wrote in message
...
On Mon, 29 Mar 2010 19:35:10 -0700, Larry Jaques

wrote:

On Mon, 29 Mar 2010 13:10:08 -0400, the infamous "Mike Marlow"
scrawled the following:

Larry Jaques wrote:


You sound as if you trust doctors to do the right thing and that they
actually care. I haven't found that in a doctor yet.

I have. I have found that in my family physician, and he knows we care,
so
we get concerned treatment from him. I'm sure he treats people that
don't
exhibit the same amount of care of concern for their own treatment, and
they
probably receive less attemtion from him than we do. Likewise from
specialists, etc. Part of our initial conversations include the
disclosure
(direct or indirect), that we think about things, and don't just
robotically
do as we are told.

Thankfully, I've never even -met- a specialist. I'm only 56, though.

I'm only a year older. ;-) I've seen two specialists, one a cardiologist
and
the other some sort of sleep bimbo. The cardiologist was a really nice
and
caring guy. I actually like him (I don't like doctors). The sleep bimbo
was
out to make a buck with whatever quackery she could invent. Needless to
say,
I wasn't impressed.

I'll say this much - it is my experience that doctors of all sorts
genuinely
appreciate patients who demonstrate enough concern for themselves, to
spend
a little time making themselves more aware of treatments, options,
ramifications, etc.

Oh, I've always done that, too. And I find doctors intelligent, just
not really caring or sharing. Most seem quite hurried (their office
manglers overbook them on purpose, I think) distracted, and unhappy.

Almost all of the GPs I've seen have been quite good, too. A few have
obviously been too busy, though.

I do not consistently encounter physicians who won't
invest in me once they realize I have invested in myself.

I hate to go see doctors, so I've always tried to have as much
knowledge about the subject at hand as they do, if not more (more
common.) I seldom have any disease of interest to them. House would
just _hate_ me.

I did have to tell one doctor that I wasn't taking one (blood pressure)
prescription anymore. It was attacking my joints. She didn't know it was
a
common side effect, but did research it after and agreed. Didn't find
anything to replace it with though.

They are
perfectly willing to hold informative conversations with me in the
examining
room, etc. I suspect that anyone who does not experience this is either
getting what they deserve, or needs to invest the time to find a new
physician.

Most react to my attention to detail and awareness of what's going on
in my body with pleasant surprise and a grin. (I know that probably
sounds awfully arrogant, but that's not the tone of the interaction,
honest.) "I was going to pry that info out of you but you told me
without prompting. Wonderful." But I don't get the long and
informative conversations you talk of, Mike.

I see doctors every 3-10 years, and then only if I -have- to.

At your age, you're very lucky. I hadn't seen a doctor in thirty years.
Now
I'm not so lucky. The problem is that I can't find a doctor. None in the
area are taking new patients.

KRW,

How far are you from Birmingham? I know an excellent family doctor,
I've been driving 60 miles to his clinic for a couple of years great guy,
good doctor and most testing is in house.

basilisk