For respiratory illness, I’ll go to the doctor when:
[ul]
[li]I have discolored nasal discharge throughout the day (not just right when you wake up, because that’s oxidation), indicating an infection.[/li][li]If I start to wheeze, indicating I’m going towards bronchitis or asthma.[/li][li]If my symptoms can’t be managed with OTC products and it is interfering with my ability to sleep.[/li][li]If I’m not significantly improving after four or five days, or if I improve then start coughing (I tend to get bronchitis after the cold resolves).[/li][/ul]
I go yearly for new scripts of my daily medications. Otherwise I go when the spouse bugs me or when I think it’s serious AND something a doctor can treat. I come from a medically inclined family(aunt’s a nurse, mother is a phlebotomist and 'medic, I myself am a former EMT) so I usually know enough to know if it’s serious or not.
When my car doesn’t work like it should, I take it to my mechanic.
When my body doesn’t work like it should, I take it to my doctor.
My mechanic usually fixes the problem where my doctor usually doesn’t, and the doctor charges more too. But a human body is a lot more complicated and I can’t buy a new one.
I’m old enough to recognize a cold or a simple bruise or a scrape and that there is no point in going to a doctor for that. Otherwise I go in and have him take a look at the plumbing.
If it isn’t better, or if it’s worse, in three days. On Day 3, I call for an appointment.
Or I know it’s something I can’t treat myself, like stitches or when I need a nebulizer treatment for my asthma.
If I can’t fix it myself after reading about it on the internet, I’m probably going to die.
No, I suppose I will go to the doctor if it’s likely to require a prescription, but first I’ll see if I can’t wait it out. So far, so good!
Pretty much if it doesn’t get better in three-six days, or I have alarming symptoms. I went to the doctor pronto when I got swine flu, and we went within a week for my eldest, when he began acting funny and it turned out to be Type 1 diabetes.
I used to have the 7 day rule, until last December '09.
I came down with what I thought was cold/flu. All the usual symptoms including a cough. The cough went away on day two (very weird for me), but at the time I didn’t think too much about it. I kept feeling worse, until two days later, at about 4pm on New Year’s Eve. That’s when I asked (for the first time in 47 years) to be driven to the ER. I had massive, double, bacterial pneumonia.
I was in the hospital (also a first) for 11 days, had a PIC line with IV antibiotics and oxygen at home for another two weeks. Very scary.
I have paid much closer attention to “colds” since then :eek:
Given some of the problems I’ve had from my body just flat out not being put together right, I should’ve invoked the lemon law on it.
With cold and sinusy stuff, I go if I think I need a prescription. The thing I am currently fighting started with a seriously sore throat, fever and sleeping for hours on end. Since that can mean bacterial strep throat, I went in. (Sadly, it was viral which means I am still suffering.)
Then I developed pink eye to go with it. Need a script for the good eye drops so back I went again. (Then I accidentally squeezed the entire tube into my eye causing me to have to go back to get a refill. At least my doctor got a laugh out of it.)
I used to just always go if I felt sick (rather than just allergies). Now I wait until I think I need an antibiotic, using my neti pot to shew away getting clogged up.
I would also probably go if I broke something. When it comes to throwing up, though, I now mostly tough it out. All the doctor ever does is give me medicine that doesn’t work, and the problem fixes itself.
This. I had mild knee pain (patella tendonitis, I diagnosed myself) for a few months last year…then it started getting worse and worse until I was hobbling about out of bed in the morning. Time to go to the doctor, who was an asshole but prescribed PT, which helped.