doctors

Medical care became a chance.

If you could find a doctor who will take you as a patient, you more or less are stuck with him(or her).

If you tried to change doctors you were told that you had to stay with the doctor you had, they will only accept those who do not have a doctor.

There is a black list of sorts with doctors now.

If you leave a doctor, most doctors will not accept you.  Leaving you to go back to the doctor you left or not having a doctor and relying on clinics as your doctors. (rarely seeing the same doctor twice)

Also, you can only address one complaint per visit.

Now if you are are an adult, you know that sometimes you have more than one symptom, that although may not be connected to each other but in most case are.

I know many people who turned out to be very sick but because they were not allowed to mention more symptoms on the first visit the illness was not found until much later.

If you have the same doctor all the time, for every visit, the chances are better of the illness being caught because they know you and usually remember you and put things together quicker,(sometimes you don't realize that the symptoms are appearing gradually but a good doctor will notice the changes.)

I knew someone who turned out to be diabetic.  For almost 2 years she complained about different things, followed the rules, only brought one thing up at a time.

When she was diagnosed and sent to as specialist, she told him her story.  Told him all the problems she was having.  It turns out that if she had been allowed after even the third visit to tell what was bothering her the doctor would have known what was wrong.  Each complaint was common to diabetes, all warning signs, that if said at one time would have told the doctor what was wrong.

Now if you are like me and a lot of the people around here, my doctor is really a clinic.

If I notice changes that are not normal and affecting me within a certain amount of time, I want to tell them.

I was actually told that is a different issue, without even finishing what I am saying.

Now there is a reason I said that.

It goes to the change I have noticed.(the above is part me venting and leading up to this)

Over that last 10 years I have lost count of how many people have been diagnosed with a serious illness (in most cases deadly) only after months of complaining (in two cases I can think of at this moment over a year).

The doctor always saying it is because you smoke, drink or you are fat, you are not sick it is in your mind.

Some even say you are just getting older, it is life.

I have lost many friends to this diagnosis.

Some are still here, but only because eventually the doctor got sick of listening to them that they sent them to someone else  --  who listened, cared.

I don't think that we have equal care anymore.

If you don't have a great job, or money, or a good medical plan doctors don't pay much attention.

You are in and out.

If you smoke cigarettes or drink or god forbid overweight than any problem is caused by that and they will not look for another cause.

You have a complaint they shrug it off or say that is because you smoke, drink or overweight.
Or better yet, it is nothing pulled a muscle or something.
Or my fav your getting older.
They don't even check it.

Because of this many people I know, avoid doctors because they believe (and are probably right to do so) that the doctor will not do anything.

I have heard many stories but the one that sticks out the most is about my ex.
We were together for approx 20 yrs.
He smoked and drank.  I ended up leaving but I was a big part of my adult life.
I knew him very well.
If he complained about pain, there was pain.
He also worked.
One day about 2 years after I left he got hurt at work.
He was off for a while to heal.
When it was time to go back, he was still very sore.
His doctor said he went back to work to soon.
It took almost a year for him to convince them that he was in pain and not trying to get out of work.
He died less than two yrs later of cancer.
If they would have just checked him out when he went back to work and was still complaining they may have been able to extend his life, he may still be here.  With cancer a year is a lot of time to go without treatment.