Do you really listen to your doctor?

I have had a lot of stupid medical stuff in my life, so now I don’t do much with doctors unless something is actively wrong, and then I make them tell me the details in ways I can understand. “Check ups” are not things I do.
But I happily do whatever oncologists tell me because I have found them to be the flat-out loveliest people in the medical world, and I wriggle around like a puppy in a basket to make them happy.
And it’s worth surviving to make them happy. :-)

No. I am a sugar junkie. Instead of cutting back on sugar I have healthy snacks available, so at least I have the option to eat healthier.

@canidmajor I hope your cancer treatments are successful because I want you to survive too, that would make me happy!
@RedDeerGuy1 I do advocate eating healthy, although I do put sugar in my coffee. I never do fast-food or even restaurants anymore.

I’ve had a lot of bad experiences with doctors, so I have to be pretty sick before I give in & go. Once I break down & do go, I generally do exactly as they recommend!!! I agree that there is NO reason to go to a doctor if you’re not going to follow their advice. Back when I was addicted to sodas, I didn’t always listen especially when they said to “cut out the sodas”. Then I proved to myself that they were correct, so now I do as instructed!!!

@LadyMarissa Good for you! I love when there is a happy and healthy outcome. :D

I see a family practice doctor, eye doctor, dermatologist, chiropractor, cardiologist, electro physiologist, and an occasional surgeon and proctologist. I follow their suggestions when they make sense to me. I have gotten into intense debates with various cardiologists about what the best treatment for me. For the last 22 years I’ve been dealing with atrial fibrillation (AF) that has been kept under control 99% of the time with drugs (some do more harm than good) and a few surgical procedures. Ten years ago two cardiologists in Seattle told me that it was time to keep my heart in permanent AF and on anticoagulation therapy for life and control my heart with an artificial pacemaker. I knew that they had given up on me and my desire to have a normally functioning heart. In a previous appointment my cardiologist asked me how I felt when my heart was in AF. I told him that I feel sick and miserable. He asked, what do you mean by that? I asked him, what part of sick and miserable don’t you understand. He then told me that he is finish being my cardiologist and a cardiologist down the hall will treat me in the future. I told my new cardiologist about a cardiologist in Indianapolis that has a procedure that has 70 to 90% success rates. He said, well you know what they say, if it sounds too good to be true. I could not wait to get away. 2 months later I was in Indianapolis with a normally beating heart. My heart continues to beat normally today and my current cardiologists tell me that I have no physiological limitations.

If I had blindly followed my Seattle cardiologist advice I would be severely crippled for the last 10 years. Instead as a few of you know I’m a top athlete in my age class and competed for the USA in London last August (International Canoe Federation races). Last October I races 18 miles in an outrigger canoe race in Kona, Hawaii (got 3rd in 60’s class but everyone in my canoe were over 70). Last November my wife and I hiked from the Grand Canyon’s north rim to the south rim with full back packs. Last December my wife and jumped into the water in Antarctica with just swim suits (28*F water).

Yes I listen to what my doctors say to me. But they had better be able to justify what they are offering me. If it doesn’t make sense then I’m going to get a second opinion from a specialist in a different organization.

Good health!
Stay strong!

Nope, I never go to doctors. Don’t like them and they’re too expensive.

@gondwanalon
Were you on Warfarin or Coumadin? Did they try Cardiac Ablation? I knew someone that had (AF) all the time and every-time she had her pacemaker checked it was full with readings. They never did get it controlled.

Kudos to you for doing what that doctor didn’t think you could. It’s amazing when you can improve your life against doctors orders.

So….a little of both.

First, I consider my doctor to be a little bit of a quack. Now, I know what you’re thinking “Why go to him then?” Here’s the thing…his office is SOOOO convenient. I could walk there if I wanted to. And have! My entire family mocks me for this reasoning…and I don’t blame them. The truth is that he’s old and I’m healthy enough. He’ll be replaced by the time I get real issues.

Now, he has at one point given me advice where he was talking up some of the homeopathic medical practices of his native India. He sometimes gets lost in weird tangents that are just a waste of time. And since ObamaCare required doctors to use digitial records (a good thing in principle) most of our visits involve him very slowly typing in his notes and other stuff. Like VERY slowly. He should have a typist in the room…I would sign a privacy waiver.

So, I have reason to doubt some of the stuff that comes out of his mouth. Where I DO pay attention to him, is when we get in to real medical stuff. When we take blood tests and he’s looking at numbers and reciting side effects of different drug interventions…THIS is where I trust him. So on those kinds of things, where he’s talking about actual peer reviewed medical literature, I pay attention. Otherwise, I’m just trying to understand him through his accent.

Nice guy. And he knows some stuff. But he’s also a little kooky and maybe past his prime fighting years.

Sometimes.

I am noncompliant a lot with medications.

I ignored a doctor who told me I needed surgery for a cancer fear, and I was right. I went for second opinions. If I had followed that first doctor’s advice, I would have likely been in constant pain, mutilated, and maybe suicidal. He would have ruined my life. I really don’t think I could have psychologically handled the regret, sadness, and pain. I did not have cancer.

My cardiologist told me to lose weight, and I completely agree with her, but I have not done it.

All through my 40’s I ignored the recommendation for a mammogram every year, and I am glad I did. Now, I am in my 50’s and more willing, In fact, right now I have some weird discomfort in my left breast, so I want to get it done, I am due anyway.

I refused to dental xrays every year from my mid 20’s to my late 40’s, and I am very glad I did. Now, I am willing to do it, because a dentist screwed up something with my teeth and no longer can bite down comfortably. Long story, but it puts pressure on my teeth that I never had when I was younger. Between the bad bite and just getting older, I am willing to do the xrays now.

I should probably try a new blood pressure medicine, but I haven’t. If it was up to my doctor I already would have tried. This is another one where I agree I need to address my blood pressure and not ignore it. I might ask for a 24 hour monitor before trying medication again.

Mostly-ish sorta?

Always

Only some of the time.
My cardiologist is brilliant. However, he knows that, and he has embraced acting like Gregory House from TV. He is an obnoxious know it all, and wrong often enough to remind me that he is fallible.
For example, he had me do a treadmill. I told him that I run at 4.5 miles an hour at a 4.0 incline for 25 minutes, and that I have a bad back. He laughed and said if I ran that long at those settings, I didn’t have a bad back. I got on his treadmill, and he watched me. Afterwards, he laughed, and said “I watched you run. You do have a bad back!”. I was not amused.

I pay damned good money for my healthcare. I am lucky enough to live in an area of the world with amazing healthcare. I choose my doctors carefully enough so I can entrust in what they tell me. I listen to them and follow their guidance. I also get a second opinion if something doesn’t seem right to me. This is becoming harder to do with the way Healthcare is managed in the US, but it is doable. I don’t like to waste money, time, or my quality of life.

@Dig_Dug, thanks for the good thoughts. I already beat it many years ago, I just get a scare from time to time and have to trot back in to the office for tests and scans.

@JLeslie If I may make an observation (and if I’m way off let me know) but it seems like some of your problems may be because you are putting things off and not getting them done in a timely matter. The older you get the worse they are going to get. The dental thing, if one dentist did something wrong you should have it fixed if possible before it gets worse or see another dentist? I’m not trying to tell you how to run your healthcare, obviously that’s your business, but please don’t let things snowball into something bigger.

@Dig_Dug My teeth were never a problem before and the recommendation has changed to what I did. Same with the mammogram. Turns out the science supports me.

I’ve been getting colonoscopies since my early 30’s. Probably has avoided colon cancer, and I mean that with all seriousness.

Regarding my teeth, i didn’t follow my gut and go to an orthodontist, and to this day I think I was right, and dentists never believed me, and like an idiot I didn’t listen to myself. I had a bond repaired at one point (not the first time it was done) and he screwed it up and I couldn’t bite correctly. I went back and it still wasn’t corrected. I went to another dentist and still they weren’t getting what was wrong. Eventually I went to a periodontist and I really didn’t want to, but I let him file my teeth, which relieved the headaches and teeth shifting. I’ve tried to go to an orthodontist more recently and she said she wouldn’t do anything because I’ve had some teeth filed (fuck!) and she’s concerned with something else that I don’t remember. Dentists were not listening to me, and it constantly feel like dentists and doctors don’t believe me.

Regarding the mammogram I’m just a few months over. It’s not so dramatic. I’ve been getting Pap smears since I was 16 every year, I don’t think any man can say he went to the doctor every year since 16, I’m assuming you are a man.

I’m not going to tell you about the whole surgery situation, but again I did not have cancer. I went to three gynecologists. The third was my former doctor in another state. I flew back to see him. He referred me to an oncology specialist, he (my gyn) said he would never let anyone do the surgery who doesn’t have a lot of experience because it’s so risky for permanent damage and pain, and he was not convinced I needed surgery either. I had already read the surgery the first doctor recommended leaves the majority of patients in chronic pain, and forget about having sex again or any pleasure. I went to the specialist and he examined me, and within five minutes he said I definitely do not have cancer, and he would not recommend anything radical. The first doctor was a butcher in my opinion with no care for repercussions.

Where I live now, sometimes administrators or doctors from the cancer hospital Moffit in Tampa come to make a presentation, and I’ve been twice. Both times there were stories of people having surgeries or treatment and never had cancer in the first place. It’s nerve racking.

Do I avoid the doctor? Sometimes. It’s really hard to have to rely on yourself when you don’t have the medical training or experience. It’s psychologically stressful to disagree with a doctor or feel like they aren’t listening to you. I went through years of incredible anxiety dealing with doctors. I’m better dealing with it now.

Some medical things are very straightforward. Some medical things aren’t and the doctor can’t easily know what it’s like to be in your body and they just do their best guess or standard of practice, and both of those can be a cosmic fail sometimes.

Maybe you’ve been lucky and very healthy, or maybe you aren’t aware when they gave you bad medical advice, because the bad advice didn’t have a big downside. Medical mistakes are one of the biggest causes of death.

Edit: mammogram recommendations. https://www.webmd.com/breast-cancer/features/starting-mammography-screening I would have had a lot of radiation directly on my breast unnecessarily if I had started yearly at 40.

Dental X-rays are now recommended every 2–3 years for people with a good dental history. They were zapping young children and adults every year and that was back when X-rays had more radiation. Unnecessary money and radiation.

@Dig_Dug 2½ years prior to my Seattle cardiologists giving up on me they did a radio frequency catheter ablation. That worked great for 2½ years then for no apparent reason my heart went back into persistent AF. Yes I was taking Coumadin and ordered back on Amiodarone (even though it stopping working 3 years earlier). I was told that another ablation wouldn’t work (“because of the progressive nature of the disease”).

I think that the cardiologists in Seattle were either lazy or lacked the skills to help me. They would rather manage me with my heart in constant AF.

I was desperate. I contacted a few cardiologists on the internet. One replied to me, “We need to talk”. We did and I flew across country to see an AF expert who had the skills and desire to help me.

I am so glad you got the help you need. So often we need to take our own health into our hands and do something about it ourselves. One doctor or sometimes several may not be what’s best for us. Second or third opinions are worth getting.

@JLeslie I’m sorry you had to go through all that and had incompetent medical professionals leading your care and believe it or not I am too familiar with the same. Glad that you don’t have cancer and did not go through that operation.

I could write a book about my experiences with the medical field but that would be far too long and revealing.

^^I could write more, but my post was already way too long. That cancer scare I wrote about was 15 years ago.

It depends. I do regular checkups, bloodwork, scans, anal probes etc.. as they’re recommended. Your doc is not a superhero, he/she is a person and believe me, they’re susceptible to medical bullshit too. They just have a better buffer than most people. I let my general practice doc do the routine tests and stuff but I do not trust him for treating specifics. I go to a specialist for anything that may require actual treatment. If I get advice from a doctor it has to pass the smell test first, especially when it comes to medications. My current doc(s) I mostly trust. Finding a competent doctor is not straightforward. They generally do their best but people often have higher expectations than reality can deliver. When people don’t hear what they want, then enters the woo from people like chiropractors. They do more damage than good IMO.

Sort of.
I always have an annual checkup with blood work, including my PSA, etc. I have a plan in place in case my PSA starts to rise so I no longer go to my urologist/surgeon. (My numbers have been zeros (perfect) for over 12 years so odds are pretty good, 98%, that I’ve left prostate cancer in the rear view mirror. At this point there is no reason to hear the same info.
I already get plenty of exercise, my BMI is perfectly in the healthy range, my blood pressure and cholesterol levels are good and I eat “healthy” most of the time. I don’t smoke or drink to excess. Common sense stuff that also aligns with doctors’ advice.

I didn’t for about a decade but now I do. I feel 100% better after going Paleo and losing the extra weight.

I do force myself to go to all my annuals because prevention is key, and they’re all free anyway.

I’ve always followed my doctor’s advice and only once have I questioned a nurse.