First, if you are in pain, SOMETHING IS WRONG. The challenge with most doctors is that they are to arrogant to say, " I cannot find the reason for your pain (or symptoms)!" This would be an honest answer, but would also point out the limitations of the doctors.
Did you know that at least 40 percent of the diagnosis are incorrect. What is a diagnosis? It is a "guess" at what a "person" "thinks" might be" wrong with you. Listen to each of these words and grasp the reality of what they mean. It is not the doctors fault, it is just the reality of medicine. The same symptoms can point to a dozen different condition, or more. Is it a cold or bronchitis, is it a chest pain from indigestion or a hear attack, is it a headache or a brain tumor? This are the differences that a complaint or symptoms might be concluded as being.
It has sadly been shown that there are still patients who take the word of the doctor as infallible, no matter how many other explanations. Elderly women have been told that their joint is "bone on bone" and therefore MUST HAVE surgery or a knee replacement. In reality there is still space and it is not bone on bone and the joint can be in many cases "rehabilitated" and not require a replacement which is dangerous, many times unsuccessful and PERMANENT! Once you have had the knee replaced you cannot go back to dealing with the arthritic condition which might have been helped with other procedures.
Isn't it amazing that a doctor can say there is nothing wrong and then pick up there pen and paper and prescribe a drug which will do harm to the stomach, kidneys and liver? If there is truly nothing wrong, why the symptoms and why not admit to the limitation of your profession and seek other directions that might have other answers like nutritional supplements that in the long term may improve the healing of the condition by "helping" the body and not doing more damage just covering the symptoms? Why not have a second opinion, not of someone in the same profession but from someone in a different field?
But that would be like going to a Ford dealer and when the customer was not totally sold on the product to suggest they go look at a Chevy. We are always thinking that doctors are gods, or at the least philanthropists who would always be looking out for your best interest. That is not the case and the only one who can look out for you is YOU!
YOU need to know that doctors are "limited" about their knowledge. They went to college for their 8-12 years but they learned about only their field, not the field of their competition.
It is always amazing when a patient will complain about going to a medical doctor and all he wanted to do was give them drugs! Yes? And you were expecting? Of course they were going to recommend drugs... what is their title? M... medical (drugs)...D... doctor, that is what they know and what they will recommend. A surgeon will recommend surgery, a nutritionist will recommend nutrition, and a chiropractor will talk about adjusting you. This is what they have their knowledge, in their field. And the patient seems to always be surprised.
Patients want to believe that the doctor will recommend other fields as if he/she knew everything about every profession and what might help the individual patient. That is not reality. The patient, you, have to educate yourself about your body, what it might need and then HIRE a doctor to "teach" you about what they do, how it "might" help you, and then you have to make the decision. You do not have to take the drugs, have the surgery or get your spine adjusted, IF you are not in agreement.
If the doctor says there is nothing wrong and you know you are in pain or something is going on where you are experiencing symptoms, then you and not the doctor are going to have to seek addition assistance and not expect the doctor to automatically tell you to go to the herbalist, or the therapist, or even a chiropractor. You are going to have to make that choice.
This keeps being said and will have to be said again and again. You are responsible for your health and you are responsible for a lot of the outcome. If you go to a medical doctor and take the medication and get symptoms of some side effect or the medications do not work, you have a responsibility to let the doctor know. Most doctors do not know the amount of failure in their treatment because the patient does not tell them. This is sad, for the patient and for the doctor. It is also sad for other people who will continue the treatment you have taken as if it really worked because the doctor assume that your silence means you are doing better and you have gotten well.
Do you realize that most patients do not tell their doctor about outside treatment? And example, many patients will go to their doctor with back pain and will be prescribed a muscle relaxant, and maybe an anti-inflammatory medication. They may even take it, or they may not even have the prescription filled because they were looking for something other than drugs from their medical doctor (this is the un-real concept that many patients have mentioned before), but even if they take the medication and it does not work or only gives temporary relief, they may go to an acupuncturist or better yet, a chiropractor.
There they will have greater success with the treatment and their condition is improved or resolved. The shame is that the medical doctor assumes you are taking the medication, that your are doing well because of the medication, and that HE has cured you!
This is again unfair to the doctor and his other patients. Most doctor do not know that their patient is seeing other services because they are not told. Some are not told because of their own attitude or egos. Patient would like to confide in their doctors, but some have told the doctor that they have been to another professional and the doctor gets upset or belittles the other profession placing the patient's judgment in question and to the embarrassment of the patient, they will say nothing the next time.
It is a wise doctor who seeks out the answers to the benefit of their patients and works for that purpose. It is a good doctor who works with other professionals and seeks the best for their patients, but, back to reality. You have so much care being offered by HMOs and they generally do not have alternative health care services or if they do, it is very restricted and/or limited.
Until the professions become more professional, it is going to have to be the patients who make the choices. It is going to have to be the patients who educate themselves. In truth, this is a very good thing. The more educated you become about what is available to you the better you will be to make choices for your best results. These choices may save you a lot of pain, a lot of many, and could even save... your life!
By the:
PUBLIC RESPONSIBILITY EDUCATION PROGRAM
Dr. Gerald Coy
CHER Foundation
Coy Chiropractic Institute
http://www.cherfoundation.org * http://www.cher4life.com
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