did you guys read this? i actually threw up when i did. i can't believe that we not only have to be sick, but we have to deal with people like this, too. sue.
Don't concern yourself with people who are ignorant of an issue, yet opinionated. It truely doesn't do any good to. He probably read what he was quoting, in a book or something. And he obviously hasn't been around the patients enough to know what happens.
Again, it's better to not concern yourself with these things, we're all human, and we all complain/vent about things. That doctor is no different. You'll see someone complaining about doing their job, in every profession. And this applies to all aspects of life.
I just know that I'm going to get better, get my Ph.D., teach college, go back surfing, and move on, regardless of what this doctor says. I just wish sooner, than later.
Posted by TerryK (Member # 8552) on :
Be sure to read further down. Some very good responses from people including what looks like several doctors.
Terry
Posted by Skyler (Member # 11549) on :
That is just sick.
It is people like him who kept me from getting a diagnosis for 12 years.
As a patient you have to be afraid of looking too sick or the doctors just think you are a nut.
I was verbaly attacked by a doctor at my university when I asked her if i could get tested for lyme, showed her I had 50 of 75 symptoms.
turns out I DO have lyme, and 3 other co infections... thank god I do not have faith in medicine or I would have just taken her yelling word that I was just insane and not actually sick.
dumb ducks is all I have to say.
[ 16. June 2007, 04:23 PM: Message edited by: Skyler ]
Posted by David95928 (Member # 3521) on :
Hey folks. Go back and check my comment.
Posted by Skyler (Member # 11549) on :
Great Job David! Well worded!
Posted by RoadRunner (Member # 380) on :
nice writing david you nailed it
RR
Posted by TerryK (Member # 8552) on :
Very powerful and moving story David.
Terry
Posted by 5dana8 (Member # 7935) on :
Read the while link. Who wrote the last article? It was fantastic. WOW! And the other response where awesome too.
Shl thanks for posting Dana
[ 16. June 2007, 01:20 AM: Message edited by: 5dana8 ]
Posted by bettyg (Member # 6147) on :
i give dr. d credit; he could have ignored this aggressive/assertive poster ... but he kept the dialogue open and other mds/interns joined in the discussion.
noticed lymenet was brought in there too... Posted by Michelle M (Member # 7200) on :
Alright, this aggravated me into a response also. Good find.
Sad that this is the mindset of most doctors -- it's just shocking to see them admit it.
Michelle
Posted by Greatcod (Member # 7002) on :
It isn't shocking --its the norm. There are many many disputes at the fringes of medicine. A typical family doctor cannot keep track of the pros and cons of all the arguements over all the conditions, so instead they settle on the current norm for treating a disease--the so called Standard of Care--and they do that for the vast number of medical problems they treat. So with Lyme, this guy is going with the mainstream position as articulated by the IDSA. He isn't a fool, or a fraud, or negligent. Thats just the way medicine is practiced. For him to do otherwise is to take serious legal risks.
Posted by Michelle M (Member # 7200) on :
quote:Originally posted by Greatcod: It isn't shocking --its the norm. There are many many disputes at the fringes of medicine. A typical family doctor cannot keep track of the pros and cons of all the arguements over all the conditions, so instead they settle on the current norm for treating a disease--the so called Standard of Care--and they do that for the vast number of medical problems they treat. So with Lyme, this guy is going with the mainstream position as articulated by the IDSA. He isn't a fool, or a fraud, or negligent. Thats just the way medicine is practiced. For him to do otherwise is to take serious legal risks.
I disagree.
Considering lyme is at epidemic proportions, I think doctors have a responsibility to their patients to get educated. This is not some obscure disease that rarely comes up.
No doctor living can claim to unaware of the controversy.
When doctors cannot identify or intelligently discuss the symptoms of the most common vector-borne disease in America, then it is time they get with the program.
I do not consider a blanket reliance on rigid and controversial Guidelines to be an excuse for ignorance and aversion to learning.
Michelle
Posted by Greatcod (Member # 7002) on :
Depends what you mean by "epidemic proportions." No question that the number of new Lyme infections increases every year, and that the presenting symptoms have been distorted for 30 years. That's one thing. The other is the question of a Chronic Lyme epidemic. Its ruined my life, so I obviously believe that's what's taking place. But the mainstream position is that such a thing is not happening, that even long term untreated cases of Lyme are resolved by a month's ABX. Worse than this family doctor dude and his peers, the members of the IDSA, some 8000 ID specialists, including the ID heads of virtually every hospital in the country, are expected to treat by the IDSA guidelines, and to enforce that standard in their hospital. In my local hospital, for instance, a person on IV ABX, getting the meds outpatient at the hospital, was prevented by the head ID guy from continuing the treatment. Very very serious business.
Posted by ilonar2820 (Member # 1361) on :
Michelle: My mother was the first woman thyroid and thoracic surgeon in the US and by the time she reached old age she had become completely disillusioned with the practice of medicine in this country... factory medicine, she called it. My grandfather also was renowned as a brilliant diagnostician, and reading through his patient notes was instructive... he marked down what his patients ate. That's what they did in those days, in addition to publishing research and editing medical journals. They were scientists as well as physicians, which conferred a state of mind that always questioned, and never accepted, prevailing dogma. They both lived into their 90's, by the way.
I can safely say that they would concur with you that a doctor's priority should be the well-being of his or her patients, and not the code of accepted standards of practice, especially when those standards are set by insurers or Big Pharma, or by the satrap doctors they hire to do their bidding.
It's true, doctors have become glorified auto mechanics, following a manual dictated by economic interests. We need to object, and to do so loudly and whenever possible.
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