# Is it just me or does the doctor never treat you? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 22, 2009, 6:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-the-doctor-never-treat-you/511055 "2009-09-22T06:25:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2009, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-the-doctor-never-treat-you/511055/41 "2009-09-22T23:53:35Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Don’t go to the doctor for colds and flus. You’ll just make the doctor sick. My nurse practitioner mother is good and tired of relatively uneducated people massing into the clinic demanding something be done for their colds and flu. “It’s a virus. Drink plenty, go to bed, and quit spreading more germs around.” If there are drugs for flu, she’s not mentioned them. ---
**Author:** ![Purgatory\_Creek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/74df32/32.png) [@Purgatory\_Creek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Purgatory_Creek)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-the-doctor-never-treat-you/511055/42 "2009-09-23T00:16:13Z")
I’ve had “bad” (rude/dismissive/incompetent/stinky) doctors almost exactly as often as I’ve had bad neighbors, bad mechanics, bad waitrons, bad help desk denizens, and bad blind dates. When I’ve encountered them, I’ve generally not chosen to see them a second time, which seems like the sensible way to respond. I don’t go to the medical doctor very often, just for preventive stuff or surgery for the most part. The last time I was on antibiotics was when I had my wisdom teeth out in 1978. There are some major benefits to being a hermit. The trouble with the rest of you people is that you’re always _touching_ each other :D. ---
**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:** [September 23, 2009, 12:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-the-doctor-never-treat-you/511055/43 "2009-09-23T00:35:22Z")
> [@Superhal](#): > > Hey screw you, I had Christmas snot. [Moderator Admonition]This is _not_ The BBQ Pit-dial it back a notch, o.k.?[/Moderator Admonition] ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-the-doctor-never-treat-you/511055/44 "2009-09-23T00:50:52Z")
> [@](#): > > I’ve been seeing this RNP for about a year and a half now and I actually really like our visits. She sees me on time, sees me for 30 minutes, talks to me, works on things with me, gets my BP and cholesterol down, helps me find the right medications for me. Just plain old helpful. The best doctoring I ever had was from a physician’s assistant. He was very gentle, and he knew the importance of not keeping the damn speculums in a freezer. He knew when he could treat me, and when he needed to refer me to someone else. ---
**Author:** ![Lynn\_Bodoni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e47c2d/32.png) [@Lynn\_Bodoni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lynn_Bodoni)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-the-doctor-never-treat-you/511055/45 "2009-09-23T00:53:21Z")
> [@Cisco](#): > > I almost did a spit-take when I read this. My best friend and I had the same doctor when we were teenagers and we had a long-running joke that his solution to everything was to touch your penis. > > "Doc, I’m feeling kind of depressed . . . " > “Let me touch your penis.” > > "Doc, I’ve got this bad hang nail on my big toe . . . " > “Gonna have to touch your penis.” > > "But doc . . . " > “EH EH EH! Penis.” Hey, in my experience, most guys would not be depressed if they got their penis touched more often. However, I can sort of understand this…I’d get real tired of the routine if some doc decided that I needed a pelvic exam every time I had a complaint. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-the-doctor-never-treat-you/511055/46 "2009-09-23T01:21:27Z")
> [@Cardinal](#): > > If there are drugs for flu, she’s not mentioned them. Tamiflu is probably the best-known one, but I think there are other similar meds. As mentioned previously, they’re most effective in the first 24 hours, and after 72 hours you might as well not bother. But the people your mom is dealing with, by and large, don’t have actual influenza. You can tell because they feel good enough to come in bitching about how they’re dying from the flu. My husband’s rule of thumb is to imagine you’re lying on the couch feeling like ass and see a $100 bill outside on the lawn. If you feel good enough to go get it, you have a cold. If you go “meh” and roll over to go back to sleep, you probably have the flu. As for the doc not treating you, just writing scripts (or not, as the case may be), what do you expect them to do? Put on leeches? They’re looking at issues that are either self-limiting and don’t need anything, or they’re looking at stuff that is going to respond better to medication than any sort of physical treatment. ---
**Author:** ![Fetchund](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b2d939/32.png) [@Fetchund](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fetchund)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-the-doctor-never-treat-you/511055/47 "2009-09-23T01:44:17Z")
Our current doctor is a gem. Unfortunately, everybody else thinks so, too - so, getting an appointment with her can be 6-12 weeks out. She will NOT dismiss you if you need to talk to her, or if she feels she needs more information, so somedays she is running 3 hours behind schedule. For me, a fantastic doctor is worth it - I schedule regular appointments WAY in advance. I consider her the queen of diagnosis - and of referrals. I spent a 6 month period getting everything checked out totally (yes, including that rascally colonoscopy!) before totally ruling everything else out determined that I had IBD. My vitamin D levels and thyroid were a bit off occasionally - now, I get tested before I start falling apart. I know that under her care, I won’t get brushed off with the quick and easy, get-'em-out-the-door answer. So, the waits are worth it! ---
**Author:** ![thirdwarning](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecccb3/32.png) [@thirdwarning](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thirdwarning)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-the-doctor-never-treat-you/511055/48 "2009-09-23T04:10:59Z")
The last time I went to the doctor was for back pain that was so bad I couldn’t stand up straight. He listened while I told him what had happened, and then he watched me stand up off the table. “Easier said than done,” I said, and he responded, “I can see that.” After a bit of poking and prodding, during which he actually paid attention to where it hurt, he told me he could do something then and he would give me a prescription for a muscle relaxer for later. Then he got me positioned on the table and jerked me sideways. I could tell it had made a big difference even as I got up and then he did the other side. When I told him how much difference it had made he said we could wait on the prescription and if it didn’t get much better in a couple of days I should let him know. I never had to call. So yes, the doctor treated me. And my husband gets the same kind of treatment when he goes in. I really hope this guy never retires. ---
**Author:** ![lee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lee/32/7455_2.png) [@lee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lee)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-the-doctor-never-treat-you/511055/49 "2009-09-23T05:23:49Z")
Well, last year I went to a doctor for what seemed like a cold and some aches and pains. It was my third cold in two months, and I hurt all over. Turns out, I had pnemonia and antibiotics did help it. The doctor also treated me in that she had me take a nebulizer treatment in the office to try to open my lungs up. Sometimes a cold is not a cold. ---
**Author:** ![cerberus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cerberus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cerberus)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-the-doctor-never-treat-you/511055/50 "2009-09-23T05:32:33Z")
In most clinical settings, the role of the physician is to diagnose and determine treatment. With notable exceptions including surgery, the actual treatments are frequently executed by nurses, PAs, techncians and the like. ---
**Author:** ![StaudtCJ](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/90ced4/32.png) [@StaudtCJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StaudtCJ)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2009, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-the-doctor-never-treat-you/511055/51 "2009-09-23T08:46:43Z")
> [@Dogzilla](#): > > I have a DO who has tested me for everything under the sun when I went in with “hurty hands” that have been hurting me for months. She finally said she thought it was carpal tunnel, but has not treated it, nor has she referred me to a specialist who will treat it. In fact, she won’t even write “carpal tunnel” down on my chart and I haven’t a clue why. My official diagnosis is “unexplained hand pain.” Why does my doc not want to confirm the dx and/or treat it? My son has JRA (a type of arthritis). The doctor that eventually diagnosed him refused to write that down for several years, because it’s a lifetime “pre-existing condition” that can prevent my son from acquiring insurance later. We treated with OTC meds for that time, and the Doc only wrote it down when we couldn’t treat appropriately without prescriptions any longer. Carpal Tunnel is another of those permanent conditions, if I recall correctly, but IANAD. It’s just possible that your doctor is looking out for you and your future. Have you asked him or her? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-it-just-me-or-does-the-doctor-never-treat-you/511055.md?page=2)