It's a common phrase. Do not google your symptoms. Doctors tell you, your parents tell you, and eventually, you tell yourself it is not worth the self-induced panic. I disagree whole-heartedly with this statement. For those without a medical degree the internet, usually, WebMD is a place to find helpful information when you think something is wrong. Yes, occasionally it'll tell you that you have some rare disorder that only 2 people in the entire world have but most of the time it can be a starting place for people who are seeking answers to physical ailments. Doctors hate when you come in and say you googled your symptoms, probably because their ego can't take the fact that you went to someone other than them and their expensive medical degree. They'll tell you to stay off google and listen to them and them only for a diagnosis. But what happens when said doctors aren't listening to the concerns of their patients?
With medical practices turning into a for-profit rather than a patient-care business, more and more doctors are ignoring the concerns of patients and slapping on a diagnosis sometimes without proper testing. Not listening to patients is harmful, it's putting the patient at risk for serious complications if their diagnosis isn't properly looked into and treated.
As a person with a long list of medical conditions, I understand my body more than any doctor. Each individual knows when their body is off, so when they go to a medical professional, they expect a give and take, you listen to the doctor and the doctor listens to you, thus allowing for a healthy dialogue getting to a diagnosis. Instead, it has turned into listening to the doctor and not questioning them.
By the time I was 19 I was well versed in how to get my doctors to listen to me or, so I thought. June of 2017 I was scheduled for a thyroid radiation procedure. My body had been rejecting all medicine to help my thyroid function, so my endocrinologist told me radiation was the safer version to remove the thyroid. Preparing for the procedure which required multiple blood tests, scans of the thyroid, and personal research to understand the procedure, I came upon an informational website detailing the process leading up to the procedure and what would happen after. Pretty standard stuff, doctors measure the TSH (thyroid stimulating hormone) in the body, scan the thyroid to determine the amount of radiation needed for the individual, then for 72 hours after ingesting the pill the patient would be quarantined in their respective bedroom. Everything looked good, except for the thyroid scan. I hadn't had one taken in over two and a half years. I brought this up with my doctor the visit before the procedure and he said it wasn't necessary since I had the scan taken two and a half years prior. It didn't sit well with me, how could you measure the pill dosage if you don't have an updated view of the thyroid function? When I brought it up to my mom, she told me to trust the doctor. After all, he does have a degree.
The procedure itself was a mess, my endo sent the wrong paperwork which would've given me an entirely different procedure had my mom not caught it, the required pregnancy test took an hour because my body cannot draw blood to save my life, but on the verge of passing out, I took the pill and was sent on my way to my bedroom of quarantine. Not a problem in sight.
Well… turns out there were many problems. The next round of blood work after the procedure showed unhealthy levels for my TSH, not the results that should be occurring after the procedure. Confused my endo sent me for a scan at the hospital and when we got there the doctors told me a scan would show skewed results due to the radiation in me, thus no scan could be taken. Furious, my mother and I demanded my endo meet with us and figure out what was going on. Sitting down in his office will forever be engrained in my brain. "I have to apologize, I might have given Alison a procedure she did not need." There it was. The nagging piece of my brain was now on the forefront. My mom was crying, rightly so, I could've potentially been given radiation when my body did not need it.
With my mother crying and my endo spewing some nonsense about fixing his wrongs, I realized I was right. I, an 18-year-old history major knew better than this doctor. Whether it was an excess of patients, lack of patient care, or just a disregard for them, I made sure I would never go to this endo again.
In the end, no real damage was done, but it took six months to find that out. Six long months of waiting to see if I would have other issues because a doctor didn't listen to me. This is just one of many examples I have about the dangers of doctors ignoring their patient's concerns. I am lucky, many people who aren't listened to die from misdiagnosis or lack of care from their doctors. Women are more likely to be told their physical disorders are just stress related or menstrual related. Minorities are also at risk for death due to lack of listening on the part of medical professionals.
I'm not the only person who these things happen to, my mother, who had a bad reaction to a measles booster was told it was shingles even though there was no painful rash. A nurse once asked me if I still was using insulin, despite the fact that I would die without it. Doctors are failing their patients and putting them in harm's way. It's time to make medicine about the patient again, not the profit.
I've come to realize something that has helped me immensely, if you are concerned about a particular health issue and your doctor refuses to run tests, you can request they put that they denied you said testing on their chart. If it comes back that the test was vital in diagnosing your condition, it shows no record that they denied you medical care in your diagnosis. It takes a lot to stand up to someone who is supposed to have so much knowledge, but your health is worth it. You know more about your body and you living with a disorder is much more than their two-hour lecture on it.
