Bad experiences with medical professionals

[Spockydog]

11 hours ago, Chataya de Fleury said:

And we really do have the best health care in the world, if one can pay for it. 

Lol. Are you sure about that?

US spends most on health care but has worst health outcomes among high-income countries, new report finds

Quote

 

The United States spends more on health care than any other high-income country but still has the lowest life expectancy at birth and the highest rate of people with multiple chronic diseases, according to a new report from The Commonwealth Fund, an independent research group.

The report, released Tuesday, also says that compared with peer nations, the US has the highest rates of deaths from avoidable or treatable causes and the highest maternal and infant death rates.

“Americans are living shorter, less healthy lives because our health system is not working as well as it could be,” the report’s lead author, Munira Gunja, senior researcher for The Commonwealth Fund’s International Program in Health Policy and Practice Innovation, said in a news release. “To catch up with other high-income countries, the administration and Congress would have to expand access to health care, act aggressively to control costs, and invest in health equity and social services we know can lead to a healthier population.”

 

Is there anything, other than starting wars and fucking with other people's governments, that the US does better than anyone else? I don't think so.

Edited April 2 by Spockydog

[A wilding]

3 hours ago, BigFatCoward said:

Even if you can afford the absolute best healthcare, there is no guarantee that the insurance companies aren't going to try and wriggle out of it.

In my experience that is a racing certainly in the UK. Private health insurance is a mugs game. They will happily take your premiums, but if you develop anything chronic and expensive they will get you off their books in any way they can and while you are probably too ill to do anything about it.

The 0.1% don't do health insurance - they simply pay for treatment as they go.

[BigFatCoward]

26 minutes ago, Spockydog said:

Lol. Are you sure about that?

US spends most on health care but has worst health outcomes among high-income countries, new report finds

Is there anything, other than starting wars and fucking with other people's governments, that the US does better than anyone else? I don't think so.

They are really good at sports nobody else gives a shit about. 

[Spockydog]

2 minutes ago, BigFatCoward said:

They are really good at sports nobody else gives a shit about. 

Aye. The 'World' Series. lol.

 

[polishgenius]

I'm not sure if this belongs better here or the UK topic, since it's not my experience, but... 

some may have noticed there's a bit of a controversy going on in the UK right now where a famous women's-health doctor is being asked to explain a practice at her clinic of giving menopause treatments that involve high levels of HRT, I cannot possibly have an opinion on the actual argument but it's crossed my timeline coz I follow a couple people who do.

What I do think is that the clinical director of said doctor's clinic using the line 'we don't practice informed consent' is absolutely fucking wild. 

 

 

 

Edited April 2 by polishgenius

[Raja]

Yeah, this is incredibly wtfff  - giving 3 or 4 times the maximum dose without any evidence base is unethical. The article also says this - you can't just start experimenting like that no matter your 'clinical experience'

Quote

Dr Newson has threatened NHS medics with legal action for questioning her expertise and warning patients about the potential risks of the HRT regimes that she recommends.

 

[RhaenysBee]

I know it takes a special kind of personality to become a doctor, but man, how are you a 30something female fertility doctor and so nasty to other 30something females? I mean I know I fucked up the injections, and I know it’s my fault and responsibility, but that sure doesn’t mean you didn’t contribute to this fuck-up through the half-assed shitshow you call information sharing. If you had taken 5 minutes to explain the logic of this process to me, or 10 seconds to repeat and emphasis the important part, or asked me to repeat back the instructions to check if I understood/heard everything, or literally any other tool of communication, I would not have fucked up. Also, it’s fixable, so why be so nasty? Even if it weren’t, you shouldn’t be nasty, instead you should be fucking empathetic because it’s my life and fertility we are messing around with. 
 

for balance of scale, the oncologist did grow on me and earned my trust and respect. He cares, he is reachable, he communicates, he isn’t nasty, he checks if I have information, he pushes for certainty and he uses advanced technology like telephones to verbally consult with other doctors to look beyond what’s written down in the files. 

[Gareth]

Reading this thread made me think about all the negative interactions I had with patients and if I could have done something different.  At the end of the day, medical professionals are human too and we all had bad days.  Absolutely I could have done better in every situation.  One that stood out for me is a customer that came into the pharmacy asking for help with lice.  Lice were running through her kids' school and her family.  She informed me that she tried Nix but it was ineffective.  She proceeded to bend forward, lowered her head and flicked her hair toward me to show me her scalp.  Probably an attempt to show me her lice problem since she said (paraphasing) "look at these damn bastards"?  Unfortunately I was a little too close to her and her hair brushed my neck and chest when she flicked it toward me.  I automatically had a rush of tactile hallucinations and had to scratch my head.  Even now, my head is itchy just thinking of that moment.  In my moment of distress, I curtly told her to get a prescription for permethrin 5% from her doctor since the 1% OTC strength is not working and walked quickly away while madly scratching my head and neck.  I can see from her point of view that she tried consulting her local pharmacist for a very serious lice infestation and a squeamish pharmacist didn't even gave her a minute of his time.  I wonder if she ever got that prescription.  

[Phylum of Alexandria]

Last year, I got a cyst in my armpit. It was almost the size of a golfball, and was extremely painful. I went to Urgent Care, and the doctor said that it probably wouldn't be hard to lance and drain, and that antibiotics will help, but first she referred me to get an ultrasound just to make sure they knew where to cut, and maybe to make sure it wasn't anything other than an inflamed gland.

The ultrasound experience was absolutely awful. First, I had to wait almost a week to get an appointment, so by this time my cyst was bigger and more painful. Then they had to probe the cyst with the ultrasound scanning wand, and I almost passed out from the pain. Yet despite my clear distress, the nurses and doctors who dealt with me showed absolutely no compassion, not even formal politeness. The sum of my experience there was waiting alone and anxious, briskly being shown in, the excruciating scanning, and then being ushered out. Never before have a felt more like a walking sack of meat rather than a human being.

I actually got more sympathetic to people who indulge in alternative medicine solutions. Those people will drain your money with treatments of dubious value, but they will also treat you with dignity, will shower you with attention and offer emotional support. Basically everything that was lacking in the cold and clinical medicine mill that I had been run through.

Once my doctor got the results from the ultrasound, I was scheduled for a teledoc conference so that she could tell me to go see a surgeon. And then I was charged $50 for that! Fucking grift, I tell you.

My surgeon was more chatty, and his lancing the cyst greatly reduced my immediate duress. But he prescribed me an antibiotic that I would later learn was the wrong kind for the infection that I had. I had to go to an expert on infectious diseases two weeks later because the infection remains even after lancing. That man expressed astonishment that the surgeon wouldn't know which antibiotics to prescribe. Thankfully, what he prescribed did work, and my armpit finally began to recover.

This was such a terrible experience over all. Step after step of people going through their checkboxes, pushing me from hoop to hoop. Lots of dry or cold social interactions that I guess push an air of impartiality and expertise, but there was also plenty of administrative dysfunction and poor judgment. And the nonstop drainage of money.

I got shingles recently, and my experience was largely much better. But the problems that I felt so saliently during my experience last year nevertheless are rampant, and reflect some real systemic and cultural shortcomings.

I'm not going to resort to woo solutions, but I'm just a little bit less judgmental of those who do.

Edited April 21 by Phylum of Alexandria

[RhaenysBee]

So my egg freezing adventure is concluded. I would take the same course of action if I could start over, but boy was it absolute shite. And yielded little result. Well, I can tell my future self that I did the best I could. 

Lesson learned: I will never ever in my life set foot in this institution again. 

I did have a really amazing nurse who handled my bitchiness with perfect professional grace. The anesthetist was also incredibly sweet and humane. I hope they both get new jobs somewhere else. 

So I get there, I wait at the wrong reception desk, but fine. They direct me to the other, fine. The nurse tells me to follow her. Then I bitched to her about not knowing anything, she told me the doctor should have told me. I told her the doctor didn’t deign to speak 3 sentence to me about the day of the extraction. So she patiently answered all my questions (when does the procedure start, how long does it take, how will they anesthetize me, who will do the procedure, what happens after, when can I go home, etc), by the end of which I softened up and no longer projected my hormone fueled rage onto her.

We settled in, it was mostly uncomfortable silence, then a man opens the door and looks at us like, aren’t you coming? And we were like, wtf. We tried to humor the situation with the roommates but this gentleman led us to an elevator, told us to get in, then sit down in front of the operation rooms and wait to be called. We asked how we would get back. We didn’t get an answer. Then one of my roommates remembered that she didn’t pee, I said I didn’t either. After a full minute, the gentleman concluded that I could go and pee because I was going to be anesthetized. So I went with hiM while he kept telling me he has 3 minutes. I was like, okay, but I was told I was going in at 8.15, when you showed up you hurried us off and we didn’t really have our wits about us. So I went back to my room To pee, then we got in the elevator with a nurse and two elderly cleaning ladies who were showing around there great grandchildren on their mobile and not wearing a mask. The surgery tech wasn’t wearing a mask either, btw. Then the elevator was stuck. After some commotion, we went back to floor 4, where the cleaning ladies fled out, and pushed the button for floor 5 again, while the tech gentleman explained that it’s fine, he just has to push the door when it moves. So he did that and manually pushed it open at floor 5 so I could return to wait in front of the operating room to be called.

while we waited the doctor arrived without stopping to stay a word or so much as look at us. Then I was called, and told to quickly get out of my robe, put on a cap, quickly, put on a mask, quickly quickly, hang the robe, hang it quickly, come on come on come on, leave your slipper, just quickly, come on, get in there, put your legs up, scoot down, come on come on. The doctor, who was in the room, still didn’t say a word or come up or anything. Then the anesthetist introduced herself, asked if I was nervous, asked the standard questions, told me the meds would sting and press, which was normal and that everything was going to be okay, and all I need to do is fall asleep in three breaths. 

Then I woke up and I was in my bed and the nurse probably dug a pad out of my bag (if this was something I should have prepared for myself, nobody told me, it wasn’t even on the prep instructions paper to bring a pad with you, I just had them in my toiletry bag) because I sure as hell don’t remember getting one out. Okay, I slept for 2 hours, she kept checking on us, telling us that the doctor would come. 

THEN, someone called me on the phone(!) to tell me they only managed to freeze one single egg and two premautr ones because the rest didn’t ovulate. I asked her a bunch of questions, she told me the doctor would inform me, I told her I don’t think that’s gonna happen, so please tell me how I can get informed. She told me to phone my coordinator (my what? I have one? What does it do, precious?) and she can tell me how I can retrieve my egg if I need it. I asked if I could leave, she told me I should wait for the doctor because she’s very busy and she’ll probably have some release papers. (By this time another doctor, who was one of my roommates’ doctor, had visited her TWICE) eventually the doctor showed up, told me this is what they got and asked if I managed to give me the last injection at the proper time, (because she clearly thought I didn’t). I said yes I did, because I did. I asked if I understood correctly that I didn’t need to take any more pills/injections. She said no, it was done. She left, I packed up and I don’t ever want to set foot in this building again. 

Upon getting home I remembered that forgot to bully them for a medical note for my job (usually this is something included in your release papers, but I fully expected this fucking place wouldn’t include one, I just forgot to bully it out of them). So I have to call the GP for that tomorrow.

Well. At least this shitshow only cost me like $20. 

Allow me to add that I have no idea about the following either (because nobody thought to share in spoken or written word, and I wasn’t in the headspace to ask after the anesthesia): how long is it okay for the pelvic pain/discomfort to last? How do I ease it, like can I use an hot water bottle or just take ibuprofen? Anything in particular I should or shouldn’t do? Like I assume shouldn’t go on a run or have sex today, but could I, if I wanted to, tomorrow or the day after? What number should I call if I don’t feel well? How long is the spotting expected to last, etc. 

Edited April 24 by RhaenysBee

[Madame deVenoge]

@RhaenysBee - that sounds 110% truly f—-ing miserable