Do doctors take your illnesses seriously?
whirlingmind
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Joined: 25 Oct 2007
Age: 58
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,130
Location: 3rd rock from the sun
I really hate GPs. They are not called general practitioners for nothing, jack of all trades and master of none. Mind you, the so-called specialists are no better.
I've had poor experiences. I went for a mammogram once and was told that because the lumpy area had pain that there was no way it could be cancer. This was by the specialist. I later found out that for women with inflammatory breast cancer, pain or tenderness often is one of the first symptoms, and also even non-inflammatory breast cancer can cause pain if the lump is pressing on other things. It turned out luckily I was OK, but that's not the point, they gave me false information and it could have been cancer.
I also went to the doctor once for pain in my lower abdomen, I just knew something was wrong, and I had symptoms from it, including nausea. I had to really push for it to be investigated. When I saw the consultants, they demanded airily to know why I thought there was something wrong, and what symptoms I had. I could see they didn't believe me. When I had the scan, the radiologist told me matter-of-factly that there was a growth the size of a golf ball exactly where I had the feelings. Until I was operated on, it wasn't known whether it was benign or malignant. Again, luckily it was benign, but it might not have been.
Another time, I went to the GP for more lower abdomen pains. He dismissed me with "oh, women get all sorts of things" and didn't take it any further. He was clearly gay, and I got the feeling that he had contempt for women from his manner (not saying all gay men are like this, just that this is what he displayed). When my husband when to him for something minor, he proactively noticed my husband's very dry, scaly hands from his job and took hold of them and said "ooh, your hands are sore aren't they." In the end, my symptoms did not subside and I had to go and pay privately for a scan, during which they found I had a cyst which had burst and bled internally. I went back to the surgery and saw a different GP and complained about him verbally. Whether others had made complaints or not I don't know but he didn't work there for long after that.
My GP once put the fear of God into me - going too far the other way, I went to him because my food wouldn't go down properly when I was eating. A while later we were out and my mobile phone rang, he was ringing to say he'd reviewed my symptoms with colleagues and was sending me for urgent investigation because food getting stuck is a warning sign of cancer! It turned out to be gastric-reflux but he had worried me insanely for nothing. I'm pleased he wanted to get it investigated proactively but he shouldn't have scared me by saying that, I didn't need to know it!
I recently went to A&E because I'd had pain in my chest for about a month which I suspected to be gastric related, but then it had got worse and I was feeling dizzy and getting a lot of chest pressure, breathlessness and increased pain. When I went to A&E, they kept questioning me like I was mad, as to why I'd gone there. Hello! Chest pains should always be investigated surely (especially with suddenly worsening symptoms)!
Oh I could go on about the failures of the medical profession, there have been similar instances with my children. I know they have a hard job, but when people's lives are in their hands (as well as their wellbeing) they should be more careful and take people more seriously.
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*Truth fears no trial*
DX AS & both daughters on the autistic spectrum

Probably but not for that but for some things you sometimes do.
If you are the type that doesn't show pain much or have a high pain tolerance a doctor could overlook something thinking that if you had that you would be in a lot more pain and that what you have is less serious.
btbnnyr
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Joined: 18 May 2011
Gender: Female
Posts: 7,359
Location: Lost Angleles Carmen Santiago
I have noticed that other people talk a lot about their physical discomforts, like they have a small discomfort somewhere and blow it up into something big, and that gets them attention from others, and this attention somehow makes them feel bester, even if it doesn't ackshuly get rid of specific discomfort. But I rarely eggspress my discomforts, and attention doesn't make me feel bester, so on the emotional eggspression attention seeking scale, I am probably low, so maybe doctors would think that my problems are not a big deal due to muted display.
It has been observed that children who stub their toe, or fall over, etc., when in the presence of a parent, will start crying and making a fuss, while if they have the same inconvenience but think that no one is looking, they'll just continue on their merry way and ignore the pain if it's not that dire. This doesn't go for every kid, though!
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clarity of thought before rashness of action
I'll +1 the not exaggerating part. If I'm not on the ground crying from pain, I don't consider things to hurt. I've dislocated bones in front of people and put them back in like it's no big deal. (Which... for me it isn't because I do that almost daily.) Other people sure over react to it though.
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Severe Tourette's With OCD Features.
Reconsidering ASD, I might just be NVLD.
musicforanna
Veteran

Joined: 30 Jun 2006
Age: 41
Gender: Female
Posts: 798
Location: Kansas City, Missouri
Not always.
I don't show much pain, sometimes I neither feel pain, but because of that doctors seem to worry so much and make such a big deal of what I have.
Like, some time ago, when I was 8, I got my leg badly injured in a car accident (even now, I have troubles with that leg). I didn't feel much pain, after a few hours I felt no pain at all, but when my father brought me to the doctor she made such a big deal about it that I almost started laughing. I remember I had to pass a whole week at home because the doctor told me to do so (not a problem for me, since I don't like going to school).
Doctors always tend to make such a big deal of what I have.
ColdEyesWarmHeart
Velociraptor

Joined: 28 Oct 2012
Age: 44
Gender: Female
Posts: 477
Location: 51° North
I have a brilliant GP now but have struggled with doctors in the past. I have Type 1 diabetes so every illness & ailment is blamed upon that. Even though I've lived with the D for over 25 years and know what is and isn't a symptom of it. And if I believe something is D-related I'll call my specialist diabetes nurse rather than the GP.
Don't even get me started on docs who don't know the difference between Types 1 & 2
I don't know exactly what it is, but it's not just the body language, also how you talk, about what you are talking about and so on.
I noticed:
- When I tell docs things about my health very exactly, than I behave like a hyperchondriac/paranoid.
- When I don't do that, I act like a person who is dessinterested.
In between there is nearly nothing.

It also doesn't really help most of the time to tell them that you are on the autistic spectrum, because then you are just a "crazy" person.

^ This
Personally, I am a medical mystery so that adds to the problem. My problems are beyond the knowledge of medical science. There's just no way *that* many Dr's are "out of there area of expertise". Every time I mention something that they can't find an (easy) answer for, I get listened to less and less.
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"Be kind to one another" -Ellen Degeneres
Ironically, the two things that my doctors and shrinks take seriously are Aspergers and OCD. ADHD and Tourettes they just say, "It's not Tourettes if you just started doing it now." I had some of my tics as a kid and a teenager and a few of them were pretty bad.
When I refer to ADHD, they say "Oh; you're probably just lazy." when I can barely focus on something I don't care about. Medical imaging is fun (when you look for cancer, you get to play with a MRI machine with a fun joystick remote.) but it's just quite depressing because it's cancer and I don't want to deal with it.
No, they don't take me seriously. They think I'm crazy.
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"Art is a lie; the lie tells the truth."
Picasso
ColdEyesWarmHeart
Velociraptor

Joined: 28 Oct 2012
Age: 44
Gender: Female
Posts: 477
Location: 51° North
Plus doctors tend to (in my experience) diagnose depression and prescribe pills for it, as counselling/therapy costs so much more. I've been treated for depression for years before this doctor has taken me seriously that something else is wrong which is probably the underlying cause of the depression, he thinks ASD and has referred me to a psych as well as giving me antidepressants, but he is also seeing me for follow-up appointments every month or so. Rather than the usual "here's a prescription, off you go" kind of attitude.
Like I said, this doc is excellent.
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"She could pass for normal in dim light, but just wait till she opens her mouth"

My shrink I have now is also good, I like him and he takes me serious I guess.
But I had so many shrinks before and they are just crap. I just know 2 good shrinks, so in my experience 10-20% of the shrinks are good, the rest if you have a bit more complex problem is not.
Pretty much same experience with GP, but not that bad.
I once had a GP who treated me for months because of depression and in the end I found out my symptoms are because of thyroid issues.

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"I'm astounded by people who want to 'know' the universe when it's hard enough to find your way around Chinatown." - Woody Allen
Oh god I've had so many bad experiences. I've gone to more doctors than I can count since I was a little kid for various problems, one of which remains totally unsolved and the specialists in the area are a joke to me.
It's so frustrating, I want my medical degree already. With a quick SMART google search I usually know more than they do, it's ridiculous. What the hell do they do in med school? Sleep. I swear. It makes me so mad. Specialists can't solve anything. They might specialize in such and such but all they really do is memorize drugs to try. Than regular doctors know absolutely nothing except how to listen for a heart beat. "Oh you have autism/aspergers?" conversation continues, I'm shaking my leg "Are you nervous?" "No." "Than why are you shaking your leg." REALLY Really?! And then their are the "THIS will work for sure." doctors. The ones that insist a certain medication will work, and if it doesn't the dose must be upped. Psychiatrist are most at fault for this. And I'm not even going to mention doctor's who believe in homeopathy.
And the ER takes forever. They should have a medium ER that just hands you a booklet on how to fix things yourself. I fractured my finger once as I kid and I went to the emergency room. FOUR hours later (when the pain had finally subsided) but some guy got a stick, stuck it under my finger, and wrapped bandages around it and sent me on my way. The bandages hurt like hell. They were too tight. The stick was not needed. I redid the bandages at home. Next time I broke/sprained something I just looked up how to tell if it was a broken bone or not, if I needed X-Rays to tell, than I wrapped it up myself and everything was fine.
I feel like I'm creating the TV Tropes of Doctors.
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