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232 points BostonFern | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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jim-jim-jim ◴[] No.41856061[source]
I've been looking for relief from abdominal pain, bloating, poorly formed movements, and breathing problems for well over a year now. It started right after a round of antibiotics, which strikes me as a very clear cause-and-effect situation involving some sort of microbial imbalance.

I don't think restrictive diets are a great idea, because I want to stay healthy otherwise and ultimately restore that balance, but curiously enough, I've found that wheat might be exacerbating some of these symptoms—despite eating it without issue my whole life.

No matter how neutrally and deferentially I approach doctors with this info, I'm treated like a paranoiac for merely inquiring about certain possibilities like so-called SIBO. I'm pretty sure I'd get dragged straight to the loony bin if I ever mentioned parasites.

Sorry for making this about me, but I wrote all this to say: this guy is very lucky he's a medical student. Even with similar evidence, I have a hard time believing he'd get medicine (and respect) as a single mother. The moment she whipped out slides like he did, they'd be writing an antipsychotic Rx.

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vasco ◴[] No.41856193[source]
You need to prove your knowledge to doctors contextually, and even then it's much easier if they are not actively giving you a consultation. Doctors don't respond well to randomly dropping theories on them. If you respond to something by dropping an inappropriate paper for the illness or ask about rare issues when common ones would fit they'll stop listening.

Most of the people a doctor gets either almost can't read or think they have all the diagnosis from "the internet". It's rare to have someone capable, who isn't going to jump to conclusions and just complicate everything, so I get why they discard most of what people tell them.

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1. matheusmoreira ◴[] No.41866237[source]
> Doctors don't respond well to randomly dropping theories on them.

Because they are liabilities. If he follows along with your theory and you get worse, he doesn't get to claim he was following accepted medical practice.

Plenty of smart guys turn into the doctor's worst enemies after things start going wrong. Wanna know what arguments they use in court against doctors who show patients this sort of respect?

> I couldn't possibly have known

> He is a doctor and I'm just a patient

> My judgement was impaired due to my sickness

If patients want to start dropping theories on doctors, they should be ready to share in the responsibility for the outcome. Courts have demonstrated that the vast majority of people are not ready to accept that responsibility.

> Most of the people a doctor gets either almost can't read or think they have all the diagnosis from "the internet".

Well said. Many of my patients are illiterate. Imagine how hard it is to obtain informed consent. Combine that with internet diagnosis and it's a shit show. I have people asking me about the benefits of some YouTube charlatan's special himalayan salts on a daily basis. And that's when they're not already using those things and dismissing medicine as a corporate conspiracy to keep them sick and perpeptually consuming drugs.

I have no problem with people who googled things, understood those things and who want my professional opinion on the matter. It only becomes a problem for me once they start trying to determine what the treatment is going to be. It's my name, signature and license on the prescription. The only options available to the patient are the ones I'm willing to write on that paper.