"Arfa Daily" wrote in message
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"John Rumm" wrote in message
o.uk...
On 18/02/2013 12:38, DrTeeth wrote:

Strange thing is that they knew about resistance 50 years ago, but
didn't ensure that it was generally understood by patients.

Patients do not need to understand it, they just need to do what they
are told by those that do.

Its that sort of attitude that contributes to the problem. Instructions
to blindly "do as I say" are rarely the best way to engender co-operation
from a good selection of people.

I think that there are good and bad doctors, the same as there are in any
trade, and people make the mistake of thinking that doctors, dentists,
surgeons, airline pilots and so on are gods, not to be challenged. For the
most part, my doctor seems pretty fair at her job, but I certainly don't
just follow everything she says or tells me to do, blindly.

I've caught 3 of the GPs I have used with less than ideal performance.

Its 3 because the main GP I use can be very hard to get a
quick appointment with for something that has turned up.

With my main GP he always gets worried about not being
able to find a decent pulse in my ankles, and when I mentioned
that to the cardiologist who I haven't caught out on anything at
all, the cardiologist said that that's just because my arterys are
well under the surface at my ankles and that the pulse on the
top of the feet are fine. That GP still gets worried about the
ankle pulses even tho I have told him twice now what the
cardiologist has said. Bit of a worry.

He also decided that I likely had gout. When I asked him
why it was gout and not just arthritis, he just said that yes,
it could be arthritis.

One of the other ones decided that I had pancreatitis which
is a quite a serious problem when I fronted with back pain
that was bad enough that I needed a quick prescription for
panadol forte. She was certain that it was pancreatitis even
when the very specific blood test for pancreatitis was negative.
Turned out to just be gallstones which are so common that
a hell of a lot of people are found to have then on post mortem.

I have had run-ins with her on several occasions where I have not agreed
with her proposed action, or I have wanted to know more about what my
condition was exactly, and the full raft of treatments available, not just
the cheapest.

I have previously just ignored the prescription for one of the anti
inflamatorys
that later turned out to have some very real downsides once it got very
widely
used, Voltaren.

I have a friend that started to be treated for high blood pressure a few
years back, and he has just followed whatever he's been told and taken
whatever was prescribed, even though he was getting side effects from the
medication, and worse, knew that he was. I went through the same thing at
about the same time, but I took the trouble to check what the potential
side effects of each medication that they tried were, and I monitored
myself carefully to see if I was suffering any of them. All of the
'standard-try-this-first' medications caused me problems with tiredness,
odd feelings of 'detachment', irritability, loss of taste and so on, but I
persisted in going back each time, discussing the problem, and being moved
on to the next one. I probably went through about 8 different medications
before we found one that suited me, and I have been fine with that ever
since. My friend, on the other hand, is now a gibbering wreck. He has
completely lost his sense of taste, and shakes all the time. They have
checked for all the stuff like Parkinsons, but he comes back clear. I am
totally convinced that his general degeneration, is as a direct result of
the medication that he takes for his blood pressure ...

I've been lucky that I have had no side effects at all with mine.

The only effect I get like that is that with the metroprolol, when
stop taking it half a day before a stress test, I find the pulse rate
is noticeably higher with even something as minor as a shower.

I've always had a higher than normal pulse rate and that was
always commented on even when I was a child. I do have to
wonder if the slightly higher than normal blood pressure is
just a result of that and if it makes sense to reduce it chemically.
The metroprolol does work very well tho, gets the blood
pressure to what keeps the doctors happy so I just continue
with it, basically because I have no way of knowing what it
the blood pressure used to be in say my 20s etc.