Doctors piss me off!

The BBQ Pit
21

Ruffian -

Sorry if my mention of “increased risk of sudden cardiac death” alarmed you; I may not have been clear that it is not believed to be valid today.

My main point in posting was to convey how changeable medical dogma can be. It sounds like you got caught in the crossfire of changing views of what is, and what is not, MVP, and what does & what does not require SBE prophyllaxis. In the early '90’s as an internist, I spent a great deal of time “undiagnosing” MVP in patients who at sometime in their life had been told they had a heart murmur, had an ECHO, and because of poorly defined diagnostic criteria were told that they had MVP, needed SBE prophyllaxis, and had an increased risk of premature death. For the active duty soldiers I was seing, this sometimes was enough to keep them from going to schools they wanted to attend (Special Forces/SEALs have very rigorous health standards) & serious implications on their ability to get promoted.

There is a tendency among a good many young healthy patients (we sometimes call them the worried well) to equate playing it safe and giving them a diagnosis they may or may not have with good medical care. From your second post, it seems clear that my concern that this may have applied to you was unfounded. It also sounds like you are well on your your way to getting this resolved, once & for all.

Bottom line: If no murmur is heard, no amount of prolapse (valve “parachuting” back into the atrium) means anything.
Even if a murmur is heard, the ECHO should confirm that there is mitral regurgitation (blood flowing backwards across the mitral valve from the L ventricle to the L atrium during pumping=systole) before SBE prophyllaxis is required. There are other causes of audible murmurs that are entirely benign, and need no further evaluation or treatment.

Sue from El Paso

Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.

22

Sax–yow! You win! What an unbelievable asshole. No, no, he’s far worse than an asshole. He’s the puss-filled boil on an asshole. I can’t believe he’s still in practice. I agree with your mother, though–I’m sure he’s extra careful with her now! (Not that I would still want to see him!)

Sue…Regurgitation! That was the term I was searching my latent memory for when I said “leakage.” I did a good deal of reading up on this subject when I was diagnosed–and man, there was quite a bit of vocabulary to learn (“syncope”…“dyspnea”…). Anyway, no, there was little to no regurgitation…I dunno, maybe there was. I was put on beta blockers (Corgard knocked me out; I was later switched to Lanoxin). And I wasn’t freaked out when you said “sudden death,” just clarifying that my form of MVP (or whatever), when it was diagnosed, was told to be mild to moderate. Sudden death (or the surgery to replace the valve) was not a concern as my valve was not so compromised.

I have this fear that the doctors think I’m some paranoid freak who actually wants to be sick (this fear was formed partially in thanks to asshole #1, who treated me that way, although he also blamed my mother). No, really, I don’t want this. Tell me all’s okay, and I’ll be happy. (In talking with my mother tonight, apparently a doctor detected my murmur after I was born; she never mentioned it because he said it wasn’t anything to be concerned about. I’m hoping 26 years later, that’s really the case.)

BTW, is MVP hereditary? My b/f has Marfan’s (well, “probable” Marfans as he displays all the secondary characteristics but fortunately his aorta is normal, though it’s checked every year), and in his echo every year they point out his flappy mitrol valve. He has no symptoms from it, though. Yup–we have hiccupy hearts, the two of us. (Lucky him–he has a resting pulse of 50! And he’s not even an athlete!)

Would our children, then, have a 100% chance of having MVP, or is it a random thing? (I do know any children would have a 50/50 chance of having Marfans, if my b/f does indeed have it.)

Hey, that sounds like a GQ question, not something in the BBQ pit. Shit! Those doctors really pissed me off!

(but I like Sue) :wink:

I used to think the world was against me. Now I know better: Some of the smaller countries are neutral.

Laura’s Stuff and Things

23

Ruffian -

I’m going to give you one of my very best hedges - it depends.

I believe, but am not sure, that while MVP is more common in certain body types & that profile may be inheritied, it is not a simple dominant/recessive type of inheritance pattern. Also, assuming your b/f’s condition is different from yours, any children could inherit abnormal genes for neither, one, or both conditions.

Here’s a link for MVP:
http://www.mayohealth.org/mayo/askphys/qa991217.htm
and http://www.mayohealth.org/mayo/askphys/ww5rn58.htm

You probably know most of this, Laura, but it links to some decent pictures for those not familiar with MVP.

Sue from El Paso

Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.

24

I’ve worked with a lot of nurses in my classes and their majority viewpoint is that doctors are, indeed, often assholes. BIG issue for them was that doctors are always called doctor while patients and nurses, regardless of age, are “Sue” and “Harry” and “Bob” and so forth. The nurses report that these doctors often introduce themselves as “Dr. So-andso” even when at social events.

I don’t have anyone call me “professor” even in class–I’m sure as hell not going to call anyone "Doctor if I’ve got a drink in my hand.

P.S. Unfortunately, I also have teaching colleagues who do the same thing–“I didn’t earn a Ph.D. just to be called “Mister” Smith.”

Bucky

Oh, well. We can always make more killbots.

25

Bucky, I understand that POV completely! I make a conscious effort to address the doctor the same way s/he addresses me.

-Melin

26

I agree. Melin, what’s your take on the “esquire” issue? I never use it, although a lot of other lawyers do. But in their defense, I’ve never seen a lawyer use esq. in a social setting. Doctors use their title socially all the time.

Actually, I’ve just recalled an exception to my comment above about lawyers not using titles in a social setting. In the African American community, at least in Chicago, professional titles are more widely used. For example, an African American attorney might be addressed as “Attorney Jones.”

27

One night at my mother’s house I keeled over,literally, with a pain on my right side.
The pain did go away that night but my mother insisted I go to the doctor the next day. So to humour her I went and after some poking and prodding he asked me if I thought I could be pregnant. I replied no because I had had a period. So he says “well then I think you must just be constipated, I’d do an internal on you but you’d just be embarassed.” Then he proceeded to pat me on the head and left me embarassed at what he had said.
Well a couple of months later I find out I am pregnant!! Five months pregnant!! Talk about surprise ( by the way before anyone asks how I didn’t know,…during the time of my pregnancy when I would have had morning sickness and such symptoms everyone including me had a terrible flu that lasted a couple of weeks, and I still had my period for the first few months!)
I immediately contacted another family doctor, a woman this time, and upon explaining what had happened she accepted to take me on as a patient. She is the best!

This same doctor refused to send my grandmother for tests saying “it’s all in your head”. As it turns out she has a congenative heart disorder, which if we hadn’t insisted he send her for tests, we wouldn’t have found out.

I’m don’t usually hold a grudge but whenever I hear anyone say they are going to go see this particular doctor I make sure to tell them he’s a fuckin’ quack!!

28

I have to agree with the OP, I’ve had my share of bad experiences with doctors myself. And run across a few really good ones as well, but one of the main reasons I decided to become a nurse-practitioner was that, in general, most of the nurses I have come in contact with are much nicer, more compassionate people than most of the doctors I have seen.
My own personal bad-doctor story:

When I was in the process of having my first miscarriage, the doc in the ER informed me that “Well, we can go ahead and scrape you (yes, he used those words) if you want.” When informed I wanted to attempt to save the pregnancy, he said “Sorry, no real chance of that, go home and treat it like a period.”
Sure did make me feel better!

29

All three doctors I’ve had that I can remember have been absolute sweethearts… (Well, the current one is a teense brusque, but that’s ok.) Or maybe I just have rosy memories because I’ve never been seriously ill, and also because the last one informed me that I’m HIV negative.

Also, I have a lot of sympathy for doctors since my mom is one. And I know she’s a wonderful doctor because I’ve heard her at home agonizing about her patients (in a confidentiality-maintaining manner, of course) and about the dreadful underfunding at her hospital.

Both of the only medical practitioners I’ve seen whom I haven’t liked were shrinks, interestingly enough. There was the one person in Winnipeg who diagnised my eccentric nature and (at the time) lack of sociability as Asperger’s autism. In other words, my personality was a disease. Ouch.

The other guy didn’t go so far but he was kind of unsympathetic and unhelpful when I tried to describe my feelings. Meh.