I can see how this would seem silly to you, but I’m not sure the doctor was making a ridiculous suggestion. Vaginismus doesn’t only affect nervous teenagers. Some women (even married ones) just have anxiety about sex which results in the unconscious contraction of the pelvic muscles. There can be a lot of different causes, but vaginismus is one of the most common causes of painful intercourse. The good news is, it’s treatable.
I had way too much post-partum bleeding that continued for 6 or 8 weeks after I gave birth. The doc at the local clinic in Mozambique where I was living told me it was no big deal.
However, I also had an OB-GYN in South Africa who had delivered my son (no way in hell would I have given birth in Maputo), so when I went to see him for a post-partum check I mentioned the bleeding. He was calm, but suggested that I needed a D&C.
I’ll never forget how we were still talking, as I was getting dressed behind the screen. He said, “So, when do you want to have the procedure?” Having been told by goofball doctor in Mozambique that the bleeding was no big deal, I started rambling on about, “oh let’s see…maybe next week I could come back but wait, no, my husband will be traveling, so maybe in two weeks…”
The doctor cut me off. “I didn’t mean ‘when’ as in next week or in two weeks. I meant ‘when’ as in 2 pm this afternoon or 4 pm this afternoon. You need to have this taken care of NOW.” I wish I could have seen the expression on his face at the time - he was clearly flabbergasted at my cavalier attitude.
Anyway, as I later learned, the advice of “don’t worry about it” from the doctor in Mozambique was terrible. I could have ended up with terrible hemorrhaging.
Wow. I would never consider “Go to a doctor” to be bad advice. Some conditions don’t “just go away.” Telling someone not to see a doctor and just wait for it to go away is just about the worst advice you could possibly give anyone.
I think,as a general rule, one can assume that if a person is suffering from a medical condition, the idea of going to a doctor has already occurred to him, and been given some rational consideration based on his own knowledge of his medical history and a full awareness of the progression of symptoms, before anybody else uselessly and gratuitously says “go to a doctor”.
In my lifetime, my conditions did “just go away”, and for those that didn’t, the idea of going to a doctor occurred to me on my own, without the advice of casual acquaintances who couldn’t think of any other way to express their not-very-heartfelt sympathy…
In their defense, it’s extremely frustrating when someone you love is needlessly suffering and will apparently do nothing about it. I have a friend with a history of cancer who is in insane amounts of pain and he will not go see a doctor. He keeps saying he’s overdue for a visit with his oncologist but he won’t go. ‘‘Go to a doctor’’ is about the most useful advice you’ve got when a person is actively in denial about their condition and you don’t happen to be an oncologist.
Sure, some docs can be bad and no, you shouldn’t go to a doctor just because someone told you to and yes, somethings will pass. I’ve had kidney stones and going to a doctor will result in some very expensive tests, a bottle of percocet and being told to wait it out. OTOH, those tests also make sure the stone is physically small enough to pass and that it’s not something else entirely, like say, your appendix rupturing and trying to make you dead or a dislocated rib.
Every reputable cite I see about cyanocobalamin says it’s used for exactly what you say. Maybe your present doc, that calls it a placebo, is the one that’s the quack. Regarding your Cup to Disc ratio, did you let that doc know about the condition or was he supposed to guess.
However, with all that said, my biggest problem is just ignoring Hep-A. Hep-A is just stupid contagious. Without antibiotics you can be contagious for up to three months after you stop showing symptoms. Who needs a couple bucks worth of antibiotics* when you can make everyone around you sick too!
I don’t really care if you want to sit at home with what you assume is a kidney stone or assume your doc doesn’t know what he’s talking about when he puts you on vitamin supplements or, for some reason, think you’re defrauding the medicare system when you need a prescription, but for the love of god, don’t knowingly walk around with untreated Hep-A, that’s how food poisoning outbreaks start.
*IME, showing the proper symptoms will usually result in going on antibiotics for this type of ailments, even without doing an actual stool test, if that’s what you’re trying to avoid.
Oh, and one last thing, if you start seeing a doc regularly, often times you can get in good enough with them that you can just call them, tell them what’s wrong, what you think you need and they’ll call it in for you, no charge. I have two docs like this. But if you only stop in every 3 years when you’re in dire pain, you can’t call them up one day and request a Z-pak because you think you have a UTI.
A while back, I read about how poorly presented sex education transmitted completely wrong ideas about sexuality and reproduction. The most hair-raising* was the answer of a girl to “How does the rhythm method work?” - “Count forward fifteen days from the start of your period and you’re safe to have sex until your next period.”
- Her answer, of course, makes it heir-raising.
And so it is… through maybe 30 or so. I was once as smug about my infrequent contact with MDs and superhero-like ability to heal and regenerate.
Then I hit about 40.
I have friends who joined the cannabis oil bandwagon, and they’re annoying.
That said, you can have bipolar disorder and not have full-blown mania. If you have bipolar II disorder, you tend to the depression end of the spectrum, but you have hypomania, which is sort of pleasant, low-key mania. SSRIs can trigger mania in people with bipolar II. I’m also not a fan of GPs prescribing psych meds, but there have been times when I’ve been in crisis and going through a lengthy intake process and a two-month wait to see a psychiatrist for meds wasn’t an option. If the choice is between being suicidal and getting meds from a GP, I’m good with the GP.
From a doctor: You can take Xanax every day; like a diabetic needs insulin, you need Xanax. No problem.
From a different doctor: Everybody should be on a statin drug, I think they should put it in the water.
I was in South America at the time, where everyone gets Hep-A as a mild childhood disease and is then immune to it. There was nobody around me who wasn’t already immune. Americans who travel will eventually be exposed to Hep-A and get it and get over it without treatment. Rest and dietary precautions prevent life-threatening liver damage in adult patients, but they don’t cure it.
Except for all the people who don’t refuse to see doctors and get travel immunizations. The shot is nearly 100% effective, you wouldn’t have had Hep-A to begin with.
cwthree’s periodontist story reminds me of one:
I had a dentist a long time ago that showed me an x-ray and pointed out to me that the 3 wisdom teeth that hadn’t come in were impacted. And it was clear that they really were. Recommended removal, of course. But I wasn’t bothered to I let it be.
I moved and got a new dentist. After several visits with no mention of my impacted wisdom teeth I asked about them. He was baffled and showed me my x-rays. Clearly not impacted. Not by a mile. Obviously not the same mouth I was shown earlier.
Man what a crook that other guy was.
My dad had pneumonia a few years ago, and kept refusing to go to the doctor until my mother and I had to call 911. If we hadn’t, he would’ve died. So no, “go to a doctor” is NOT the worst advice. Your suggestion is horribly, incredibly, breathtakingly stupid and could be outright deadly.
Same for me. When I was growing up, I never had a cavity, but I switched dentists when I got to college. The new guy found a cavity every time I visited and he’d drill it (without using anesthesia, too).
On my final visit, after he finished, he told me there was another cavity that he’d take care of the next time.
Well, there was no next time – I had moved and went to a different dentist. He (and his successors) have never found that cavity – and, in fact, I haven’t had a cavity since then.
I’m especially pissed because one of those phantom cavities eventually required a root canal.
Hepatitis A is caused by a virus. There is no treatment other than supportive care. Antibiotics are ineffective. There’s no way to shorten the contagious period. The patient needs to wash their hands often. Everyone involved with the affected patient needs to practice good hygiene to minimize transmission.
It’s good to get vaccinated against it if you’re in a high risk group, though.
I had a botched cataract operation. A second operation seemed successful. When I saw my regular opthalmologist and told him the whole story, I mentioned that I had recently seen a lot of black spots in that eye. “Just floaters, nothing to worry about.” When it got really bad a couple months later I decided to see the surgeon. Detached retina. Although it was repaired it detached again. It was repaired again and, instead of using an air bubble to keep the retina in place while it healed, he used an oil bubble. In theory, that could be taken out, but he claimed there was a 30% chance of another detachment. So I live with a permanently obscured retina. I think that if the first doctor had told me to see the surgeon immediately, it would not have been so bad and I would now have normal vision. I should emphasize that I don’t really know this but strongly suspect it.
A year of “don’t worry, that lump will go away by itself” from a GP.
The oncologist, after looking at the biopsy results, had a significantly different opinion.
I didn’t know that, I’m was just going by state/federal food code.
Upon re-reading the food code (as well as the document I have my new employees sign) I was clearly mixing up Hep-A with Salmonella Typhi (Typhoid Fever) and E. Coli.
The current food code has requirements for people that have been diagnosed with “Salmonella Typhi in the last 3 months and did not receive antibiotic therapy or Shigella spp or Shiga Toxin-producing e.coli in the last month without receiving antibiotics”. The Hep-A requirements, while still serious, aren’t quite as strict.
I’m not quickly finding it, but the rules were updated recently for two reasons, one, the Norovirus becoming so widely spread and two something (the one that I’m not finding), we’re learning can be spread (because it sheds) for up to 3 months, even in asymptomatic people, if they aren’t treated. I’m thinking/assuming it’s Salmonella Typhi, but I’m not finding a cite right now.
But, even so, jtur is not only suggesting not going to a doctor, but he’s also self diagnosed himself with Hep-A, even what he’s doing post-diagnosis is correct, that still assumes his diagnosis is right.
I like to think I’m pretty good at figuring out what’s wrong with me, I diagnosed my torn labrum before the radiology studies were done, but there’s been plenty of times where I’ve told my doctor that I think this is wrong and he said ‘nope, this isn’t wrong, that is’ and based on the outcome, he was absolutely correct. Sure, I have the internet and I can do all the reading I want, but even ignoring all his education (both med school and CE) one BIG thing he has that I don’t is experience. When he/you see 40 patients a day, probably with, more or less, the same basic complaints and one person shows up convinced that they have something that 1 in 1000 people have, well, Occum’s Razor and all that.
But, I still can’t advocate ‘I won’t go to the doctor’ as good advice. Hell, I’ll put it off if I can, but not as a general rule.
I ruptured my right distal biceps tendon. The PA at the DO’s clinic/health spa/house of woo looked thoughtfully at it for a minute and then said, “You’ve probably strained a muscle. Give it plenty of rest and ice it, and see how it feels in a couple of weeks.”
If you want to, bend your arm. The inboard side of the pit is your distal biceps tendon. The office test is to poke into the pit, tug on the inside and see if there is a tendon there (followed by an MRI, but grabbing for a rope just under the skin is a pretty clear test.) The Orthopedic Surgeon that I went to after that appointment said that there is a 2-3 week window after detachment before the biceps retracts fully and reattachment is not an option, so if I had followed the PA’s advice, then my arm might have been roughly half as strong for the rest of my life.
Oh yeah, the DO had also tried to get me on the HCG diet. If I recall correctly, his recommending a diet that the FDA has come out against was the warning sign, and the biceps tendon was the final straw.