Comments on: How To Run Your Doctor Off

By: TheOtherIvy

TheOtherIvy — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 10:48:43 +0000

Yikes! He sounds awful.
I had a similar conversation with a female doctor about seven years ago. She wanted to do surgery. I said I was going to get a second opinion. She said, They are just going to say the same thing. Turned out I didn’t need surgery. Best to be safe though. Find out for sure.

By: Shawn W

Shawn W — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 05:07:04 +0000

Mine moved too far away to drive it.

I’m still looking.

By: Scout

Scout — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 01:10:27 +0000

My doctor lives/practices out of state. He’s a sweetie. I’ve known him since around 1984. Long history there. It has been almost a year now so I will be having to trek up to Oregon once I can be fairly certain I won’t encounter a snow storm. This is just one reason I am considering moving to Oregon. I’d be closer to my doctor which I really should be seeing a minimum of twice a year.

By: Shawn W

Shawn W — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 04:41:40 +0000

I do appreciate everyone’s concern, and don’t mean to sound as if I’m just going to ignore the possibility. I’m simply not going to let it make me crazy. The biopsy requires I take insane amounts of ibuprofen, and it causes me to hemorrhage for several days after. So, I’ve decided to submit to it every four years, and I have a thorough exam every year.

Elissa, I’m touched, and of course I don’t mind.

ABS, wish I’d thought to ask him that.

Corina, it was his tone that got on my nerves. My last biopsy was just over a year ago, which he would have known had he read my file.

Very lucky, Wanda. I loved my last doctor, but she moved out of state.

David, you’re right, and he almost gave me a heart attack, as well.
I will have it again, in three more years.
Stubborn and contrary are my middle names.

By: davidrochester

davidrochester — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 23:25:58 +0000

He was a jerk for making a joke.

I agree that you should have the biopsy yet again, but I also completely understand why you don’t want to; and if I were you, I wouldn’t do it either. But that’s because I’m stubborn and contrary.

By: Wanda Rizzuto

Wanda Rizzuto — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 22:54:05 +0000

Huh. I like my doctor. I guess I’m lucky.

By: Corina

Corina — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 21:52:22 +0000

Hhm. I actually don’t see that he was a jerk. I see that he was doing his job. First, he actually talked to you on the phone. That doesn’t happen in the real world. Most doctors have the nurse call you and make the appointment and keep you in the dark forever (which I see as something he might have done had you not insisted that he discuss it on the phone). Most doctors wouldn’t care if you came in for the test or not. They would consider it having done their part by notifying you and leaving it to you to follow through. Most doctors would just point to the chart that documents the attempt to get you to come in for the test if you or your next of kin tried to sue him for it later on.

And I agree with Elissa. I’d go in for the biopsy. When was the last time you had one? It isn’t anything to fool around with. I hope you are right. I would go in. And I hate doctors. I hate these exams. I have no money for doctors and no insurance, but I would go in.

By: Amoeboid Blurry Smile

Amoeboid Blurry Smile — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 20:47:58 +0000

You make me ever so deeply glad that our family doctor is the one we have. There are some with common sense.

If this was a work of fiction, I’d be laughing. “I can’t be responsible…” Umm. Was the doctor going to claim responsibility if you did have cancer?

By: elissakaren

elissakaren — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 17:13:48 +0000

Shawn, your doctor sounds like a royal jerk. And incredibly unprofessional. I’m glad you told him where to go.

But for whatever my two cents are worth, cervical cancer moves very slowly. It can take many years to develop into something threatening. But it does kill people. I have a friend who’s undergoing many horrific bouts of chemo right now in her fight with it. They recently retracted her death sentence, which is wonderful, but all this is still no fun. I don’t know that having a biopsy every four or five years is unreasonable. No one knows your body like you do, and intuition can be a very powerful thing. But cervical cancer is completely asymptomatic for a long, long time and a lot of otherwise intuitive women have been completely unsuspecting about its presence and progress. I only write all this because I care about you. I hope you won’t mind.

By: Shawn W

Shawn W — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 16:26:16 +0000

((Pandemonic)) It’s horrible that your doctor would scare you that way! It seems like they use fear to get us to do what they want, and it’s so not right.

Did you know most breast cancers are discovered by the woman’s partner? IMHO that’s a much more pleasant test.