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BS: Incompetent Doctors.
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Subject: Incompetent Doctors. From: Bert Date: 26 May 02 - 12:22 AM Well most of you know my opinions of doctors, but I just heard another one last night. A family friend had this small lump on her back. She went to her doctor who said that it wasn't a problem, just a fleshy lump. Soon it got bigger, so she went to another doctor and then to yet another. Each of them said that it was nothing to worry about. When it still got bigger she talked to a nurse friend of hers who (quite illegally) gave her a local and opened it up. Turns out it was a Staph. infection and would have killed her if it had burst internally. When will we be rid of protected trades? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: katlaughing Date: 26 May 02 - 02:45 AM We just had an elderly cousin of my dad's hospitalised for an infection in his back, Bert. The docs caught it on an MRI and lucky for him they did, though I know, that isn't always the case. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Liz the Squeak Date: 26 May 02 - 09:28 AM Can anyone explain why my Dr has ordered me to have my head examined (yeah, ha ha ha.... been there, done that, got the X-ray to prove I have a brain), when it's my blood pressure that's the problem? It's very low (about 10 marks below normal and only 5 off the point where they yell for the defibulator and 4 pints of O Neg stat!!), giving me all sorts of problems (not least not being able to ride my bike, drive the car, carry anything heavy, stay awake for more than 6 hours at a time....) and generally making me feel like shit. And why didn't the other Dr pick up on it a month ago when he ordered a whole heap of other tests? Quite often I've been talking to freinds who've pointed up a few problems and suggested diagnoses or cures.... and mostly they've been more on the ball than the medical profession in my area... not just one Dr but a whole hospital of them! The emphasis on a lot of illnesses is early detection and early treatment... how can we get this when it takes me 2-3 weeks to get an appointment? Oh, and can anyone tell me - is being cold a symptom of low pressure? I'm usually running round in short sleeves and sandals in January, here it is nearly June and I'm wrapped up like an Artic explorer.... LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Jeri Date: 26 May 02 - 10:52 AM Liz, ultimately blood pressure (as well as body temperature) is controlled by the brain. As far as being cold, normally when folks get cold, the capillaries in their extremities contract to keep most of the blood in the main part of your body where it doesn't circulate close to the cold air. (I believe it's what we call diver's response.) While I don't think it significantly affects blood pressure all over, it's related. Your blood pressure goes up when blood vessels contract or are constricted, it goes down when they dilate. Various diseases and medications can affect this. Note: the above is just my opinion, based on what I think I know. Best to ask your doctor these questions and superglue his arse to a chair until he answers. Doctors see what they're trained to see, and what their experience leads them to see. Funny story: I had head pain. The ENT thought I had a sinus infection, the orthopod thought I had TMJ (the jaw joint) problem, and the dentist thought it was the cracked filling in a maxillary tooth. I had two out of the three (sinus and tooth) but my real problem was migraines. They see what they're used to seeing. It's almost the same as any troubleshooting manual you've ever read on a piece of equipment. Doctors just work with human bodies. They look for the most common, most likely problem. If what they do doesn't fix it, they look for the next least common problem. People still die of plague here, even though it's easily treated in the early stages, because it's uncommon, and doctors don't suspect it early enough. When labeling someone "incompetent," we have to look at the state of medicine, what a good doctor should have done versus what he or she did. On one hand, we accuse doctors of playing God. On the other, we curse them when we find they aren't. In many cases, a doctor may be doing his best - it's just that what his "best" isn't enough. Bert, I think more like "might have killed her." More than you wanted to know about staph infections. And yeah, I think one of those doctors might have stuck a needle in it to see if it contained fluid. Maybe the problem was that she saw three different doctors, who each saw it for the first time. If she'd gone back to the first doctor, he might have noticed how it had grown. I don't know, though. Paging Dr. Mark... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: fat B****rd Date: 26 May 02 - 11:59 AM My team leader limped painfully into work one Winter Sunday Night and told me he'd been to the local hospital with terrible pains at the base of his spine. he was told he'd bruised his coccyx and sent away. I told him it sounded like an abcess (pilonidal sinus0 and that I'd had one years ago. My diagnosis was right and he was operated on the next day. I was operated on for the same f...ing thing earlier this month and am now sitting uncomfortably.Maybe he told the doctors that I said they were wrong and they put the Hoodoo on me. Ironic aint it ? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: kendall Date: 26 May 02 - 08:55 PM There are ways to find out about your doctor; if he has been sued etc. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Midchuck Date: 26 May 02 - 09:20 PM Kendall, knowing whether anyone has been sued is really knowing nothing, unless you know what happened in the suit. Was there a plaintiff's verdict or a defendant's? Did the judge curse the plaintiff's lawyer for a fool and order him to leave his courtroom and never come back? Anyone can "be sued," if all you mean was that a suit was commenced against him/her. And doctors get a lot of unjustified suits filed against them because lawyers know they have malpractice insurance and the public perceives them as rich, so suing them can be lucrative. I concede, of course, that they also get a lot of justified suits filed against them, too. But you got to know which is which. Knowing that one suit was filed against a given doctor doesn't mean much, unless it went to verdict. Of course, if a given doctor had a dozen or so different suits filed against him, anyone would have to at least be suspicious. (disclosure: I'm a lawyer, although I don't do litigation. In British, I'm a solicitor, not a barrister. My little girl is a doctor, so I may be biased.) Peter. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Mickey191 Date: 26 May 02 - 09:48 PM And there are ways to obfuscate their records so that if you look them up on the internet, there is no history. My doctor was the head of surgical oncology at a famous N.Y hospital. After a mamogram, I was referred to him by the hospital. He was just made the head of the dep't. Was diagnosed with cancer (the best kind to have -if you're going to have cancer) & ordered to have a biopsy-which would be followed by a lumpectomy. I explained I didn't have $40,000 for radiation. So 3 biopsies later (one of which he couldn't find the marker at the cancer site or any of the cancer) I'm told I'll need radiation. Where 40thou was to materialize from, I know not. So of course I ended up with a masectomy. Isn't that special? I was not told the truth from the beginning, and the doctor lied about his fee. He told many lies and put me thru the wringer. He was marching to his own drummer, thank God he is no longer at that hospital-but he is still practicing. Come to think of it,why do they use that word? Practicing. Slainte |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Mickey191 Date: 26 May 02 - 09:53 PM How about this: my Mom was in a coma for 2 wks., they decide to operate to see if they can find the cause. I'm in the corner of the room, QUIETLY crying. The surgeon looked over and said,"What are you crying for? The worse that can happen is she'll die. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Whistleworks Date: 26 May 02 - 09:56 PM I have been a medical/legal consultant for almost 13 years now. And could I tell you the stories. Whewwwww. Somebody help me find the words to Relax Your Mind... Thanks, Bob |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Mark Cohen Date: 27 May 02 - 12:22 AM There are some people who are really good at what they do, there are some people who are really bad at what they do, there are a few who are saintly, there are a few who are malicious, and there are the lot in the middle who try to do a good job. That's true of doctors, lawyers, musicians, engineers, plumbers, bartenders, barbers, and everything else, because it's true of people. I think I'm a damn good doctor, and I can give you a long list of mistakes I've made. But I think that's probably also true of my doctor--as well as my lawyer, and my insurance agent, and the carpenter who built my former house. Believe it or not, "the system" as it stands -- at least in the U.S. -- is getting better at identifying the truly incompetent or outlaw doctors, and preventing them from getting hospital privileges or even from practicing. Yes, it misses some. And it also damages the reputations of some good doctors--in part because people have come to think that every time there's a bad medical result it means that some doctor screwed up and should be sued. (Sorry, I'm digressing.) Believe me, I can tell you more horror stories about bad doctors than you'll ever want to know. I can also tell you about colleagues who stayed up for 36 hours trying desperately to save the life of a 3-day-old baby they had never known before and would never see again, just because that's what they do. That's the way it is--at least, the way I see it. Aloha, Mark |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: allie kiwi Date: 27 May 02 - 12:42 AM Thank you, Mark. :) Couldn't have said it better. Allie |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Bert Date: 27 May 02 - 01:02 AM Jeri, you're right, MIGHT would have been a more appropriate word. And you said ...They look for the most common, most likely problem. If what they do doesn't fix it, they look for the next least common problem... I just wish that they did! Those that I'm talking about will just give you their first guess and leave it at that. When I was in customer support we'd keep working on a problem until the customer was satisfied. I think that all Doctors should have to work for a while in customer support and have to debug customers' computer programs over the telephone. It would give a training in problem solving which many seem to lack. Mark, Yes you ARE a good Doctor. If you can acknowledge that you can make mistakes then that makes you one of the best. Where do you live? I wanna move there! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Liz the Squeak Date: 27 May 02 - 01:35 AM I was first guessed by a previous Dr, when I had a chest infection. He said it was a cold/flu and wouldn't give me antibiotics, quite rightly. However, when this cold/flu hit its 3rd month of coughing up green slime, he still refused to do anything other than suggest cold remedies, well even I started getting suspicious. 2 more months and it took a visit to his surgery whilst it was being covered by a locum for a positive move to be made. The locum ordered X-rays, did some cultures and decided that I might have tuberculosis. I was practically packed for the sanitorum (alright, clinic) when he called round with the result of the X-ray and said I had pleurisy. A lot less life threatening, easily treated with a broadbase antibiotic and not infectious. Trouble is, because I'd had it for so long unchecked, it took a while to shift, and left a permanent scar on my left lung. This has left me susceptible to infections, I acquired asthma (unknown in our family previously) and made me a lot less tolerant to a lot of broadbase antibiotics (I was prescribed 5 different varieties over 8 weeks at one point.... it took a while to discover that while I'm not allergic to penicillin, I am allergic to the penicillin substitute...). The Dr was reprimanded for leaving me for so long without a proper investigation, but as he was fighting a neglect case with a heart attack victim who died (he'd said it was wind and prescribed Gaviscon despite previous attacks) it didn't really make an impact. I left shortly after that. Going to a different Drs can sometimes save your life, because sometimes the same Dr just sees your name and (in one case with the above mentioned Dr) has you already diagnosed before you open your mouth. Mine had a prescription written out for me before I'd even sat down. Turned out it was the wrong prescription, but he'd written it out and I got it anyway. I wanted the Pill, he gave me antibiotics as well - without telling me that the two counteract each other!! LTS
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: allie kiwi Date: 27 May 02 - 02:32 AM It seems to me this discussion will go nowhere. Many people will have a story of a terrible doctor who should have done this, but didn't, etc. On the other hand we can tell you of doctors who work long long hours saving the lives of people they have never met before, often for very little pay, or even none (in the case of pulling over at a car accident in a rural area until the ambulance gets there). Just keep your stories coming, but imagine how you would feel if people were attacking your judgements that you made with the best intentions, and attacking your profession, using emotive but not factually correct words to put your case across. Allie |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Ferrara Date: 27 May 02 - 03:29 AM There are doctors who make mistakes with the best intentions, and IMHO there are also doctors who are arrogant SOB's who make mistakes because they think they already know the answers. I do suspect that the number of doctors -- especially specialists -- who are arrogant SOB's is high in comparison with the distribution of arrogant SOB's in the general population. But that's certainly not the whole story. I was mis-diagnosed (we think) with rheumatic heart disease because the shape of my chest cavity gives false results on an EKG. This was an honest mistake on the part of a good, conscientious doctor (our family's long-time GP) who was doing the best job he could with the information available. (Even had me see a diagnostic specialist. They agreed on the diagnosis.) The cardiologist who discovered the mistake was an arrogant SOB who wanted me to pay $125 (in 1980) for an office visit before he would explain the significance of having a prolapsed mitral valve instead of a mitral insufficiency. But my regular doctor called me at 7pm, after working late with a patient overload, and explained it all to me for free. Both were doctors, but very different human beings. In 1994 I was mis-diagnosed as having allergic asthma when I really had cardiac asthma from severe heart failure. My doctor gave me prednisone for asthma and it probably brought my former heart (I have a new one now) to the point of no return. People asked Bill and me why we didn't sue her. We said, "She is a good, thorough, caring, conscientious doctor who made a mistake. We are NOT going to even THINK of suing her." Never regretted it. But the resident who wanted to give me I-V ATGAM after I tested as allergic to it -- hers was an honest mistake too, but I have never quite forgiven her because somehow it seemed so much like deliberate blindness. She brushed off all my objections, including telling me that I could have the IV unless the welt was a certain size, then still trying to get me to take it after I made her measure the welt! I finally told her to get someone into the room who knew what they were doing. As you can see I'm still charged up about that incident. But I think it points up something very important: In the long run, you're more concerned with your own health than anyone else in the world. You have to listen and pay attention. If what they're doing doesn't seem right to you, you have to fight for yourself. Bert, that's what your friend did, and quite rightly. Doctors (and nurses) are human, they will inevitably make some mistakes and unfortunately some of them lack the humility even to consider that they may be mistaken. Pay attention to your instincts if what they say doesn't ring true. Life isn't perfect. You can develop severe problems or lose your life because of a stupid mistake, or even an honest, understandable, possibly inevitable mistake. But it's less likely to happen if you stay well informed and are active about your own care. Rita Who should be asleep right now, actually.... ah well this is a subject to which I have given much thought. Couldn't resist jumping on the soapbox. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: kendall Date: 27 May 02 - 09:21 AM I didn't want to go into a long story about doctors, so, I suggested looking them up yourself. When I was looking for a good E.N.T. I check out a few doctors to see if they were qualified as they claimed to be. If the Maine Medical board never heard of one, he wouldn't get my business. Peter, I saw a lawyer throw his client to the dogs while making it look like he was pleading for mercy from the court. I'll tell you about it at Old Songs. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: GUEST,tequilaron Date: 27 May 02 - 10:54 AM I recently read in a newspaper editorial that more people are killed annually by doctor error than are killed by handguns. Hmmm, wonder if that is true? An interesting idea none the less. Ron. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Midchuck Date: 27 May 02 - 10:58 AM ...and the number killed annually by cars dwarfs both of them together, I'm sure...and everyone seems to take that for granted, as being a necessary risk. Peter. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Jeri Date: 27 May 02 - 11:59 AM I worked in public health and my job mainly involved talking to patients. While there were certain touchy subjects we were supposed to cover ("So who did you sleep with?"), patients often found a willing ear and an opportunity to unload. There are doctors who are unsure, and research things. They listen to patients. There are others who know everything and don't really need to hear what a patient has to say. Those are the dangerous ones.
There are two main versions of what can go wrong when something isn't right/doesn't work the first time: Big egos aren't a problem. A doctor who's supremely confident can still listen to patients and have an open mind. A closed mind, with or without a big ego, is what leads to incompetence. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: dick greenhaus Date: 27 May 02 - 12:08 PM Q. What do you call the person who was at the bottom of his class in Med School? A. Doctor. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: captain wheels Date: 27 May 02 - 12:37 PM I am not a doctor but work in health care and see around 30 people each day.I have good days andbad days like everyone, most of my bad days are caused by patients with trivialities eg if I lean on my elbow for half an hour it gets sore, if I have a lie in my back starts to feel a bit stiff. I dish out advice on Home ex, posture, weight loss and nobody takes a blind bit of notice. people fail to attend because they have hair appointments, football matches the list is endless. So when real problems occur it is sometimes easy to miss them. howevever thats no excuse and I would advise people with seriuos concerns to make a list of questions to ask and not to leave untill they are all answered |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Mr Red Date: 27 May 02 - 07:03 PM Trust me I'm a dog terd! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Mr Red Date: 27 May 02 - 07:04 PM Oh don't get me started on Doctor winges, only got one but well you see it was like this........ |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: DonD Date: 27 May 02 - 08:09 PM My friend Larry died today -- or yesterday; I haven't gotten the details yet -- and when a mutual friend called to say, "Did you hear?" his immediate followup was that they must have done something wrong at the hospital. Larry had recently been diagnosed with lung cancer and was on a course of chemo; in fact, he'd spent last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday as an in-patient being dosed. I spoke with him Wednesday and he seemed fine under the circumstances -- happy that the latest reports had the tumor shrinking with all indications positive. I don't know what happened, but I'm not ready to automatically blame the medical staff, even though I am generally skeptical about doctors and their close-mindedness. But I'll miss him, and can't help but wonder if it would have made any difference if he had not undergone the discomfort and dustress and hair loss. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Art Thieme Date: 27 May 02 - 08:17 PM I have posted my own medical problems with misdiagnosed symptoms here way too often. I've also given this a good bit of thought. My ruminated upon analysis is as follows: Too often we all look too hard for someone to blame. I feel that my doctors were all pretty fine specialists. Even with a humongous amount of education, the brightest and best of the lot are only still/just PRACTICING. Sometimes, after taking their best educated guesses, they are correct in what they've concluded. Other times they get it wrong. If I've sounded frustrated here at Mudcat, it's because it took ten years of surgeries on possibly/probably the wrong things before I got myself to the Mayo Clinic and got thoroughly gone over and diagnosed right. After any of my surgeries I could've taken things in my own hands and gone for the gold----but I didn't !! I opted to go back to the same damn guys (real neuro-hotshots all) because I took it on faith (something I rarely do) that they had all the expertise and all the answers. So----should I, like the woman who scalded herself with McDonald's coffee, blame McDonald's and sue? Hell, no, that's just not where I'm coming from. It just ain't me. It was fate or God or the luck of the draw---whatever! Still, it might've been the doctor's FAULT. But I doubt that. And in spite of some huge multi-million dollar settlement that a jury of my peers might award me, I could never live with myself if that was my road to riches. We pays our money---and we takes our chances. Art Thieme |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Liz the Squeak Date: 28 May 02 - 01:49 AM Aye, there's the rub. You get multi million dollar settlements in the States, here in the UK you are lucky if you get an apology or even an admission! That's one of the reasons that a)Americans are so happy to sue - there's a more than reasonable chance they'll settle just to shut you up, and b)Brits whinge so much about their Doctors, they know there is no point in bringing a case because any settlement is likely to be pitiful, if it even gets to court. There is a great deal of tunnel vision in the profession - which is why I prefer team practices, for the reasons given in my last posting. One Dr may miss it, 2 get together and discuss cases and the other may pick up on something - that's happened to me too. My previous Dr couldn't sort out a specific problem, but his new partner, when hearing of my details, suggested a particular test and lo and behold, he was right and I got saved a whole heap of invasive surgery. There are fantastic Drs out there who have time to listen to each patient and read the notes as well. There are others who don't. Every profession has good people and bad people, but in the majority of professions, you don't end up damaging or killing someone if you make a mistake. That's the major difference. If you truly believe your doctor is incompetent, then report them to the medical board responsible for their licence, they will test them and see. If you're just having a whinge because s/he missed your personal case or didn't give you what you thought was enough time to talk about yourself, then go find a counsellor. LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: GUEST Date: 28 May 02 - 11:38 PM When will we be rid of protected trades?
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Liz the Squeak Date: 29 May 02 - 01:04 AM No Guest. When we eliminate all Unions we eliminate all workers rights and welfare. Sometimes it's only Uninon intervention that supports a worker. If we have no Union, then we will have working conditions that echo those of the 18/19th Century that started the Unions in the first place. Go back and read some of the Tolpuddle Man/Tolpuddle Martyrs threads. Sometimes the Union is all that stands between you and a malicious suit. If all our doctors were tied up in court defending suits, who would medicine us? You cannot have one without the other. Unions are there to advise, protect and defend as well as support and prosecute. I whinge about my doctors. Mainly because I know that I've been treated (in my opinion) badly. But that doesn't have any meaning when you weigh it against those whose lives have been improved or saved by the same doctors. Without a Union, my doctor could be working 23 hours a day, and on call the other one, he could be working 4 hours a day and charging me £100 a 10 min consultation. Neither one will help me, the patient. Go back and read up on some social history. There is always a need for Unions. LTS - Union member and bloody proud of it! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: kendall Date: 29 May 02 - 08:10 AM Speaking as a history major, I'm unable to picture a life without unions. There were rich and there were poor. As Jefferson said about the french just before their revolution, "There are hammers, and there are anvils." No in between. Guest, I don't know what you do for work, but, if you work for wages, as most of us do, you enjoy weekends. They are a direct result of the unions. Unions created the middle class. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Art Thieme Date: 31 May 02 - 09:55 PM Liz, well said. Unions have done ao very much for those who have little. They allow a group to do some things that one person could never achieve alone. Unions allow powerless people to gain some forms of foothold---leverage against generally very rich people who have tremendous power. (doctors?---maybe!) As I've said, my favorite definition of power is: the extent to which you can inconvenience others. Lawsuits, like unions, can help the powerless too. But huge unions with huge power can be just as corrupt as can an unscrupulous litigant and their attorney going after a huge settlement because they thought their coffee was too hot. I'm glad that there are unions. I'm glad I can either join or not join those. And I'm glad that, if I wanted to, I could go after a doctor that cut off the wrong leg or removed an eye when I was there for a circucision (or whatever). Also, I had no idea that really wronged people in Great Britain had such little hope of having their just grievances looked to in a court of law. Is that only true for the little guy----or is it possible for the rich to more easily sue a bad health pro??? I'm personally appalled viewing the excesses of the U.S. litigation system. But I'm glad it's in place and entrenched so we can use it when that is a validly moral way to go. I wasn't wronged, I don't believe, by my medical pros. I was just unlucky when I put my trust in a certain few. As Robert Frost said in his poem, ----"and that has made all the difference" Art Thieme |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Liz the Squeak Date: 01 Jun 02 - 02:43 AM Well here's something to add to this little diatribe on doctors... I fainted again at work this week and was carried off to hospital, where they diagnosed a heart problem that I've apparently always had, but no-one has ever noticed before.... and this wasn't the first time I've had an ECG or other heart monitoring. So I guess I'll be cynical and sceptical a little longer if you don't mind. LTS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: GUEST,MAG at work Date: 01 Jun 02 - 01:04 PM Er, I don't usually disagree with you, Art, but that woman was scalded by superheated coffee from a malfunctioning coffee pot, suffering third degree burns in her crotch, requiring skin grafts. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: GUEST Date: 02 Jun 02 - 03:08 AM United Garmet Workers Song - Look For the Union Label - should also apply to doctors - looks for their public records on the net |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: fat B****rd Date: 02 Jun 02 - 05:26 AM My arse !! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Art Thieme Date: 02 Jun 02 - 01:02 PM As I've said, when Raegan busted the Air Taffic Controller's Union's strike during his era, he set the ball rolling to gut unions in the U.S. to the extent that (partially because of globalization--and sending jobs to undeveloped lands) those are less and less effective now. Even the holy Eight Hour Day has been tossed aside. People are now FORCED to overwork 12 and 16 hour days or lose their jobs. Time is increasingly impossible to find for private and family needs. Republicans (mainly) have tried to convince people who should know better that organizing a special interest group of any kind, union or otherwise, is, somehow, un-American. This is really bull shit. For once the B.S. prefix is appropriate. Art Thieme |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Mudlark Date: 03 Jun 02 - 02:54 AM Liz...I share your scepticism. There are competent, caring docs out there but they are hard to find, and the search, for someone like me with no insurance, is more costly than I can afford. Part of the problem is that doctors are not accountable in the same way as other service professions. Absolutely no guarantees, not warranties, no discount on the bill if they misdiagnose, or don't bother to check bad drug interactions. For the most part my experience has been little or no help for a hell of a lot of money.
Hope the recently diagnosed heart problem is fixable. One thing that came to mind when you spoke of low BP and being cold...have you had your thyroid checked? Good luck! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Liz the Squeak Date: 03 Jun 02 - 06:12 PM Thyroid and all other blood tests came back normal or negative, but thanks for thinking of it. The heart problem is being exacerbated (I love that word) by stress from work. The low BP seems to fluctuate, as it bounced up to 131/96 last Thurs, an hour after it had been 101/79. It's not treatable until it gets so bad that I need a pacemaker, or I strain my heart beyond repair. Same old, same old, excercise and diet. LTS - feeling a lot better today, thanks.
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Bert Date: 04 Jun 02 - 12:19 AM Hey Squeaks, your stress is caused from using long words. When I was in London, is you used a word of more than three syllables someone would be sure to make a crack, something along the lines of... "We had one of them and crossed it with a Flemish Giant" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Incompetent Doctors. From: Liz the Squeak Date: 04 Jun 02 - 01:01 AM Our comment used to be 'we had one of those but the wheel fell off'. I like to use words of more than 2 syllables (innit does have 2 doesn't it?) to remind myself I'm not a Londoner and I never will be. Besides my manager hates it that I'm ejicated, he likes to surround himself with toadying 'yes' "men" who can't think for themselves and who need him to explain things to them. LTS |