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Methinks I don't have the right attitude for this profession

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  • #31
    Quoth depechemodefan View Post
    At the library we get a lot of phone calls from older people asking us to explain the diagnosis the doctor gave them. Sometimes I do ask the person why didn't they ask the doctor but they say, "the doctor didn't explain it to me." I know doctors's time are limited, but when my mom was sick we did ask questions until we understood (luckily we went to doctors who dumbed it down enough, like "if you stop going to dialysis you will die because toxins will accumilate in you, besides your blood pressure will go up and your heart will work harder). So reading something on Medlineplus is one thing, but we can't interpret this stuff, so if you don't understand what we are reading, we can't tell you, "well, I understand it's a skin condition," because it might not be a skin condition. The customer could have said the wrong thing or spelled the diagnosis wrong, or the med says it treats skin conditions but the doctor didn't prescribe it for a skin condition it's for something else whic hthe drug can treat. We tell people to talk to the doctor or the pharmacist, but most don't want to. Arg!
    I worked in a pharmacy as a pharm tech and lot of pharmacists let me know doctors only get 1 semester (of only one class) of pharm. So I trust the person who has the five year degree in pharm.
    That's sad. It sounds like a lot of these people must be going to the doctor's alone, and they are too ... I dunno, shy? ... to be persistent in asking questions if they don't understand what the doctor has said.

    I recently had a high blood sugar count and I got more help from the pharmacist than from the doctor who read the test results!

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    • #32
      Or some could have a doctor like the one we brought my daughter to last week. It was a new patient visit, and she SUCKED. Couldn't take a complete history (kinda important that DD is missing a Grandma and Grandpa) and when I tried to ask questions she almost RAN out of the room. I was so pissed I just walked out and when the nurse called to get some info they "forgot" to get (shots record) I told her (politely) to shove it, we were never going there again.

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      • #33
        Quoth depechemodefan View Post
        At the library we get a lot of phone calls from older people asking us to explain the diagnosis the doctor gave them.

        I had that on a blood test recently with a doctors receptionist. She just read off the screen "X sample detected" and then couldn't tell me what that meant or whether it needed further action or not.

        So next time I see the Doc I'm going to have to ask him "uhh, what does that test result mean exactly?"
        I am so SO glad I was not present for this. There would have been an unpleasant duct tape incident. - Joi

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        • #34
          kprza, I've run into a few (thankfully, a very few!) like that. One twit told me I had carpal tunnel syndrome ... in my neck. When I got to the aforementioned doctor in Toronto, I repeated the "diagnosis" to her. Ever a professional, she said nothing, but couldn't completely control her facial expression.

          Earlier today I spoke to a graduate of the program (who, rather alarmingly, can't find a job in My Hometown ...) and we talked about the teacher who teaches this particular class. The woman who used that stupid phrase to me was a second teacher, brought in to help; however, the main teacher is no better. I swear her primary goal is to see how many students she can reduce to panic and tears (I don't react like this, which I think -- and hope -- pisses her off ...) Do a prescription properly and it's handed back to you in complete silence, but heaven help you if she finds something -- anything -- to complain about. And whatever you do, DON'T ask any questions! You get a disgusted/shocked look with, "I told you that four weeks ago!!!!eleventy!!!!!"

          Yes, you did ... and you and six other teachers have piled on ever more stuff in the meantime, AND we've only been doing these fake 'prescriptions' for three weeks now. But it's apparently a very reasonable expectation on her part that we remember every single utterance she's ever made.

          The two of them are fairly high on the "Worst Teachers I've Ever Had" list.

          On the bright side ... it gives me incentive to work harder so I don't need to ask ANY questions in the remaining few weeks of this course.

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          • #35
            That would be a stenosis in the cervical spine for $100 ....

            Unless they were 'dumbing it down' for a layman, and I wouldn't choose 'carpal tunnel in the neck' I would probably say something along the lines of 'the area that your spinal cord goes through the bones in your neck has gotten narrower and is pressing on the spine, which is what is causing your discomfort.'

            Thankfully I speak medicalese as does Rob ... and we both can interpret bloodwork and most xrays or MRI results. And we aren't scared to stop the doc and ask pointed questions.
            EVE Online: 99% of the time you sit around waiting for something to happen, but that 1% of action is what hooks people like crack, you don't get interviewed by the BBC for a WoW raid.

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            • #36
              LOL
              Thank you, AccountingDrone! I'd give you the $100 but ... would settle for a bowlful of pennies instead?

              As it turned out, the problem with me was, "How many pillows do you sleep on?"

              "Four."



              "Get it down to ONE."

              The 'real' doctor sent me to physio as well, and it worked like a charm. I now sleep on one fluffy pillow or two flat ones and have had no more problems.

              The so-called doctor I went to first had an extremely bad reputation among 99% of his patients, most of whom were there only because there was an unbelievable doctor shortage in the area and it was either him or nobody -- or your veterinarian, if you could convince them to take you on.

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