DOCTORS and 4 MISTAKES W. WOMEN

[Guest guest]

One more on Doctors and we know there are some excellent ones out there,

it IS worthwhile to keep seeking. I thought this was good too and from a physician.

Dee

==============================================

4 Biggest Mistakes Doctors Make (With Women)

..............>

“We want to do the best we can, and we’re terrified of making a misdiagnosis, but we’re not perfect,” Groopman says. (Harvard Medical School professor Jerome Groopman, MD, author of the sobering and candid 'How Doctors Think') Add to that the fact that many docs have heavy caseloads and get only minutes per patient, and you have a common recipe for medical mistakes.

What can you do to prevent a misdiagnosis and get the attention and treatment you need? First, learn the four common mental traps that doctors fall into—and then use these tricks to help your own doctor steer clear of them.

1. The doc stereotypes you

When doctors hastily decide they know your type—and therefore your typical health woes—serious problems may go undetected. “All physicians are prone to stereotyping, and it often occurs literally within a few seconds of seeing someone,” Groopman says.

Take Ellen Barnett, whose complaints were dismissed as garden-variety hot flashes by no less than five doctors. They missed a rare endocrine tumor that might have led to kidney failure or other serious issues. It was discovered only after Barnett finally urged a new doctor to think of her as something more than a high-strung menopausal woman.

Doctors who see a lot of patients in the same category (middle-aged women, for example) may miss uncommon problems. That doesn’t mean you should avoid a women’s-health specialist, says nne Legato, MD, founder and director of the Partnership for Women’s Health at Columbia University and Health Advisory Board member: “She might be more receptive to complaints, particularly if women patients have unusual reactions to medications.” It does mean that whatever your doc’s specialty or gender, he or she should be talking and listening to you—not Anxious Patient No. 536.

What you can do: Say, “I know something has changed for me, and I want you to think about my symptoms in as open a way as possible.” That will remind your doctor to explore how you might be different from other patients instead of leaning on superficial stereotypes.

2. The doc assumes you’ve got that “bug” that’s going around

“If you’ve seen the 20th person with flu, the odds are that the 21st has the flu, too” Groopman says. After all, we call them flu and allergy seasons for a reason. But if the usual remedies don’t make you feel better soon, your doctor should perform another physical exam, recheck your medical history, and consider ordering blood work or other tests to go beyond the first obvious diagnosis.

What you can do: Ask, “What else could it be?” This is the best way to broaden your doc’s thinking during follow-ups if the usual treatments don’t work, Groopman says. Convinced the bowel rumblings your doc’s chalking up to a virus are a sign of colitis or something serious? Say exactly which diseases you’re worried about, he says: “A thoughtful doctor listens closely to a patient’s worries and may be prompted to ask more probing questions.”

3. The doc wants to get you in and out fast

Office visits typically max out at 17 minutes. Docs walk into the examining room with chart in hand, mental wheels turning, perhaps a diagnosis in mind. But the most alarming statistic is this: On average, doctors interrupt patients 18 seconds into their description of what’s wrong, according to one study. No wonder the first symptoms mentioned are sometimes the only ones docs actually hear.

“If you’re not able to tell your whole story, the doctor can’t think broadly and consider everything,” Groopman says. If you’re first told, “We see this sometimes,” in lieu of a clear diagnosis, that’s another red flag that the doctor’s thinking may be rushed.

What you can do: If you feel hurried or don’t understand what the doc’s telling you, say so. You also might offer to tell your story again during a later visit. Another trick: Try a female doc. Studies show women do a better job of encouraging patients to talk, and their visits are 10 percent longer on average, says Debra Roter, a doctor of public health and professor at s Hopkins.

4. Your doc dislikes you—or likes you too much

Doctors try to set aside their likes and dislikes when dealing with patients. But MDs are no different from the rest of us: They enjoy some people and are turned off by others. It’s human nature and it can be dangerous. “Our minds snap off, based on emotion,” Groopman says. That’s what happened when he himself misdiagnosed a patient who had a fatal tear in her aorta. He’d found her annoying, partly because her voice reminded him of “nails scratching a blackboard.”

On the other hand, Groopman says, he once nearly lost a favorite young patient to septic shock because he wanted to spare the boy a rectal exam. “The second your doctor tries to be both your friend and your treating physician, it’s a problem,” says Gaudet, MD, executive director of Duke Integrative Medicine at Duke University.

What you can do:

If you think the doc’s negative attitude is getting in the way, explain that you don’t feel the two of you are connecting (or communicating) . “That should cue the doctor to pause and take his or her emotional temperature,” Groopman says.

If you fear that kindness is getting in the way of care, bring your spouse or a close friend along to change the dynamic in the room, help you stick to the subject, or ask tough questions. Or simply say that you really appreciate the warmth, but you don’t want her to get distracted from doing her job—icky probes, tests, and all.

[Guest guest]

Very interesting, Dee. I think I mentioned this before...in Health or

Prevention magazine they had the top four or five unnecessary

surgeries. Number one and number two were specifically for women

(episiotomy and hysterectomy). Not a single surgery on the list was

male-specific. I think that in western medicine for years there has

been a bias against women and the more we stand up for ourselves the

better it will be.

Several months ago I posted a letter I sent a doc on this list and got

a ton of flak here (some support, tho)-people do sometimes legitimately

fear standing up against their docs. However, the people that not only

encouraged me to write that letter and also HELPED ME WRITE IT were

doctors. My step MIL is a retired ob-gyn and she has even told me to

walk out on certain exams and even get hostile with docs or technicians

if they weren't going favorably/respectfully for me and demand my copay

back depending on what is going on. My docs work for me. I pay them.

Like any other employee if they don't tow the line or realize who is in

charge they are fired and I'll be damn sure I will do what I can to

make sure their next victim can get a true " reference " from me. Before

I had this attitdue my health suffered because docs don't always take

their patients very seriously.

Lindsey

[Guest guest]

I recently had something like this happen to me. I was not the patient--my 8 yo son was, but I as his mother was the one that was stereotyped in this situation. My son, 8 yo, had been sick with the flu--like every other kid I am sure she had seen that day. Well my son also has a blood disorder called hereditary spherocytosis. Any type of virus could cause him to go into an aplastic crisis where his bone marrow completely shuts down, it stops producing RBCs. It is only short term--it does eventually come back to normal, but it can be very serious, as you can imagine--heart failure, etc. He was just not getting better and was extremely tired!! He was very pale and I just knew, as his mother, that something more was wrong. His pediatrician saw him and did a finger prick in the office to check his hemoglobin. Well it came back at 5, which is extremely low---blood transfusion low. Anyway, here is where the stereotpying came in. She called his hematologist and asked what she should do with my son. The hematologist and my doc agreed that it would be okay to wait until the next am to see him and do a transfusion if needed. When she came back in the room and told me that plan, I about fell off my chair! I said "NO, I will not be taking him home right now. I want him seen today and I want more blood work done". She insisted that he could not be in a crisis, because of the way he looked. I guess he did not look that badly to her. He was very pale, yellow, and could barely get up and walk! She finally said she would call the hematologist back and let her know how I felt. So, the hematologist wanted to speak with me. I told her the same thing I told the pediatrician. Anyway, we decided that going to the lab and having some indepth blood work done to see exactly where he is at would be a good place to start and that would determine whether he could wait until the morning to see the hematologist. THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THE ARTICLE THAT DEE POSTED IS TALKING ABOUT. I was assumed to be an over anxious mother. Anyway, when the blood work came back a couple hours later, the hematologist called me with the results. Needless to say, my son was brought to the hospital that evening and given a blood transfusion because he was in an aplastic crisis---JUST WHAT I SUSPECTED. They were going to send me home with this child in this condition! Anything could have happened that night. He actually told me that his heart felt different and he felt like he was going to die and I told the doc that and she still was convinced that he was not in a crisis. Every once of me knew that there was something very serious wrong with my son. Sorry this is so long, but this just recently happened and reading the article that Dee posted just made me feel compelled to post this. You have to stand up for yourself and what you feel is right. If you do not, nobody will.Mindy> .............> > What can you do to prevent a misdiagnosis and get the attention and treatment you need? First, learn the four common mental traps that doctors fall into—and then use these tricks to help your own doctor steer clear of them.> >

[Guest guest]

WOW.....

Hooray for you Mindy..... What a shame that happened to you but I can imagine it happens a lot more than is suspected. TG you stood your ground hon... *sigh* I wonder if they ever apologized to you.

There are times we just 'have' to be forceful indeed!!! as you said:

"You have to stand up for yourself and what you feel is right. If you do not, nobody will."

SO true, no one cares as much as you do about yourself!

Hugs hon and so glad that episode turned out ok... thanks to YOU! Dee

[Guest guest]

Mindy,

Wow. It's amazing how difficult it can sometimes be when we

know something is wrong with either us or our children and then

finally have it proved.

I ran in to this situation in Jan last year with my Pain

Management doctor when I told her that I was still having issues

with the pain in my pubic area (the coincidence is that this

particular pain started after she started injecting the pubic

mound twice). She told me in not so many words that she thought

I had something going on mentally yep, it's in my head. But yet

went ahead and did an MRI of my back which I had the next month

and it did show something was wrong. After that MRI was done

she learned not to doubt me again.

Although I will say that even though she doesn't doubt me

anymore I still get a bit afraid once in a while if I choose to

do something different than she recommends. Case in point was

after I got the results of the MRI I had in Jan of this year in

a sit up position it showed something wrong. She said the

results showed mild scoliosis and some bulging discs. She also

figured out that I still have issues with a shortened leg. The

shortened leg is my right leg. So she told me what to get for

it but after much to do first not finding it in the stores like

Walgreens and then going to Foot Solutions I was told by the

people at Foot Solutions to make sure I get my legs measured and

then come back and they would try to help me. So I went to the

Podiatrist to get another opinion, to tend to some other issues

with my feet, and get measured. Turns out it's a good thing I

went to the Podiatrist. He's fitted me for orthotics that I've

been trying to break in for the last 4 weeks.

Well, when I saw my Pain Management doctor at my last visit (the

one in March) her Medical Assistant asked if I got what the

doctor told me to get and I told her that I couldn't and why.

Then told my doctor about what I did (and yes I was very nervous

about this). Turned out I had no reason to worry and she

thought that was a good thing.

The doctor that wrote the article is the one I had mentioned

here recently about a book that he wrote. It came out last

year. It was an excellent book and it's one that " everyone "

should read. I saw it in one of the stores and then bought it

thru Amazon.com it was worth the money.

There was one case that started off the book about a woman who

had GI issues and other symptoms. Turns out that after a bit of

work to find out what was wrong (which meant going to another

doctor) they figured out she had Celiac.

The article Dee posted and the book is one more reason to show

why it's important that we get to know our body well when it

comes to giving as much information to the doctor as possible to

have them try to help us find out what's wrong.

Kristy

________________________________________________________________________________\

____

You rock. That's why Blockbuster's offering you one month of Blockbuster Total

Access, No Cost.

http://tc.deals.yahoo.com/tc/blockbuster/text5.com