Dr's = Professional Guess-ers

Let's face it! Physicians go to school to be professional "guessers". They're almost like a human search engine. You feed them the data (e.g. symptoms), click enter and your symptoms run through the database of their years of practice and medical school. The output is either information they are currently specializing in or maybe the most recent data given to them by the last pharma salesperson they encountered. Okay...so what! The last statement is a little unfair to physicians, however, in may instances it's probably true. Let me share my story...
I am one with multiple medical issues that started when I was a young 20-something.
Issue #1 - Dermoid tumors on both ovaries. Result? One ovary yanked (by a physician who suspected I had PCOS (poly-systic ovarian syndrome) but ruled it out) and a half of one yanked a year later (by a different physician, recommeded by the first), only to have totally desentigrated and dissappeared over a period of years.

Issue #2 - The darn scar tissue from the first two surgeries! (Taken out by a 3rd physician!)
Issue #3 - After years of tonsilitis, I got my tonsils taken out at age 30! One of the worst pains I've ever felt in my entire life! (Physician #4)
Issue #4 - Severe herniated disks in my lumbar region. Was on med leave from work for about 2 months. Physician #5 couldn't help me, Chiropractor #1 couldn't help me, so I was sent to Chiropractor #2 to do decompression. It saved my life!
Issue #5 - Obesity. Physician #6 attempts with dietician and pills but nothing worked but this time I was also diagnosed with poly-cystic ovarian syndrome. Yeah...the same thing that Physican #1 ruled out 5 years prior. I was then sent to Physician #7 for Roux-en-Y.
Issue #6 - Major pain in left ankle. Enter Physician #8, who attempts correction with pain meds and orthotics but neither worked. Physician #8 sends me to Physician #9. Physician #9 diagnoses a torn legamint and corrective surgery.
Issue #7 - I trip and fall 3 months after the above surgery and break my right ankle and fracture my right leg. Back to Physician #9 for repairs (2 surgeries).
Issue #8 - Issue #4 comes back to visit periodically over the years.
Issue #9 - Issue #4 comes back with a vengence and results in a pinched nerve. After almost 4 months of medical leave, once again, Chiropractor #1 saves my life with decompression therapy.
Issue #10 - Diagnosed with DDD (Degerative Disc Disease) and every disc in my cervical spine is damaged (2 herniations, 1 huge bulge and all others with lesser bulges). Undergoing decompression therapy but this time is not as effective as in previous years.

At the pinnacle of frustration, I begin to wonder if all these issues have a common diagnosis that is going unnoticed. I know there are privacy issues involved, however, my wish would be that my entire medical record could be online, so any physician I went to could see my vast medical history. Along with that feature would be a database that would automatically query certain symptoms or key words in my records and match them with possible diagnoses. These possible diagnoses would then be scrutinized by my primary physician to determine (possibly through further testing) if the database queries were accurate. I know...we're not quite in the "Jetson" era yet, but we're getting close.

I'm tired of narcotic distributing, pill promoting physicians. I don't blame the physicians by themselves. Our society demands "quick fixes", so we're more apt to take a pill to get us back to work quickly than to take the time to allow our bodies to heal more naturally. Hmmmm...did I just say our current society doesn't allow us time to heal our bodies? How sad but true.

My sister recently had a friend that committed suicide. She was taking 22 pills a day. Ultimately her husband realized (too late), her physician was giving her medications to lessen the side effects of other medications. What a vicious cycle! Why is it that some physicians give regard to the side effects of long term narcotic use on your liver and others don't even mention it? How is it that I could take Darvocet for almost 10 years and no physician warn me about the side effects it may have on some of my internal organs?

Thank GOD for the internet and my ability to seek out information for myself. Many times, I've had to arm myself with data about my OWN symptoms and bring that data to the physicians attention or suggest a test, therapy or alternative to medication.

Currently, I have had to spend $7,000 (a medical loan) on decompression therapy not paid for by my benefits. Why is it not paid for? Well...a person in the medical field told me the AMA and the "grand poo-bah's" of the JAMA don't support homeopathic therapies because there is no money to be made. The use of drugs keeps the money pipline wide open to those in certain government agencies, and the medical and pharma industries. Hmmmm...so, where's the health of the patient considered in all of this? Yeah...