I’m looking for medical advice, but not because of an ailment. Unless age is considered an ailment.
My present doctor’s office has transformed. The doctor who was the main partner in the place has retired and turned over the practice to a group of teenage ninja action figures who are more concerned with taking care of babies and pre/post natal mothers. As someone who is crowding 60 real hard, I no longer feel like I’m well-served by this office, particularly since this last physical. I actually had to suggest what the possible problem is with my thumb joints and that just maybe I should get x-rays. Turns out to be degenerative joint problems, as I suspected. Their first advice was steroid injections, which a cursory search of the internet reveals is really not the first line of defense here.
So what should I be looking for at this age? I’m assuming a family-practice physician is not the ticket. An internist? A decrepitist? A foot-in-the-grave-ist?
I’m not an expert, but I think you are looking for a family-practice physician for your primary care provider. Just one that you feel more comfortable with and trust. You aren’t nearly old enough for a geriatrician and you sound like you’re generally in good health anyway. An internest that serves as a primary-care provider might also be appropriate.
A decent family practice doc can handle it. The trick is in finding one who meets your needs and pays proper attention. Otherwise an internist is a good bet, but similar caveats apply here. I doubt you really need a geriatrician at the ripe old age of late 50’s.
60 is a bit young for a gerontologist, unless you have a number of age related disorders.
Family practice would be fine, but you may have to do some leg work. Asking what age groups the pracice sees most often, is good. You can even ask the age of the physician(s) in the practice. Obviously, older docs would have more insight into the problems faced by aging patients.
Don’t I know it. While my bloodwork was good this time around and I’m generally healthy, the persistent plantar fasciitis and the onset of osteoarthritis in the thumbs has me somewhat depressed. I’ve always had excellent balance and coordination, and these two things go right to the core of that. Combine this with doctors who look like they should still be on the cheerleading squad and don’t really seem to know how to do anything but push pills, and you can see why I’m looking around for a change. Thanks for the advice on GP versus old-fart doc.
At the family practice I go to, all of the doctors have a listed specialty; for example, the GP I see most frequently has a background in sports medicine. (Which really came in handy when I fell down my stairs and developed a giant hematoma, about a year ago.) Another of the docs specializes in preventative diabetes care among other things, and so forth. You might just want to shop around practices until you find a doc that has a background pertaining to your particular issues. Or, as others have suggested, just find one that’s a better fit for you in general. I switched from my old GP after I was diagnosed with diabetes, because while she’d been great at nutritional advice and helping me out with ear infections and stuff, her diabetes info seemed at least 5-10 years out of date and I wanted someone a little more into the current research. (I also see an endocrinologist now, of course, but still, it’s nice to have a GP who knows what she’s talking about.)