# Are Doctors still asking odd (to me) questions? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 17, 2021, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133 "2021-02-17T15:37:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![HMS\_Irruncible](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hms_irruncible/32/7394_2.png) [@HMS\_Irruncible](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HMS_Irruncible)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133/101 "2021-02-19T19:23:50Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > That’s the thing. So much time was spent updating the computer and asking about guns, that I had no exam. Nurse took my BP, and weighed me. Doctor just wrote a script for a uric acid blood test. That’s the diagnostic test for gout, what more do you want? A toe cast and some nutter butters? ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133/102 "2021-02-19T20:02:36Z")
Here’s a handy new version of The Patient’s Bill of Rights I put together from the complaints in this thread: 1. Don’t read my chart, and don’t put anything into my chart while you’re with me. Don’t ask me questions I answered the last time I was here, either. Memorize everything. Or just let me sue the hell out of you for not remembering and not asking. 2. Don’t ask me about anything I consider irrelevant or none of your business–i.e., anything _I_ consider unrelated to the wart I’m here for. No questions about guns–especially no gun questions. No general health screening questions or tests. _Let_ my relatives sue you for all you’re worth because you didn’t even take my blood pressure, and I had a stroke three days after my appointment and stayed in a vegetative state for months before finally kicking off. “Everybody knows hypertension is a silent killer, and she didn’t even take a f—ing blood pressure!” they’ll rant. 3. Don’t hand me any pamphlets. I don’t want a single, goddam pamphlet. If something is relevant to my condition, tell me. I’ll forget most of it, but so what? If it’s a pamphlet about something not relevant to my specific condition, see #2, even if it could help me prevent another health condition. I’m not paying you to help me stay healthy. 4. When I come in, I want an exam, dammit. No general exams unless I’m there for a general physical, which I won’t be unless my job or insurance requires it. No, I want a _specific_ exam. Even if I’m there for something that requires a lab test and isn’t revealed by physical exam, you’d better examine me. 5. If you don’t examine me when you really should, that’s my excuse to refuse to ever go to another doctor. _I once went to a bad doctor_ will be my rationale forever after, _and he asked me a bunch of stupid questions and didn’t even examine me!_ Years later, as I die a needless, painful death from the cancer I let go undetected because I had this great excuse not to go to a doctor, I’ll be cursing your name. I sure wont’ be cursing the real culprit: me. 6. If I want opioids, you should give me opioids. A good doctor won’t ask me about guns or alcohol consumption but will give me all the opioids I want. Opioid crisis? What crisis? I can’t _get_ addicted: I’m a fine, trustworthy, upstanding citizen! 7. The healthcare industry in this country sucks. Therefore, I won’t buy into anything you say, do, or advise that I don’t like. ---
**Author:** ![Pardel-Lux](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pardel-lux/32/20182_2.png) [@Pardel-Lux](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pardel-Lux)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133/103 "2021-02-19T20:17:48Z")
I don’t know about the doctor’s questions and their pertinence or lack thereof, least of all in your country, but if the pain in your foot is really unbearable, if you can not sleep because the thinnest linen is too heavy even if you pull it aside, if you walk like the floor is lava and raw eggs at the same time, then I am afraid it is gout. I am very sorry. Your avatar leads me to think in that direction too (I know what I am talking about). The good news: it gets better, sooner or later. The bad news: it recurrs. Again and again. It’s like herpes. And may your nosy doctor go to hell, by the way. He should discuss allopurinol with you, not guns or how safe/unsafe you feel. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133/104 "2021-02-19T21:32:17Z")
> [@HMS\_Irruncible](#): > > That’s the diagnostic test for gout, what more do you want? Well, I hadn’t been there in a few years and thought I’d get an exam. Instead we discussed guns, home safety, falling, then I got my script. Oh, and I was told I **must** give up beer, which made me laugh (considering the pain I was in that was a miracle). The doctor _insisted_ I could never drink beer again and was pissed off when I said that wouldn’t happen. I’m downing a pint as I write this, and will have several more. Then I’ll drink two liters of water. I haven’t had a gout attack in years. Cheers! ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133/105 "2021-02-19T21:40:59Z")
I had a patient complaint my second day of practice because I looked something up in a book. The doctors you need to worry about already know all the answers - “by Gestalt”. And always have. But I enjoyed the modest proposed list of patients rights. It’s an important topic, but the rights patients need and the ones some articulate might differ. There is a place to screen for general questions and a place to get down to business and address a chief complaints. It’s a very fine balancing act. I think _starting_ with a laundry list of sanctimonious reminders is not a great idea. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133/106 "2021-02-19T22:05:56Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I was there wanting to find out if my foot pain was caused by gout, which was what my googling had come up with. > [@kayaker](#): > > I’m downing a pint as I write this, and will have several more. Then I’ll drink two liters of water. I haven’t had a gout attack in years. Cheers! So you think it’s gout, the doctor tells you what to do to prevent gout, but you refuse to do so because you can’t go without drinking. Well then stop complaining. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133/107 "2021-02-19T22:16:19Z")
@nelliebly Oh, satire! I had to read it a few times before I realized that. It’s too much like something a number of my patients would write. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133/108 "2021-02-19T22:44:53Z")
You have my sympathy and my respect. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133/109 "2021-02-19T22:48:00Z")
@nelliebly thanks. I’ve gotten notes from patients telling me I’m violating their constitutional right to be pain free by not providing them with opioids, and that they’re suing me for that. Then they proceeded to do so. LOL. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2021, 11:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133/110 "2021-02-19T23:36:53Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > So you think it’s gout, the doctor tells you what to do to prevent gout, but you refuse to do so because you can’t go without drinking. Well then stop complaining. I’m complaining in part because the doctor was _factually incorrect_, as my intentional diuresis has demonstrated. I drink all the beer I want, combined with large volumes of water and I remain symptom free. No allopurinol, no NSAIDS, no dietary changes. I found this out researching on my own, no charge. ETA: I can go without drinking. I _prefer_ not to go without drinking. ---
**Author:** ![carnut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnut/32/3531_2.png) [@carnut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnut)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2021, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133/111 "2021-02-20T00:19:35Z")
Just like we expect too much of the docs, they also have their businesses, public health, and insurance companies expecting too much of them too. They are frustrated. So please take that chip of your shoulder(s) and try to communicate clearly. Be a patient patient. And if you don’t think they are hearing what you are saying. Ask them to repeat it back to you using different words. Seriously. We’re all human here. Sometimes, it helps to remind ourselves and each other of that. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2021, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133/112 "2021-02-20T01:12:54Z")
@carnut I believe you’ve been whooshed. ---
**Author:** ![nelliebly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nelliebly/32/5422_2.png) [@nelliebly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nelliebly)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2021, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133/113 "2021-02-20T01:41:54Z")
If you take a quick look at posts 19, 44, and 68, you’ll see that I agree with you and and that the post you’re responding to is actually meant as sarcasm. I thought lines like “…I sure won’t be cursing the real culprit: me” were tip-offs, but apparently they were too subtle. Sorry about that. You must have thought I was being sarcastic when I told Quadcop he has my sympathies and respect, but he really does. He had them before, but this thread boosted both considerably. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2021, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133/114 "2021-02-20T02:38:29Z")
Never been asked about guns, at least not by my PCPs I do get questions about whether I snore (a: vigorously) and then about how well I sleep – probably to try to clue in to whether there’s sleep apnea issues. > [@chela](#): > > At my physicals my docs never do a urine test without cause. Huh. At all _my_ annual physicals since last century the doc has ordered one as a matter of course. > [@jtur88](#): > > In the United States, the [Federal Rules of Evidence](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Rules_of_Evidence) do not recognize doctor–patient privilege. Heck, in case of child/elder abuse they commonly are _mandated_ reporters. ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2021, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133/115 "2021-02-20T02:43:46Z")
My doctor looks my in the eye, listens to me, does a physical exam, and also takes notes. Oh, and last time I went, he was running more than an hour late. I don’t think they actually are given enough time to really do their job. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2021, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133/116 "2021-02-20T03:00:21Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Oh, and I was told I **must** give up beer, which made me laugh (considering the pain I was in that was a miracle). The doctor _insisted_ I could never drink beer again and was pissed off when I said that wouldn’t happen. > > I’m downing a pint as I write this, and will have several more. Then I’ll drink two liters of water. I haven’t had a gout attack in years. Cheers! You may regret that if indeed you have gout: Some research suggests that **beer** is especially bad for **gout** because it contains higher levels of purines that break down directly into uric acid. A 2004 study published in the medical journal The Lancet found that “alcohol is strongly associated with an increased risk of **gout** ,” the study authors concluded. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2021, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133/117 "2021-02-20T13:25:17Z")
> [@BippityBoppityBoo](#): > > You may regret that if indeed you have gout: My gout has been documented, my serum Uric Acid level was sky high at the time of my first occurrence. I know how bad alcohol is and how beer is the worst. I read all that I could on the matter and decided I did not want to alter my diet/lifestyle at all, other than drinking a huge amount of water each day. Doing this, since my first occurrence I’ve had but one episode, and it was secondary to trauma. I was working in the barn, got frustrated, and kicked a wall. Boom, gout outbreak that caused two weeks of horrific pain. That was years ago, I drink all I want, eat mussels and red meat, etc. The only downside is waking to pee every night at 1 am and again at 3 am. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2021, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133/118 "2021-02-20T13:39:38Z")
My current doctor told me unless I had certain chronic conditions that required close monitoring or was pregnant, they don’t do urinalysis as a matter of routine. Having Blood work done was much better for diagnostic reasons. YMMV. ---
**Author:** ![BippityBoppityBoo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bippityboppityboo/32/5745_2.png) [@BippityBoppityBoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BippityBoppityBoo)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2021, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133/119 "2021-02-20T17:03:38Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > That was years ago, I drink all I want Glad you have figured out a system that works for you. The waking up to pee has my sympathy-sounds like my night. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2021, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133/120 "2021-02-20T17:12:45Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > My doctor knows that neither my sister or I would ever abuse opioids. Your doctor knows no such thing. Addiction isn’t something you want to happen or decide to happen, and virtue and/or self control isn’t going to stop it from happening. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-doctors-still-asking-odd-to-me-questions/933133.md?page=7)