Because of my schooling and work experience, I have a fair amount of medical training. To the point that I usually take more interest in any medical problems that my occur in my life than a regular person would. When a medical problem arises, I am impatient to know what's going on. I usually am too impatient to wait until I can get into a doctor and get a diagnosis. So, I turn to the internet and diagnose myself. Then, when I do get into the doctor, I already in my mind think I know what's going on. And, guess what? Of all of my recent medical problems accompanied by self-diagnoses, I have been correct. In fact, in one case, I was correct in my self-diagnosis while two initial doctors I saw were incorrect (fortunately, they made good referrals). So, why do I pay someone hundreds or even thousands of dollars to tell me what I already found out on the internet? Because, while I may be able to self-diagnose, I usually can't self-treat. But, all of this makes me wonder if I should've been a doctor. Or if there are more problems with our healthcare system than we would like to admit.
*Please don't let this post scare you. I am generally in good health and am not about to die.
13 comments:
I was always a little embarrassed whenever I'd go to my prenatal appointments, because I NEVER had any questions for the doctor. I had already looked everything up. Sometimes I'd ask her things just to confirm (or just so I wouldn't look like I just didn't care), but I already knew what she was going to say. Funny. But it's true--you can't normally self-treat.
When you find yourself wondering if you should have been a doctor, think about if you'd like to go to school for 8 or 9 more years and work your butt off (80-100 hours a week) during that schooling. Ha!
I always do this, though WebMD always tries to convince me that I'm dying. So, there's a downside.
Yeah, I think the downside is definitely that info. on the web is usually skewed to the extreme. And I think doctors can be good resources for information like classes to take or whatever. Or, like when I had a funky looking mole, I told the doctor that I was in no rush to get it removed and she was like, "Uh, if I were you, I'd get it out now." It wasn't cancerous or anything but she had the experience to know that it could become cancerous and that waiting was probably not a good idea. I definitely appreciate WebMD every once in a while but I LOVE how Kaiser lets you email your doctor (and even attach photos!) and then you don't have to pay a copay:).
I appreciate having a doctor who doesn't mind when I tell him my symptoms and then tell him what I think I have, and he doesn't get all defensive and automatically shoot me down. Sometimes I'm right, and he congratulates me. And sometimes I'm wrong, but he let's me down easy, like, "Oh yeah, I can see how you drew that conclusion. In this case it's actually..."
Good doctors are the best. And so is the internet.
I was just about to ask what in the world is going on with you that you need to keep going to doctors. I can almost say that the internet is our doctor. It also helps that Jeff is a chiropractor. The first two years of chiro school are about the same as regular medical school so he has a good background on things. But sadly I do feel there is a problem with our healthcare system. Jeff diagnosed my nose, but it took me two doctors and months of waiting to get into those doctors to get a final say. Sometimes we just need to take things into our own hands.
Man, every time I use the internet to try to self-diagnose, or kid-diagnose I'm always wrong!
Just read your blog for the first time in well, a long time. Since the kids got out of school, I hardly ever get time on the computer. And all my time lately has been used to figure out medical bills. We've had a lot. Anyway, I always say if I was a man and needed a career, I would have been a doc or surgeon. The human body absolutely fascinates me.
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