I don’t go unless it’s something that’s been going on for awhile that has me worried, or if I see something new and different on my person that I don’t recognize. A few years ago, I lost 50 lbs in the course of a year (yep, I’ve kept it off). Shortly after that, I noticed a lump on my chest, sort of between my breasts. I freaked out and went to see my internist. He looked at the bump, looked a my chart, and mentioned my weight loss. Then he asked me how long it had been since I’d seen my breastbone. Seems I had mistaken something that belonged there for a malignancy.
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by Biggirl *
**
I drove myself to the hospital . . . while I was having a heart attack.
My daughter had kicked me in the chest (while we were playing) the night before, at about 7. I couldn’t fall asleep, and I wasn’t comfortable sitting, or standing, or laying down. I couldn’t watch TV. Finally, at about 3:15 a.m., I woke my wife and told her I was driving myself to the hospital. I told her what had happened, and that I thought I had broken ribs.
Mrs. Elsh: “You know, if it’s not an emergency, the insurance won’t cover it.”
Me: “I know, but it hurts, and I can’t sleep, and I think I should go.”
Drive to the ER, check in, and lo and behold . . . a heart attack. Had to have CABG x4, too.
To answer the OP - I see my internist twice a year, and my cardiologist twice a year.
Let’s see, in the last 20 years, I’ve gone to a doctor
-
When I pulled a lawnmower over my toe. This was back before lawnmowers included all the new safety features, so please don’t mock me. My father yelled at me (I was about 11) because 4 stitches really was’t worth going to the doctor for.
-
When I went out for cross country. It was a required check up.
-
When I was hit by a car - x-rays and a couple of visits to a physical therapist.
-
When I got in a, err, heated discussion about the redistribution of wealth. My jaw was broken, and I needed a couple of stitches. I waited until the morning, because I honestly wanted to see if it would “get better” on its own.
The medicines I don’t take but have lying around the house say “if symptoms presist for more than XX days”. I figure if I’m not feeling like I’m recovering by that time, I’ll go.
Usually I have to be bound, gagged and dragged to a doctor. All that duct tape makes the exam a real bitch. “Say ‘ahhh’” “MMMmmmmuph!”
This changed somewhat when I found a really, honestly great doctor I like a lot. Fortunately it coincided with my blood pressure zooming past the Hubble telescope. (217 over 105 at its worst; genetics, stress and some treasured vices I had to give up.)
Anyway, we dropped it down and I somehow didn’t mind going in for the maintenance checks. But illness? Only if I’m not getting better on my own. Which usually means my staff informs me they’re getting out the duct tape if I don’t haul my ailing self in there and quit infecting them.
I’m really prone to waiting too long. My poor doc keeps asking to come in before I’m half dead.
Veb
I use to be like you guys… but that was back when I didn’t have health insurance. Now that I have it I figure I might as well get my moneys worth out of it – since I pay into to every month. The last time I went though – my doctor yelled at me for waiting so long. Turns out if I had waited any longer I would have had to have surgery – but as it was – antibiotics were enough.
Personally – I think going to the doctor shows how much respect you have for yourself.
{{{Biggirl}}} Hope you feel better soon! I had it, it’s nasty, it takes forever to go away!!! I’m a wimp though & I call my Dr. & he usually calls in a prescription for me “just in case”. He makes me come in for a check up once a year to stay on his active patient roster.
A friend of mine (the same one I mentioned being followed by a black van in another thread) was once mowing a lawn and slipped on wet grass and ended up with his foot under the running mower. It severed the end of his sneaker, along with the majority of his big toe. Needless to say, he went to the doctor. They couldn’t find the missing piece of toe (despite several people’s best efforts) so they had to just pull the remaining skin (from the bottom of his toe) up over the wound and stitch it all up. From that point on, when he touched the top of the “stump,” it felt like he was touching the bottom of his missing toe.
We called him “Lawnmower Man” for months after this happened. Ahh, what supportive friends we were…
I usually go when my mommy forces me too. Right around Christmas, I was dying. I had a 101 fever, I was dizzy, and all I wanted to do was sleep. Not only did I not go to the doctor, but I went to work every scheduled shift. And then I went to Florida on my vacation, mainly because I’m too cheap to give up my ticket for a little flulike thingy.
Also, I go if I have to have a doctor’s note for work/school before I graduated.
Every chance I get…oh wait. My SO is a doc, so perhaps that doesn’t count?
I’m with the majority who dislike going. Luckily, a family trait is that none of get sick. Hardly EVER. I have had two colds in the last twenty -two years, and took absolutely nothing for them. Annual pap smear, now mammograms every two years, and that’s about it unless something has to be stitched up. Last summer I blew out a disk in my back. For two months I went to work painting houses waiting for it to go away. One of my employees saw me in tears on top of a ladder, and they sent me home with instructions to get my back checked. SO gave me an MRI and I took a month off eating Motrin in Hawaii & swimming alot. 
Unfortunately I now realise I have to switch careers eventually, because my back aches much of the time and I’m nervous about it going out again. I’ve started swimming at a club, and have motrin with my morning coffee. ick.
Flu season is upon us. While it doesn’t seem to be hitting too hard this year, there is sporadic flu activity pretty much everywhere in the US. (I’ve seen 5 or 6 cases myself.)
If you think you have the flu, go to the doctor, post haste. We have good drugs for the flu now (Tamiflu, et. al.), but they have to be given within the first 48 hours after the onset of symptoms.
How do you know you might have the flu? The key elements are the abrupt onset of a fairly high fever (102), aches and pains all over (“my hair hurts”), and nonproductive cough. That doesn’t mean you have to have all of those, but you probably will have at least two. Here is a handy cold vs. flu chart from the people at Tamiflu.
And yes, before the won’t-go-to-the-doctor-unless-I’ve-severed-all-four-limbs types ask, the flu will eventually go away on its own. However, these drugs can shorten the duration of the symptoms considerably, and can turn two miserable weeks into three miserable days.
This has been a public service announcement from Dr. J.