and have to resort to setting an alarm clock in the office to allow 15 minutes per patient.

Under these stressful working conditions, isn't it possible that people who started off with good intentions, a pleasant personality and sharp medical minds become a little grumpy?

Of course, if one is dissatisfied with their current doctor, sometimes it's worth looking for a replacement.