I read an article the other day, which I found through Medpage, about doctors, in the United States, who are rejecting patients who google their symptoms and consequently, their illnesses!
I research everything. As a nurse and as a client. When I am given some information I make sure that I know as much as I can about it.
Is that wrong? Is it weird?
Another question for the paed, I think.
What do you think? What do you do?
Do you trust what the doctor says, without question?
Maybe I am weird… huh! Who’d have guessed?
On a lighter note, Ivy is doing really well, the photo diary has been updated again. Thank you for all of your lovely comments and support.
Posted on January 17th, 2008 by Tiff
Filed under: doctor related posts
I am a compulsive symptom googler as well. I got (gently) told off by a doctor once for trusting the internet a bit too much. Mind you I was over-reacting to a silly thing and blathering about an article in Women´s Weekly at the same time, so he probably thought I was a complete loon!
I think the trust depends a lot on the doctor. With my GP I do trust her pretty much without question but I have been going to her for 20 years and she is very thorough which I find reassuring. I definitely like to go into a doctor´s appointment prepared - don´t want any nasty surprises.
I do think that a lot of googling (like I do) is not great - it just makes me worry more because there´s so much info out there and I am not trained to assess it properly. I mean, every tiny little symptom you could think of and google for is a symptom of some kind of cancer! That´s why the doctors go to med school for a million years so they can sift through all that info.
But I think the doctor in that article sounded like a complete a$$hole who didn´t want anyone questioning his authority. Bit of a God complex, I think.
As a mum I Google everything relating to my son,as he has several syndromes and we’ve gone through a whole slew of diff meds and specialists over the years.
Our GP is great and knows her stuff but some of the “specialists” were disinterested automatons who either chanted rubbish from text books or held views from the 1960’s.If not for Google some would have had my son on contra-indicated medication mixes!
Our current paed is great,thank goodness.
Google is good !
I usually google after I’ve been to the doctor just to get more information, sometimes to find out what the heck he was talking about, because I think over the things he said while walking home and realise I didn’t quite understand everything. Next time I go, I tell him what I found.
I google everything and the few times I haven’t, I wished I had because I got the brush off.
When I was pregnant, not only did I google stuff, but I also found great support on WebMD and the pregnancy/parenting message boards. My first OB (who I did not have my son with, as she left practice) hated the fact that I did this. At one point, she tried to “forbid” me from looking up stuff online, because I was “scaring myself” too much and “stressing” over everything I read. She was also the doctor who told me to stop watching birth shows on television too, as I was getting too stressed and emotional. Of course, hubby agreed with her. I had to sneak around to get my fix of medical information, both online and on TV. I think we owe it to ourselves to be prepared, informed and well-read, it will ultimately make us better patients.
I say THHBBTTT!! to such doctors (see Tiff? Like you, I can be ultra mature in such situations). Our little girl would be dehydrated and hospitalized on an IV once every two weeks IF she was even alive had I subscribed to this ridiculous idea. We did get dropped by one specialist because we had researched out another specialist in the same field for a second opinion on a very serious operation. I think that doctors who reject patients researching their own disease states are most often of the ego-maniacal variety - better off to avoid them anyway. I’m just not going to assume that any doctor cares about getting it right for my child as much as I do. I’m just not. So they better just get used to me dogging their every step with a sheaf of questions.
Yes, google EVERYTHING. And look everywhere. Doctors usually prescribe things to me when they know I would rather look for a natural remedy. And the other day I found an interesting article on weight loss which may help me a lot as to why I put on so much weight so quickly. No doctor is gonna tell you in depth what you can find on the internet. And you get about 1000 different opinions complete with pictures. There is a ninemsn site which the doctors actually use themselves to print out a description of what you have.
as you know Dr Goggle is my best friend … but in moderation for everything there is an opposing alternative.
I have my issues with trusting doctors, though I must say that some are getting better about offering more natural alternatives. I do research online, in moderation…and from trusted sites. I have a friend who is a no-longer-practicing doctor…if I have questions, I call her.
Trusting two doctors implicitly was nearly my last mistake ever. I’ll never trust a doctor blindly, EVER again. I now do much of my own research.
gees they’d hate me… I always research too… I just don’t believe a GP can know everything there is to know about so many topics…. last time one of my girls was prescribed an asthma preventer and it just didn’t sound right to me… as it turned out it was full of side effects and wouldn’t have done a thing for her asthma anyway… the asthma nurse at RCH said it should never have been prescribed! Lucky I googled!