Why Patients Treat Themselves

[Guest guest]

Mark,

 

I don't know what kind of medical care you have, but

many of us don't have any or have given up on doctors

due to the poor care we have received over the years.

If you think doctors do some kind of serious analysis

for most of their patients, I think you must be

dreaming.

Last time I went to doctor, I had a skin rash from

ankle to neck which itched like chicken pox. It would

flare up at night especially and almost looked like

bug bites. I was told I would have to wait a month to

be seen. When I finally got into the office, he

insisted it was a soap allergy even though I explained

that I had already ruled that out and I had wanted to

have him take a look. He didn’t even take a look. I

was dismissed with a prescription for a little tube of

hydrocortisone creme. I could have figured that much

out on my own!

He also gave me a referral to a specialist, which I

found out would be another wait of at least a month

and a half.

What is funny, about a month later, a family member

discovered tiny, tiny little bugs crawling in the

static on the computer screen. I don’t know if that

was the source of my rash, but I took a cloth with

some rubbing alcohol and water on it and wiped all of

the surfaces in my home. Eventually the problem slowly

cleared up with time.

The bill, which was paid for by my insurance, came to

$200 for this worthless visit.

Looking back over the course of the past 20 years, I

now see that almost every visit to the doctor was this

worthless.

I hope my comments can save others their time and

money.

When doctors get paid regardless of the quality of the

job they do, they have little incentive to strive to

do their best. Then, of course, they are

" gatekeepers " , which means they can arbitrarily decide

who gets the expensive tests and drugs (they even

sometimes get to split the money they save by not

prescribing antibiotics, for example), and then we

have the almost cult-like views on medicine, and they

have different levels of care depending on your

insurance plan, and I could go on and on...the

problems are too numerous to mention. For the example

of a skin rash, often hydrocortisone is prescribed as

the first method of treatment with little or no

thought given to the “minor” problem.

 

It's obvious you are part of the system, and I find

your fear mongering distasteful:

 

 

" Oh, don't think for yourself. Let a real doctor

analyze this. Only your doctor has the vast knowledge

to understand these complex issues. "

The truth is, a doctor would never take the time to

get to the root of these complex problems, and that is

why we are all doing it for ourselves.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mail - Easier than ever with enhanced search. Learn more.

http://info.mail./mail_250