Wait...IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO DO THAT.

[Tigerman]

TSandM
Of course its not the majority of the doctors that "blow you off" if THEY cant find a reason, but unfortunately there are some that put themselves so high above everyone and everything else and give doctors a "bad rep". After all, we only go to them when we have something worrying us (and us men preferrebly not then either - resulting in it getting worse than it need to).

Speaking of which, I need to book an appointment with the optician today. Hope he dont tell me I shoulda come earlier cause my eyes are fubar now :p
(Not really, but I fear my vision is starting to be affected by me not being 18 anymore)


Saspotato:
Dont know about over there, but we had a case a while back where many drug users went to a specific doctor where I lived at the time because they knew he was prescribing drugs too easilly. He wont be allowed to do that ever again as he lost his license.

[TSandM]

Sas, to be absolutely honest with you . . . we get tired of complaints, sometimes. Pain is so subjective, and people's tolerance is so different. And people's coping abilities are different as well.

I have seen people with a torn fingernail who were so hysterical that I couldn't even examine or x-ray them without sedation. I have seen people with shattered legs who could calmly describe their accident to me. I have spent thousands of dollars x-raying and CTing people who appeared to be in extreme pain, only to find no evidence of major injury (which doesn't mean they aren't injured, but it means that the injuries that they have are ones that most people would take a couple of ibuprofen for and shrug off).

One of the most difficult things about being an ER doctor is trying to decide how much weight to give the patient's complaints of pain, when you are deciding how much testing is appropriate. Most of us err on the side of doing too much, to avoid lawsuits. But our experience of patients with poor pain tolerance may make it easy to miss the stoic patient with real disease.

I often say to my colleagues that most of the patients who come in to the ER for pain problems are having less pain than I get out of bed with every morning. The difference is that I have something I want to DO with my day, and they don't.

[LtRainnAron]

Sas, to be absolutely honest with you . . . we get tired of complaints, sometimes. Pain is so subjective, and people's tolerance is so different. And people's coping abilities are different as well.

I have seen people with a torn fingernail who were so hysterical that I couldn't even examine or x-ray them without sedation. I have seen people with shattered legs who could calmly describe their accident to me. I have spent thousands of dollars x-raying and CTing people who appeared to be in extreme pain, only to find no evidence of major injury (which doesn't mean they aren't injured, but it means that the injuries that they have are ones that most people would take a couple of ibuprofen for and shrug off).

One of the most difficult things about being an ER doctor is trying to decide how much weight to give the patient's complaints of pain, when you are deciding how much testing is appropriate. Most of us err on the side of doing too much, to avoid lawsuits. But our experience of patients with poor pain tolerance may make it easy to miss the stoic patient with real disease.

I often say to my colleagues that most of the patients who come in to the ER for pain problems are having less pain than I get out of bed with every morning. The difference is that I have something I want to DO with my day, and they don't.

That is my biggest problem. I have a very, very, very high tolerance to pain, so the people that know me know that if I'm in tears over it, it has to be bad; but every time I try to explain that to a doctor they just give this attitude like "they always do"".

I know that not all doctors are bad, but it just seems like I keep getting the short end of the stick on it. My mom, too. She went to the ER the other week because of stomach problems and they were like "well there's a hernia on the stomach lining, and that's not a good thing. But we're just gonna send you on your way right now, since you're doing fine."

It gets aggravating. Like my last gyno, she told me I had an STD. Which is impossible, since I'm not sexually active. She basically told me I was lying to her. :|

[TSandM]

Well, again to defend my profession, an ER is an EMERGENCY ROOM. There are many medical conditions we may diagnose which do not require emergency treatment, although they may require attention on a more elective basis. I have a hard time explaining this to patients who often use the ER in an attempt to shortcut the admittedly frustrating process of getting tests done and appropriate treatment for a non life-threatening condition. I can diagnose your hernia, but I can't fix it, and I can't get a surgeon to fix it unless it's developed a complication that requires emergent attention. So I will send you on your way, "because you're doing fine" -- but with information for appropriate follow-up.

I don't know what infection you had, but there are many vaginal infections which CAN be transmitted sexually AND be asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic for long periods. But finding trichomonas, for example, on a smear is diagnostic, no matter what the patient says about how she could or could not have acquired the infection.

[LtRainnAron]

Well, again to defend my profession, an ER is an EMERGENCY ROOM. There are many medical conditions we may diagnose which do not require emergency treatment, although they may require attention on a more elective basis. I have a hard time explaining this to patients who often use the ER in an attempt to shortcut the admittedly frustrating process of getting tests done and appropriate treatment for a non life-threatening condition. I can diagnose your hernia, but I can't fix it, and I can't get a surgeon to fix it unless it's developed a complication that requires emergent attention. So I will send you on your way, "because you're doing fine" -- but with information for appropriate follow-up.

I don't know what infection you had, but there are many vaginal infections which CAN be transmitted sexually AND be asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic for long periods. But finding trichomonas, for example, on a smear is diagnostic, no matter what the patient says about how she could or could not have acquired the infection.

Yeah, you have a point on that. We've been telling my mom to go to the stomach specialist for months now anyway. For some reason she just wont. :|

She said I had vaginal warts. Which it turned out, I didn't. :| I never really got a "test" for anything of the sort either, she looked down there and was like "You have warts".

Needless to say, I switched doctors. >.>

[Sas]

It gets aggravating. Like my last gyno, she told me I had an STD. Which is impossible, since I'm not sexually active. She basically told me I was lying to her. :|

Well in all honesty I can see why doctors do that. Lots of people lie about things like that! Not saying YOU were in particular but I could see why a doctor wouldn't take your word for it.

When I got appendicitis, I was 15 and lied when they asked me if I was sexually active (as they thought ectopic pregnancy for a possible diagnosis) because my mum was standing right there! I would have rathered have an undiagnosed ectopic pregnancy than my mother find out I was sexually active... anyway one doctor came up to me when my mother had gone to the toilet and said 'btw you're not pregnant, I did the test anyway!'. Smart guy.

[TSandM]

I had a woman come in with abdominal pain last summer who was obviously in labor. It wasn't her first child, either. She swore at me for telling her I thought that was what was going on, because after all, she had TOLD me it wasn't possible. Even after we dragged her up to OB and showed her the baby on ultrasound, she still didn't believe it.

Patients lie. A lot. Sometimes on purpose, and sometimes because they are deluded, but they do lie.

[shoredivr]

Consider, though, that when the only tool we have is a hammer, we tend to see nails all around us. ER is cut to the chase, figure it out and move to the next most seriously injured. The patient who comes in with something that does not fit into a neat diagnosis is outside the box, the box of time and triage.

The spectrum of people who come to me for sports injury treatment is probably not representative of the population as a whole. I can't base my world view of how people are on this group of individuals.

I hear stories from them of how they were not listened to in various medical situations. I can't accept that all doctors do not listen. Some do not listen, or write off the patient's symptoms, but if I thought this was true across the board, it would be wrong.

Why might someone not tell the truth in an ER? Perhaps they are chronic liars, or are trying to scam the system, or they don't see the reason for it, or the point of the questions, or are afraid, or many other possibilities.