Choose your Dr. carefully

[Clodfobble]

I hate doctors. So many of them will simply refuse to admit that they don't know the answer.

When my brother was a toddler, he had almost constant ear infections. The doctor told my father that they needed to put tubes in his ears; i.e., puncture a hole in his eardrum which would remain open indefinitely--infections would actually get worse without the eardrum to help stop the bacteria, but this way the pus would drain and the pain would be lessened. He could never go swimming until the doctors had determined they could take the tubes out, and he had to be exceedingly careful in the bath. His hearing would be noticeably worse off even after the tubes were removed and the eardrum had closed back up.

My father's one question was, "if a punctured eardrum makes you unfit for military service, why is it ok to do it to my son?" The doctor got angry that my father was questioning him and essentially threw them out of the office, telling him to come back when he was ready to take his son's health seriously. Fortunately, someone gave my parents a book called "What Your Child's Doctor Isn't Telling You" (or something like that) before they went through with it.

Turns out, my brother was allergic to cows' milk. They took him off that, and the infections ceased. Today, he is a musician... and he gets very uncomfortable if you mention he almost had his eardrums punctured as part of a completely unnecessary medical procedure.

Sometimes you can't choose your doctor, and you're at the whim of whatever Bozo is on duty at the moment. Some years back down in Durango, Colorado I was driving home from visiting a friend who lived outside of town. Suddenly this huge elk jumps out on the road in front of me, basicly sticking out its tongue and putting its hooves up next to its antlers, daring me to hit it. Well, I swerved out of its way and hit my brakes which caused me to skid into a ditch next to the road and my car flipped over, sending me head first thru the closed sun roof of the car (I know, bad girl, should'a had my seat belt on). Not only did I suffer a serious concussion, I also broke all the ribs on my left side, my left collar bone, and my left elbow. The broken ribs punctured my left lung, causing it to collapse. To make things interesting, my heart decided to stop beating when I arrived (via paramedics and ambulance) at Durango's then teeny emergency medical center. At that time in Durango the doc's took turns being the one on call. They didn't even hang around the hospital, but just went home with their pager. It was a week night and I suppose the doc on call figured the chances of his being needed that night were nil, so he proceeded to down the better part of a quart of Jack Daniel's. When he arrived in the ER, he was so drunk he didn't know what he was doing. Thank God for the paramedics who saved my life. All the doc did was give me a tracheotomy which was done too high and severely damaged my larynx. I recovered from the accident itself fine, but I couldn't speak for several months afterwards and had to have two surgeries up in Denver to fix my voice and clear the scar tissue which was in danger of shutting off my air passage way. Believe me, I wanted to sue that doctor for malpractice big time, but the hospital did a cover up job that would have done Richard Nixon proud. I later met one of the paramedics who had saved my life and he told me the full story. This man had the courage to fly in the face of the local medical establishment and reported my doctor to the appropriate state authorities, and that doctor lost his license. Thank God.

[Cyber Wolf]

It's doctors like that who give decent doctors a bad name. Of course, it's nice having doctors for parents. When I was little, they knew and were friends with all the medical professionals I ever needed to see so I always had a good doctor, never had a Stupid Doctor Experience But I'm still young, I don't live in the same city as my parents anymore. I'll have many more doctors to go through before it's over.