Interesting Newpaper Article

[Pharmacist.steve]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/health/4535668.html

Study: Moral beliefs may sway docs' care


While this article deals with a area of treatment other than pain .. there is no reason to believe that it could apply to chronic painers

[BrokenBladder]

Steve I agree with you completely on this one. I had an experience with one doctor when my quest to find out what was wrong with me started. He didn't really believe that at my age I could have bladder/kidney problems and he even told me that. He honestly believed that I wasn't in that much pain and that he didn't need to refer me to anyone. Needless to say when he found out what was really wrong with me he was apologetic. I made one more trip back to his office, but it wasn't to see him as my physician, it was to show him all the findings and tell him that next time his beliefs should be secondardy to making sure a patient is properly cared for. Every since then I have pursued doctors that have an open mind. When they take me into their office on my first visit~~~I make that MY interview time for me. I now have a team of three wonderful doctors and I hope to have them for a while. Thanks for the article!!

[Pamster]

It wouldn't surprise me that this is true. Interesting article Steve, I am lucky to have good doctors and good experiences with them. :)

[Kathi49]

Steve and Lisa,

I also agree. When my infertiliy journey began over 26 years ago, I was seeing a supposed specialist who will remain nameless. I went through so many tests it was unbelievable (found out later some of these were totally unneccesary). I could go on and on but I might as well just say I felt like I was a "number". At one point I told him I had been reading and I asked him why he didn't do these tests in conjunction with each other; it would have been fairly easy. His response was "Quit reading!" Boy, that made me mad but I said nothing. Heck, I was young and what did I know really. Then, at the end of 4 years, I asked him again what my chances were and all he did was to get out a quarter, flipped it and laughed. That did it! I looked right at him and said, "I won't be back!"

I had already heard about a new reproductive endocrinologist in town with great credentials. And, I was her first patient. To make a very long story short she was absolutely livid when she got my chart. I can't put on here what she really said but she was angry and one of the things she did say was, "All I see is money!" Needless to say, I liked her immediately. I NEEDED someone who was motivated and was as angry as I was about the situation in order to get answers. And isn't it awfully funny that with her help I was pregnant in 4 months! And come to find out I didn't need the mass quantities of Pergonal he was giving me. In fact, it could have killed me (another thing she was upset with). Boy, she spelled out her plan of attack, all of my options and precisely what would probably work and what wouldn't. I came real close to sending this other jerk a birth announcement when my daughter was born. Sad to say that after 26 years of seeing her I just recently had to leave her as I can't make the drive as I used to. But I did get an email from a gal who also sees her. She wrote and told me that after seeing several docs, she went back to the one I am speaking of and said she is "absolutely brilliant". And I second that! Oh, and just to make sure I got another great ob/gyn, she gave me a recommendation.

[Mark N]

It is too bad there are so many doctors like this. I have no problem that they don't do procedures they are morally opposed to but to not inform their paitents isn't the right thing to do. Another example of the "God" complex some doctors have. I go to my doctors for their advice not for the decision on what to do with my body. I expect honest advice not prejuidiced advice.

[suede]

Such as the cardiologist I had several years ago for an arrhythmia problem I"d had for many years, At the time I saw him we were new to town and was referred to him by the ER, at the time we didn't have ins. so I ended up paying thousands of $$ for all his test and such.
Only to be told at the end of it with a pat on my head like some child, that women my age did not have heart problems and the best thing he could tell me was to get a pap smear and a mammogram..Then he went on to tell me how if I sat around long enough and thought about it hard enough I could imagine anything was wrong with me, I could even get my heart rate to go up to 220 and stay that way for days.
He had me convinced I was crazy, til my DH took me to another that specialized in arrhythmia problems and wouldn't you know he dx'ed me from that Dr's very test and records and I was in surgery the next day..
Later I found out this Dr had done much the same to other women he just didn't think heart problems had anything to do with women, he never referred his women patients to another Dr..
Linda

[Mark N]

Linda, I am glad your husband took you to another doctor as the other one should be hung up by his thumbs for #1 treating you like a child #2 women don't have heart problems at this age Is he living in the stone age? I am glad that the other doctor took your case more seriously.

[suede]

Thanks Mark, It took my DH a while to convince me I wasn't crazy after that Dr. did the number on me.
It was impressive the way I was dx'ed from his files and test all it took was seeing a specialist that knew what they were doing.
I have to say it took me sometime to get over my anger over all that, but in the end it was just a relief to have a normal heart rate.
I did talk to a lawyer not because I wanted anything other then for him to be stopped from discriminating women as he was. Of course that didn't do me any good.
Linda