I avoid Doctors. I only see a Gynocolgist and if I have other pains will ask his opinion. Now I realize his area of expertise is not…uh…my feet for example, but he does offer good advice since he knows I avoid medicine (only natural remedies) and I won’t hear of invasive procedures. Good for you, Caitlin, in letting your body heal itself. Best way.
If I have to name one bad experience, my mother says it would be a dentist when I was very, very young who got mad at me because I had to go to the toilet when he was working on my teeth. Not my fault! I was a kid…although I still feel a need when my current dentist is doing a long procedure. Must be a mental thing 🙂

Very good advice. Infact, I am going through some stuff right now and am actively working on my behalf to solve it. Thank you for letting me know other people get crazy suggestions from their docs as well.

I wish I had some holistic help in my family like you do-it would be great to have them for sources of good information!

I completely agree. I think people should work WITH doctors instead of just following everything they say because they have credentials. I don’t go to the doctors much *shame* but I have a feeling I’d try and be a know-it-all 😳

When I did weight watchers, I was told that being hungry meant that your stomach was shrinking so you could lose weight! I know part of that is true, but 800 calories a day is wayy too little!! That’s crazy!

I’ve never truly had a bad experience with a medical doctor, but the first orthodontist I saw when my mom was looking to get me braces, wanted to pull 4 of my permanent teeth. My mom took me to another orthodontist for a second opinion. He said not only was pulling my teeth totally unnecessary, it probably would have kept my in braces twice as long and caused additional problems for me later in life.

The second opinion was all my mom’s doing since I was about 11, but I’ve definitely picked up the value of a second opinion from that experience.

It took me years to be diagnosed with Celiac disease even though I was clearly sick. But I think it is important to remember that doctors cannot be experts at everything and if you aren’t getting good answers, go see someone else (like you and I both did).

Good luck tomorrow!

Hey Caitlin!
I finally decided to ‘delurk’ and make a comment 🙂

I have had both good and bad experiences with doctors. Though I am married to a recently graduated family doctor, (who I have great faith in!) some of my experiences have not been so positive I have struggled for many years with stomach issues, which have lead to extreme pain, nausea, etc. My former family doctor, told me that there was nothing wrong with me, and I just needed to suck it up! Thankfully, I sought a second opinion, both through a new family doctor, and through a holistic practitioner, and I am now almost symptom free…. and needless to say it was not just ‘all in my head’ 🙂 There are some fantastic doctors out there…but we all truly do need to be advocates for our own health.

Great post! Good luck with your marathon!!!!

My mother and I are both vegetarians. A couple of years ago she went to a doctor who is also a vegetarian, yet the doctor told my mom she was too thin and that it was actually very unhealthy to be a vegetarian, but she (the doctor) was one for religious reasons, other wise she wouldn’t recommend it. However, this doctor lived on peanut butter and jelly! She did not understand nutrition and had no right to tell my mother not to be a vegetarian! Luckily, my mom kept up with what felt right to her, and she’s switched doctors.

You definitely know yourself and your body better than a doctor who sees you only once or twice. Listen to your instincts and always get a second (or third!) opinion if you have doubts.

As a former anorexic, hearing that a doctor “prescribed” 800 calories a day left me speechless. That’s so wrong!
My worst experience at the doctor was in high school and I still went to the pediatrician I had gone to since I was 8. I was asking her for an inhaler because I knew I had exercise induced asthma between my rigorous Irish Step routines and my springtime allergies. She tried to ask me if I was just out of shape and really drilled me on how much I was exercising when she knew that I was dancing about 20 hours a week at that time. It was so annoying. Luckily, she caved and gave me the darn inhaler!

i haven’t had a horrible experience with a doctor but just in general i hate when you go to the doctor and tell them your problem and you can just tell they don’t really care they just want to get the appointment over with…it is so nice to actaully have a doctor want to talk to you and try figure out the problem…glad your knee pain is so much better! good luck tomorrow!!

I haven’t been to the doctor, except an OBGYN, since I was 13. My pediatrician was HORRIBLE. I had stomach issues as a kid, to the point that I was nauseous all the time and throwing up at least twice a week. She told my grandma it was “all in my head” and I was doing it for attention. We were really poor, and she was the only doctor in the area who took my insurance, so we didn’t have much choice. I remember her announcing in the waiting room afterward once that I should avoid some food (I forget what it was) because it was not right for a girl to be developing at 9 and the hair on my arms was too dark. I was paranoid about that stuff for YEARS after that (still kind of am, really). Turns out I had an ovarian disorder.

So yea. I HATED her. I can’t remember ever having a good experience with her. It was something every time we went in.

Best of luck tomorrow! I’m excited for you!!

I feel pretty blessed in the medical department. My childhood GP was a wonderful family friend (who saved my dad’s life!). When I was in treatment for an eating disorder all my ‘team’ was truly caring, professional and amazing.

However, the only two negative experiences I had were both gynecologists. The first when I was sixteen wouldn’t give me birth control (to regulate my periods!) because she “didn’t want to encourage me to have sex”. The second gyno, when I had questions about being pregnant, etc, she didn’t even address them! She just gave me a pap and left. I was so mad.

I’m now under the care of a birthing center/midwife practice and they spend an hour with me at every appointment, and now that I’m pregnant, counsel me on everything…from holistic nutrition, exercise, medical options…It’s great.

Ir’s been a mixed bag with me, although most of the time it’s been pretty much good experiences. When I had gotten a stress fracture in my hip from running back in undergrad, though, the first doctor told me it was just a strain… thank God it got better with phys therapy bc he definitely misdiagnosed me.

Last year i went to see the doctor and she wanted to weigh me, she told me i was overweight and that i should lose weight – very sarcastically she said that i could lose half a stone if i went out walking, she gave me a mini lecture about the benifits of exercise (as if i was a child who didn’t have a clue) – it was great when i turned around and said ‘i doubt walking will do much for me, i’m running my first half marathon Sunday and if all that training makes me overweight then i guess there is no hope!’ I wish i could have taken a photo of her face! The sad thing was i did take it to heart and when i got home i checked my weight against my height and i was in the healthy range. At least i had the sense to check, her comment could have been quite damaging to a sensitive person.

I’ve seen a lot of doctors and they’ve all been beneficial to my health…even the clinician that told me to “drink lots of water to flush all the toxins and shit out.” Candid, much!

When I was about 15, a nurse/doctor team convinced my mother that I was too chubby and Atkins was imperative. She had great faith in doctors and promptly banned any and all carbohydrates. When the dieting spiraled out of control, I told this doctor that I felt constantly hungry and sick on my 500-calories-a-day plan. She said it was because I was eating too many bananas, which had sugar in them.

When I overcame anorexia and started binge eating, I gained a lot of weight really quickly. A new doctor (because I refused to see the old one) took a look at my chart and said, “You should lose 40 pounds. Your ideal weight is 110.” I told him about the past few years of disordered eating, and that I didn’t think I was in any condition to start a new “diet.” Then he said, “Oh. In that case, aim for 115.”

Thankfully, after I moved halfway across the country to escape from this lot, the doctors I’ve encountered haven’t said a peep about my weight. I’m in the “normal range,” so they don’t have any reason too, which is funny-in-a-totally-not-funny-way because I’m the exact same size I was when the whole fiasco began.

While doctors are often helpful and provide wonderful care, they don’t know all – it is up to US to take control of our health. To listen to our bodies, consider what the doctor says, do our own research, get a second opinion. It’s hard, and it can be scary, but it’s ultimately worth it. It took me THREE years to get my diagnosis – three years where I could have been doing something to HELP my cystic fibrosis. Doctors aren’t perfect, so you have to educate yourself, too.

can’t believe your first doc said that to you. you are def right–he was implying you can’t make your own decisions. i am a huge advocate of a 2nd opinion as well. i was diagnosed with something correctly but did not have the proper medication to treat it. a new doc helped with it. doctors are smart, obviously but they do make mistakes. great post!

You’re right! Going to the doctor is important, but equally important is that we have some idea and knowledge as well! They can’t be expected to know everything about everything, after all.

My dad was told to go on the Atkins diet and avoid carbs altogether which still drives me nuts. Carbs are good…especially for a runner like himself! 😀

I have had similar problems when trying to get my heartburn diagnosed and treated. My first doctor told me that “women get emotional and I was probably just overreacting.” My head almost exploded!!

I agree, we have to be our own patient advocates. Just the other day my husband went in to the doctor because his blood pressure was running high. I had checked it several times at home, and it was over 140/90 (!) each time. The doctor didn’t seem to think this was a problem (my husband is 29 and not overweight!). My husband said, “I think my wife thinks I need an anti-hypertensive…” at which point the doctor agreed. SERIOUSLY?! Pathetic.!

Some of these stories are maddening, I think it goes to show how important it is to go to a reputable health professional. Just because they have lots of letters after their name doesn’t mean they know what they are doing!

I had to have my ACL surgery re-done because the quack I went to didn’t do it properly. I had about 40 degrees of mobility for 6 months and ended up having 2 more surgeries on it!

Caitlin,
I just got diagnosed with the same thing as you! My PT also told me that my hips were extremely weak, and he gave me some exercise to do. I am going to add some of the ones you recommended to my routine. He also gave me a way to tape my knee, and I was wondering if knee sleeves would also be a good investment. Do you find that the sleeves work better than the tape you tried?

Good Luck tomorrow!!!! You will do great!

The worst experience that I’ve ever had with a doctor was here in Japan…two days ago!

My problem is that I have some sort of infection. Neither of the doctors could figure out *exactly* what it was. My white blood cell count was way too high in December, but is now closer to the normal range, though still a little high. However, the main doctor was downright sexist and accusatory throughout the whole exam, saying that I must be a smoker, and that I’m morbidly obese because I’m sedentary and don’t eat enough vegetables.

I’ll give him that, in Japan, anything over not anorexic is obese, so yes…here, I’m obese, despite how much weight I’ve lost and muscle I’ve gained. But, their expectations about weight are so out of whack that I can rarely even pretend to get my head around it. Next, I’m not a smoker, nor will I ever be a smoker. I almost punched him for accusing me of doing something that I abhor. I’ve spent the last two years watching my mom recover from smoking related illness, and am now watching my grandmother die from smoking related illness. Yet, he maintained that I must be a smoker.

Lastly, I eat 10-12 different vegetables a day, between what I cook and what I get at school lunch. At the end of the appointment, I asked him if he’d ever studied genetics. He said no. There we have it. In such a homogeneous place, where people have generally almost identical genetic makeup, genetics is barely even recognized as medicine. (That may be different now–this guy is OLD).

I want a second opinion, but am pretty sure that any doctor here would come up with something similar. Thankfully, the infection went down before I even knew it was a problem.

My boss was with me to translate what I couldn’t understand. He told me not to worry, because both doctors were mean. I asked him about a second opinion, and he said that the test results would still be the same and that the old man doctor was just blowing hot steam about my weight.

Understanding that not everyone is the same–that is one of the things that makes me miss the US the most.

I’m glad that you were able to get a fantastic second doctor, who helped you achieve your goals. That’s what doctors SHOULD do–not be like your first doctor, the 800 calorie diet doctor, or my horrible doctor here.

I still can’t believe the bullshit that dr tried to pull on me.

I don’t think I’ve ever had a completely “off” or negative experience with a doctor, but I do think that we put too much faith in people with MDs in general. You’re right, they are human too! They can only give us advice based on their medical knowledge and experience, and that’s not made specifically for everyone. Some things should be taken with a grain of salt I think.

Oh man I used to be married to a guy in the military and the base doctors I saw were the worst. I was having a problem with my anxiety disorder and since you have to go to a primary dr. to get a referral for most stuff (you actually didn’t have to do that to get a referral to a psychiatrist, I found out later, fortunately) I went to a primary care Dr. on base to try to get a referral. He told me to pray about my anxiety and gave me a CD of himself playing the guitar and singing religious songs.
I was also having horrible allergy attacks and for some reason, a combination of benadryl and Afrin (Afrin is the devil, never take it) made my heart start racing. It wouldn’t slow down so after a couple hours I went to the emergency room. They couldn’t figure out why my heart was racing and did everything from check my thyroid to accuse me of taking drugs! I basically sat in the emergency room and received fluids (I was also a little dehydrated) until my pulse came down about 6 hours later. A year later, I went to a civilian Dr. When I told him the story, he immediately said “That sounds like mitral valve prolapse.” It’s generally not a big deal and like 1/3 of women have it, but it can cause chest pains and a racing pulse and sensitivity to medicine is a common symptom. I had to get tests to confirm it, but that’s what it was.
So not to blame the military in general, but all of my medical horror stories come from care I received on base.

Wow, that is such a sad story!

When I was 20 years old, I started having really bad pains in my side and upper abdomen. Like the worst pain of my life. It would come in episodes.

It took three doctors, three ultrasounds and lots of pain and frustration for them to FINALLY decide it was my gallbladder (plus a slipped out stone in my main duct) and I had to have emergency surgery and stay in the hospital with a drain for 4 days (it had become infected and gangrene).

All of this could’ve been prevented or made easier if the first doctor had recognized my problem. I think he didn’t want to because I was 20, but that is becoming more common now (I’m 28 now). Gallbladder removal is usually outpatient surgery. But he thought my gallstones that showed up on the first ultrasound were “not significant.” Grrr…

So I totally agree with you, based on my experience too!