On 2/20/2015 3:36 PM, EvelynVogtGamble(Divamanque) wrote:


jmcquown wrote:



She has me killfiled so she won't see this. I would certainly ask why
I'd been assigned such a nurse. If I don't understand something I
question the doctor. So many people seem to be afraid to question
doctors. I have no idea why.

Jill

I not only question, but ARGUE with him/her when I don't agree! It's MY
body, and MY life, so I won't take any medication unless I know what it
is supposed to do, what the side-effects can be, and what will happen if
I DON'T take it. Americans have become a nation of pill-takers as it is
- one of the more frightening effects being teen-age "pharm parties"
with the sometimes fatal results. (When I was a teen-ager, the family
medicine cabinet would only have yielded aspirin, Exlax, Milk of
Magnesia, Pepto Bismol, and maybe cod liver oil - nothing half-way
tempting, and we KNEW the effects of all of them.)

I'm reminded of when I was hospitalized for diverticulitis in 2008. In
post discharge follow up visits the gastric surgeon kept pushing me,
telling me I'd wind up with an ostomy bag within three years if I didn't
let him cut out half my colon. Major surgery. On about the third visit
I said to him, "You *do* realize I don't have health insurance, right?"

That's when he abruptly switched gears and handed me pamphlets about
modifying my diet. My hospital discharge papers had already recommend
those changes. I figured out pretty quickly if I'd had some insurance
company for him to bilk he's have cut me open for no good reason. It's
2015 and guess what? No ostomy bag in sight.

The doctor I have seen most recently (January) doesn't think I actually
had diverticulitis. I had an infection, yes. But I've recently been
diagnosed with Crohn's Disease. When I sat down and talked with this
guy he explained exactly what part of the illeum (in the lower
intestine) is affected. He prescribed appropriate medication. He
answered my questions, and believe me, I had tons of them.

I always had a problem with my mom's doctors constantly shoving pills
and prescriptions at her without ever actually offering a specific
diagnosis. At one point she was taking over 20 prescriptions. Several
times a day.

Mom was of that generation who thought if someone had a medical degree
meant they were somehow superior beings. Hey, as with any profession,
there are good doctors and bad ones.

I don't know much about the medical system in the UK, obviously, but I
know I wouldn't just let them assign me a nurse or whatever without
bothering to ask why.

Jill