OT - rant/question

I agree.

The internet can give bad advice if you don't check to see who is giving it.
I found HealingWell on the internet. Some advice on this site does not work for me but I got more beneficial information on HW than from any other source. It's a "safe place" because when someone posts something controversial they will get opposing comments as well as supporters.

Dr. Google is no different than any other information source. Verify before taking advice found anywhere, net or newspaper or books or word of mouth. Use common sense. Some people cannot afford doctors or their doctors aren't helping them enough. Of course they look for other ways to get better and the internet is there for them.

My doctor responds to medical studies I find on the internet when I print them out and bring them. No he's not thrilled he isn't my sole source of information but he knows that's where we get information.

Yes healingwell, google searches, and other sources are all on the internet and none of the above should be a replacement for a doctor's advice or considered 100% factual lol. All of the above are great ways of gathering information and talking points for future doctors appointments, and some great outside the box type ideas can be found that might help people out (so there's value). However, I don't want anyone saying iPoop (or anyone here) is a replacement for their doctor. None of us are doctors, although we have seen our unfair share of them over the years and might be able to suggest things to consider based on what did or did not work for us individually. Being a veteran doesn't mean we're any more trustworthy than others, just that we stick around longer and have more or stronger opinions than others do perhaps :-p.

Dr google makes it easy for anyone to lookup his/her symptoms and quickly convince them self they have a disease and the accuracy of those self-diagnosis aren't all that good. Any diagnosis isn't as easy as that as there's always multiple tests, many similar conditions with overlapping symptoms that must be ruled out, and it takes experience to produce a good and accurate diagnosis. A lot of us have anxiety and a small percentage hypochondria, and I think there's absolutely nothing wrong with telling people not to worry, wait for test results, wait to see your doctor, try not to panic before you have all of the facts. Dr google can cause a whole lot of anxiety, often unjustified.

And yes, healingwell can be quite scary and cause anxiety, at times, especially for the newly diagnosed. I remember being a lurker for a quite a while before my first post (a common scenario) and at times scared about reading about the people struggling for years and having surgery. As a newly diagnosed I was hoping UC would be easy instant-gratification fix for me and at first I didn't want to accept that UC can be one heck of a struggle and require strong, strong meds to control. I wasn't given an easy case of UC though, so perhaps reality rather than sugar coating is helpful.

haha not at all. I bet if you reread my post and you'll quite clearly see that there's stated value (outside the box thinking and discover new talking points) but HW and dr google doesn't at all replace a doctor's advice and knowledge in testing and diagnosing illnesses. Are you just looking for an argument I think?

Here is my talk on it.....if people haven't taken some advice rather than the crap their doctors have handed out, then they could very well have been in a worse situation regarding meds, food choices, lousy doctors, no support, abusive family and friends, and a pot full of other stuff....especially never on rectal meds, lol.

If people believe we are doctors or know how to do actual research of more than one place and balance it out, then we won't be able to help the stupid in them.

q

Reminds me that son#2's gi kept telling him/me that I am not a doctor.
Reminds me of the hell raising I had to do some times when son #1 had the colectomy.

With this crappy disease, it is best to be educated.
What ever I might know comes from the internet/pubmed/here.
Of course in the old days 1980ish, I mostly had to read books on IBD.
The funny thing is that they are still using mostly the same meds that were in
the books back then,except for biologics which were not invented quite yet, I think.

My 3 cents, due to inflation.
Old Mike

Post Edited (Old Mike) : 2/8/2017 12:19:10 PM (GMT-7)