I guess I don’t know anyone like that and that’s why I find the attitude ridiculous. The posters on that thread both referenced relatives they considered hypochondriacs and mentally ill and so, as I said, they are painting with a very broad brush in that regard. Annual physicals with the attendant blood work are just prudent healthcare.
2nd opinions are important, nay, necessary. I had a doctor who nearly killed ME a couple of years ago with a mis-diagnosed pulmonary embolism after a gall bladder surgery that I am still not sure that I needed. Allowed me to walk around with it for a month before she looked at her records and realized that the doctor who had subbed for her had read the wrong X-ray. I was operating on one and 1/2 lungs. No wonder I was short of breath.
After that, it was just a comedy of errors as she tried to get a new reading and then tried to dissolve the clot. (I’m allergic to iodine which is in the dye they pump into you for some of the tests.) Pumped me so full of warfarin that I was then in danger of bleeding to death. A new doctor got me put straight, thank heaven.
I should have sued her, but I’m not the suing type.
One day I found myself in the pharmacy as I went to pick up a prescription for Prednisone (to counter the iodine allergy). I was called to the pharmacy counter by the loudspeaker and found myself in a 4 way conversation between the hospital, the doctor, and the pharmacist. The hospital is refusing to schedule my test because there isn’t enough time for the Prednisone to take effect. The dosctor is insisting that I go forward with it, no matter what the hospital says. The pharmacist is whispering to me, “Get a lawyer.”
We finally agreed to postpone the test another day. Of course I reacted badly — broke out in hives right on the X ray table. The nurse looks at me and warns, “Don’t EVER allow them to order this test for you again.” Then they decided that I needed a “nuclear scan” because there was no iodine involved. That scan showed the blockage (clot) in the upper left lobe of my lung and treatment could begin. Of course this idiot doctor went too far with the blood thinning meds and I began to hemorage internally.
That’s when I sought another opinon — mostly because my doctor was starting to get nasty to my face because my case was starting to get complicated. (Blood tests every week with a change of prescription every week to keep my blood between a 1 and a 2 on their INR test. My last test with this dopey doctor was 10. Had I fallen, or cut myself, I might have bled to death.)
The nurses at the hospital were all whispering to me to “get another doctor; get a lawyer”.
There are good doctors out there, but there are many more who are just incompetent. After all, half of them are at the bottom of their class!