just an observation

why do doctors not put pieces of the puzzle together. all symptoms could be related. most docs i have seen only focus on a few symptoms and diagnose from there....do docs not do homework anymore?? just venting....

That's so true. When I was seeking a diagnosis, I went so far as to hire a special doctor to review my medical records (at my expense) and tell me what he could. I did not believe I had so many unconnected things wrong with me, as the specialized doctors were saying. Unfortunately, even that doctor did not come up with Lyme or coinfections despite, as I now know, the fact that I had plenty of appropriate symptoms and a classic medical history. My special doctor followed the path of many previous doctors and told me people can just have inflammatory disease with no known cause, ignored a bunch of other symptoms, gave me some Celebrex, wrote a couple of prescriptions, and told me to come back in a month. I am disappointed that there does not seem to be a place for ordinary people to find a doctor who will "sit and think" about someone's medical history when that person is obviously very ill. I understand that many gp's are too pushed for time. I guess that's financially driven. Unfortunate. A lot of people pay a huge price in terms of suffering and loss because of this. I am always struck when I watch "Mystery Diagnosis" just how sick most of those people have to get and how many physicians they go through before finally a doctor takes the time to think about their case and solve the medical mystery. This seems to be the state of medical care these days in our country. At least in my experience. ShelETN, I'm sure you have lots of company in your observation.

Doctors have become de-facto pharmaceutical reps...the drug co's do all the leg-work and brainwash the doctors that their drug is the best treatment for x symptom. Partly this is due to the influence of insurance (the malpractice insurance they have to carry, and also the insurance their patients have), and also I believe the big push for "evidence based medicine." IMHO, evidence-based medicine needs a paradigm upgrade...because in its current state, it doesn't work very well in the setting of chronic or complicated illness. It does not deal well with cases that don't match the textbook description of an illness, or cases where there are multiple overlapping diseases.

I went to tons and tons of MD's prior to getting diagnosed with Lyme. None of them would answer my questions, and none of them were able to put the whole picture together. I kept getting bogus diagnoses or told it was "stress" or "all in my head."

The first doctor who looked at more than just one set of symptoms was my Allergist (he had been a chemical engineer prior to becoming a doctor, so he had a different perspective on things than most MD's)...but he is not an LLMD and was unable to put the proper diagnosis on my symptoms. Then a friend referred me to (yet another) Naturopath, and he was really the first one who came up with Lyme. So when the IGeneX test came back positive (after many other infectious disease tests coming up negative), I was thrilled that the underlying issue that explained my symptoms had finally been identified...this was before I knew much at all about Lyme...

You're right, there is no accountability...patients have little to no recourse when a doctor doesn't have the proper training to deal with their situation. And there are few ways to discover if a doctor is really worth their stuff. All these rankings of hospitals, doctors, and medical clinics are done by doctors' peers...meaning there is little to no input from patients on which doctors/clinics/hospitals are truely meeting patients' needs.

I could go on and on.......but I'm stepping off my soapbox now...

I did not see that many doctors, my GP knew right off the bat that it was lyme and my tests came back +. BUT I did switch to another GP (big mistake) and this one mistaken my tests for false +, while I was relapsing. He completely ignored my symptoms. I now know that a good dr is worth a million bucks (or more) and I should have stayed with my first GP. Unfortunatelly, he took a director position in a hospital and he is no longer seing anyone else, except once a week, he sees some of his old patients, and the others were transfered to the rest of the docs in his practice. What a shame! Luckily, my new GP said my tests were + and started me on abx and now I am going to an LLMD. GP#2 was completely useless!

BTW: my sister is finishing a registered nurse program next year, she told me that her text book had 2 lines about lyme in it, of course, nothing about chronic lyme or co-infections. She told her professor about my situation and he said, well, it sounds your sister is dealing with chronic lyme--yet, he never brought this up in class, but in a private conversation!

WHERE ARE THE GOOD DOCTORS?

A friend of ours was a surgeon ( he retired last year, he is over 70 yrs old now) and he said that hospitals and docs are afraid of law suits and they won't do anything without tests.  He said he has seen soooooooo many people die in the hospital, bec by the time the tests came back (which in some cases may take a few days), it was too late!

My father in law died due to a car crash.  he did not die from the injuries, he died from pneumonia while in the hospital.  THere was green stuff in his tube, while on the respirator and the doctors won't give him abx!  They waited for tests to come back!  It was too late, the infection spread all over, including his kidneys!  A perfectly healthy man dies in the hospital from pneumonia, which he developed while in ICU, bec doc was afraid to give him a few abx pill!  Shameful!

I said to the nurse, that green stuff can't be good, you know?  Do you have to be a doctor to know this??? It seems like they stopped being human and they no longer use their heads!  only tests!

Post Edited (Simela) : 9/22/2010 10:36:51 PM (GMT-6)