Becoming an E-patient
It seems its becoming necessary for patients to research online for their own health because the majority of doctors no longer have patience in investigating an ongoing illness that their basic testing shows no results.
If the human body was a computer, it would take 23,000 software programs to keep each system functioning normally. I'm actually surprised that MORE things don't go wrong with us. However, there is no way any one Dr. can know about all of those 23,000 functions in the body, therefore 48% of people in chronic pain go for many years without a diagnosis. The doctors don't have the time, energy, incentive or caring that it would take to track down most chronic diseases, and some acute ones...therefore we and our families are left to search for our own help and diagnosis.
I have found that when doctors can't find the answer or cure us, their ego gets bruised, they get embarrassed and frustrated, and don't want to deal with us. Most won't even send us to a specialist, for fear that the specialist will find out the Dr. missed something really simple, or think that sending us to a specialist is a sign of defeat.
Here are a few sites that you can find out about the E-patient movement, searching for your diseases and advocating (fighting) for your right to get healthy. There are literally millions of sites where you can search for your symptoms and your diagnosis and your diseases, but these help patients find things that the doctors don't seem to want to try hard enough to find. (By the way, I advise finding a second opinion or another doctor if he is not listening to your concerns, or is just brushing them off as nothing, and you feel there is something to be concerned about.)
So on we go as E-patients, helping to arm ourselves with information and to heal ourselves! I am SOOO grateful to live in the age of Internet!!!!
Blessings,
Sheila
Hi Sheila--This is interesting--as a medical provider, I am actually pleased when a patient comes in, gives a list of their symptoms, then pulls out a note copied from the internet, with the diagnosis and treatment that fits the symptoms!
I give them a lot of credit for doing this, and often they come in knowing more than I do about the disease (there are a lot of unusual ones out there!)
Yes, I do learn a lot from my patients...
Yes said... Mon Apr 06, 07:21:00 pm GMT-6
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