Should You Rely on Your Doctor?

By David Spero We gave our neighbor Sylvie a ride to her doctor. In the car, the talk turned to medicines. Sylvie said she was on seven or eight drugs. She didn't remember what they were all for, but said, "I leave that up to my doctor." I'm scared for Sylvie. She has high blood pressure, Type 2 diabetes, and asthma. She's a wonderful person, but she has a tough life, with custody of her young grandchildren and a part-time job. I can see why she might rely on her doctor to make all health decisions, but in my experience, that plan usually runs into trouble. Her medicines could have side effects or interactions she doesn't know about. And we have no way of knowing whether her doctor (actually doctors — she has three) know what they are doing, or what the others are doing. Does one even know what the other is prescribing? I've been a nurse for almost 40 years. You kind of see the rough side of medicine when you work in a med/surg unit. I used to not trust doctors at all, but now I take them on a case-by-case basis. Some are wonderful. But still I would never rely on any doctor completely. Would you? Why I don't think you should put all your trust in medical professionals: Doctors miss things. They are human. They really don't have time to know their patients well, so they put us into categories by illness or demographics. Most of them treat diseases, not people. They tend to think drugs are the answer to everything. Some are too reluctant to share information. Why are yo...
Source: Diabetes Self-Management - Category: Diabetes Authors: Source Type: blogs