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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I used to go annually, do all the checkups, jump through all the hoops, but several years of terrible care and blatantly incompetent clinicians (e.g. diagnosed me with "tonsillitis" in the tonsils I had removed when I was 8), and I just can't trust them anymore. I've also been abused by doctors who had a poor sense of boundaries, including being stalked by a doctor. I now get horribly nervous even thinking about going to the doctor, and my general health is suffering.

How am I supposed to get over this? I still have a body, and it's still going to need care![/quote]

Consider that "doctors" are not a homogenous group in which everyone thinks the same way and makes the same choices. It sounds like you need a solo practitioner who will sit down and talk with you - about your medical problems but also your medical anxiety. [/quote]

Well, they all think they know your body better than you do (after a 10 min convo) and can never admit when they eff up.[/quote]

Yes, sometimes doctors make mistakes. Sometimes it's out of actual incompetence, sometimes it is due to lack of time, and sometimes it is simply the fact that you've got to play the odds on diagnoses rather than jumping to order every test under the sun.

But the patients that try to play the "I know my body" card are worse than all of them. No you don't. [/quote]
You are what is wrong with healthcare, doc.  Most often, though not always, it is paternalistic, know-it-all, white male physicians who gaslight and dismiss you as crazy.

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/09/01/medical-gaslighting-warning-signs-and-how-to-advocate-for-yourself.html
https://www.vox.com/even-better/23880457/advocate-for-yourself-doctors-office-health

Literally both of these articles say "You know your body" so it is up to you to advocate for yourself.

[/quote]

And surprise, surprise, they're both written by women.

No, you don't know what's going on in your body. You might know how you feel, but even that is suspect in a lot of cases.[/quote]

One of my oldest friends went to the health service at our T10 university in the late 1990s with abdominal weight gain x 4 months and pants that no longer fit. She could feel a mass in her abdomen and was concerned about it.

She had not had sex in the relevant interval and had a negative pregnancy test. Nevertheless, the providers there spent nearly an hour trying to convince her that she had a cryptic pregnancy--even placing a stethoscope on "the baby" so she could hear "the heartbeat." When she pointed out that "the heartbeat" was the heartbeat of an adult and not a fetus, someone finally paused.

She had an ovarian cyst the size of a basketball. There was an early-stage ovarian cancer inside it. Miraculously, her willingness to negotiate their nonsense and politely continue to insist that she did, in fact, know what was going on with her body--at least enough to be sure that it was not a pregnancy--resulted in her living.

Off the high horse, doc. A lot of y'all don't know what the hell you're doing. [/quote]

I'm the PP who went to the ER with ab pain only to have the attending tell me to go home and take antacids when I had a ruptured appendix. I had to point to where my pain was and say "Antacids won't help pain coming from this spot? Right? What is here?" and he said "Your appendix." I said "Well, what do we do about a problem with the appendix?" and he said "Get a scan. But that takes 3 hours." I said "I'll wait." Of course it didn't take 3 hours, and shortly after the scan he came by my bed and said, with a huge amount of contempt, "I guess you were right," and turned around and walked out. The surgeon, who came down to get me right away to take the appendix out, told me she wasn't surprised at his behavior at all. Then why is he still practicing? I could have gone home, taken some *^$#! Tums, and died.

So yes, I certainly knew my body better than he did. But that is pathetic, any doctor in an ER should know that lrq pain could be appendicitis. Any med student would know that. It's just contempt, burnout, and the general lack of belief with regard to women's pain. [/quote]

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