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Have you ever received poor/improper treatment from a doctor?


What exactly happened?

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Yes, have you?

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Yes, insanely frustrating

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I can imagine!
Me too...and very painful, exhausting, upsetting and mentally traumatic.

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Yeah I can handle being beaten up but the mental toll is the worst.

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> Have you ever received poor/improper treatment from a doctor?

Yes. First, you need to know that I come from a long line of tall, skinny men. Guys who don't get up to normal weight until around age forty. I'm 6'3" and about 190 pounds now. When this happened, around 1990, I was in my late twenties and weighed around 140.

Out of nowhere I got a horrible skin rash. Big, red, inflamed patches all over my body. Bad enough, but to make it worse they itched like hell. It was so bad that the first thing Doctor #2 did was take a biopsy and send it to a pathologist to check to see if I had skin cancer. I'll get back to him in a moment, but first I'll tell you about Doctor #1.

Dr. #1, a dermatologist, took a look at me. He saw an unusually underweight man, and he thought "sudden weight loss." He saw the rash and thought "Kaposi's sarcoma" or something similar. And he said "you need to get checked for AIDS." I explained that I hadn't lost weight, I had always been a toothpick, and that I wasn't in an AIDS risk group. He repeated that I should get tested. And he said it in a way that implied, "I know you've got AIDS but I also know you won't believe it until you get a test." He prescribed an ointment which turned out to be useless.

So I got the test. It took two weeks for the results to come back. Two weeks of believing I was going to die a horrible death, and would die soon. All while still itching 24/7.

The test came back negative. I went to a different dermatologist, Dr. #2. When I told him about Dr. #1 he called him a quack and said he must have got his diploma out of a Cracker Jack box. He then said I probably did not have cancer but we needed to be sure and did the biopsy. Then he prescribed an ointment much stronger than the useless crap I had got from Dr. #1, which he called "horse piss."

Turned out to be severe dermatitis. I had come in contact with some substance that had done that to me. Never did figure out what it was. But #2's treatments worked.

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Yeah it’s really crazy with all of the schooling they have to go through that there are so many shitty docs.

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> it’s really crazy with all of the schooling they have to go through that there are so many shitty docs.

A few years later, a friend who was about to enter college told me he wanted to do a pre-med curriculum but probably wouldn't. He doubted he was bright enough for medical school -- "doctors have to be super-smart, right?" I told him about Dr. #2 and said, "if that stupid asshole can do a pre-med degree, then medical school, then a residency, you sure as hell can." He's now a pediatrician.

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😂 I guess that can be motivation

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Two instances for the same problem:
Hernia, just above my belly button. Doctor refused to agree (even though it was obvious). Second doctor booked me in for immediate surgery. They didn't stitch me up properly, basically leaving a hole. Went back to the (second) doctor and asked (pointing at the hole) 'if it was meant to look like that?' He booked me in for emergency treatment. I'm fine now - a bit of a palaver at the time though.

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Yikes! How is healthcare in the UK?

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First of all, do bear in mind that healthcare via the NHS (National Health Service) is free for all British citizens (yes you can go private, but this is incredibly expensive and out of reach for most people).

Most of the time it’s brilliant, but mistakes can happen (thankfully rarely).

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Back in 2001, I had a hernia and before the mesh could be inserted I had to go to a gastroenterologist for an upper and lower GI.
Following the exam, the gastroenterologist informed me that I had a condition known as Barrett's Esophagus, a precancerous condition where acid producing stomach cells were growing in my esophagus.
I was put on expensive medication.
The worst part though was that my health insurance premiums began to skyrocket to the point that I was no longer able to afford paying them.

Fast forward fifteen years where I turned 65 and became eligible for Medicare.
My new MD had me go to a different Gastroenterologist for another upper and lower GI.
I gave him my history, thus he checked the status of my condition very carefully.
Imagine my anger at the previous Gastro-guy when this new one informed me that he found no trace of Barrett's Esophagus.

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Yeah insane

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I had a friend with BE who had a horribly invasive operation where they removed his esophagus and pulled his stomach up and re-attached it. He cannot sleep lying down because his throat is open with no sphincter muscle. I don't know what to think about that, but you could decide to be happy that you did not have to go through that, as I hope he can decide to be happy about not getting cancer. At the time I wanted to tell him to wait on it and get a second, and third opinion or monitor his status. What can you say though, that is way too personal. Have not heard from him in a zillion years now. Hope he is OK. Can take any action against your previous doctor? Did he monitor your situation all those years?

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Oh, by the way, you should have looked into the Schuldiess (sp?) clinic and their hernia fixes. They never use that mesh, which is teflon in it.

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I've never had a doctor I consider outright rude or gave me some incredibly off-base diagnosis, but I've had some seemingly apathetic doctors and others - many, actually - who just didn't try all that hard to get me a diagnosis. I've seen this with myself and others in some chronic pain groups I belong to on Facebook. They just come back with "Dunno what's wrong with you, tests seem fine" waaaaay too easily.

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Not awful treatment per se, but 0% understanding of mental health.

14 years ago I was in the spiral of a mental breakdown and I answered the doctor's questions, and filled out the '1-10' form of how I'm feeling. With 9 & 10 being most of the answers whilst also crying my eyes out. When I told him I wasn't suicidal (even though I was) he told me to go and buy some St John's Wort and if I felt worse, to come back. He didn't suggest i should take prescribed medication at all. About 3 weeks later I took an overdose. Found by my flat mate then woke up in hospital.

I don't blame him as I wasn't honest enough to face the truth, but my answers to the form he gave me and my physical demeanour should have screamed volumes at him.

Oh well, I'm still here to tell my tale I suppose.

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Nah...

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