Doctors!!!!!!!

[lazy shooter]

Gypsi:

"If it wasn't for bad luck, you wouldn't have any luck at all."  Have you ever known anyone that went to a medical facility and received good care? 

[Gypsi]

I have no luck at all.  I don't hitchhike, and I don't get unnecessary biopsies. you are free to enjoy the wonderful care you always receive Lazy Shooter. Use mine up while you are at it. And good luck!  If you actually get my luck your leg will fall off or something.  Sending it on.

[iddee]

That's why doctors call their business a practice. They never get it down pat, they are only practicing. You have to watch their actions, then add or subtract as fits you. Kinda like getting beekeeping advice.   

[Gypsi]

I had cancer in 1997- melanoma, no insurance company would touch me for years, or they would offer me a very expensive policy that didn't cover cancer, so I learned to be a smart medical consumer.

I had a great outcome with my skin doctor, he has since retired but the doctors that inherited his practice are also very good. Their services are in office and do not involve the hospital. Surgery, biopsies the whole bit. I like it. Fewer germs.

But the general practictioners that are hooked up with hospitals seem to be practicing racking up big bills. 

I have a couple of "cash pay" clinics I use for dog bites, bee stings on my helper or a sinus infection. But having a primary care physician is something I haven't had since 2005. and I miss the one that retired. He was intelligent, open minded, and a very good surgeon, ran a good practice for 35 years or so. The guy that inherited his patients was a good surgeon, he did a nice hysterectomy, yes I got a fairly horrible infection afterward but I healed faster than he has ever seen, gee bet that had nothing to do with him and a lot to do with my immune system. The trash he tried to sell me instead of surgery was amazing....and is now on those commercials for class action lawsuits.  I went from him to planned parenthood, their nurses are better doctors.

So yes, I have had good outcomes, but I shop carefully.  Trust is not in my blood.  The difference between my current PCP and a used car salesman is not much

[brooksbeefarm]

It was really a practice back in tec, iddee, and my day. All doctors had there own office and treated you for everything and if you were to sick to go to them? they would come to your home. (mine by car, tec and iddee by horse and buggy ) They knew you by name and would set and visit ( had coffee, cake or pie ). Now you go in they pull a chart (with your name on it and everything you've ever had or had done to you.) and what specialist they sent you to and what they done. That's probably a good thing, But i miss the old time doctors that knew your family and took care of all of them. My grandpa use to like to tell people in front of dad, that it cost him a fat hog to deliver dad. Jack

[tedh]

I remember my mom calling the doc (Dr. Mac) and the first, and many times the only, questions the doc asked was, "Which one was it and what did they do now?".   I think as children we were on the wild side.

[Retroguy]

I had the same doctor that my folks had been using from the 1930's.  He was the first on that side of town to have a new X-Ray machine.  When he retired, his son took over the practice and took care of 3 generations of my family.  I was heartbroken having to find someone new when my new coverage didn't include him in the plan.  Here's the kicker:  Sometime in the 1990's he was voted Best Family Physician by his peers in my home state.  At the same time he was reprimanded for keeping poor records on patients by the state medical board.  What tripped him up was a new patient whom he prescribed pain killers for.  This individual turned out to be going from one doctor to the next getting prescriptions and either abusing them or selling them to others.

And his office!  His dad had built the place bit by bit over the years as the practice expanded.  The Old Man liked Mexican architecture so the house and the attached practice were built by Mexican laborers brought up for the job.  Mexican tile (floors and walls) with different patterns and a little scene in each examination room, a fresco of a Mexican marketplace on the waiting room wall behind the main desk.  A statue of a skinny dog on a table at one end of the waiting room (all in marble).  Art Deco indirect lighting.  One oddity--Japanese urns with potted palms but somehow they fit into the decor.  None of this plain vanilla crap you see in a modern practice.  When he retired, he donated the buildings to a local Chapter of Al Anon but the whole works was bulldozed about a year ago.

I've had good luck finding good common sense doctors since then.  Presently, I just see a PAC (Certified Physician's Assistant).  I'm sure with the rising costs of a medical education we'll be seeing more of these and fewer doctors.  The Big Practices don't pay enough for a person to get out from under the debt load the way I see it and like any other business these are "for profit" entities.  Along with doing in all the lawyers we should go after all the "bean counters" while we're at it.  They take all the good (and fun) out of any organization regardless of what field it's in.  Gotta cut costs to the bone...

[Les]

So I finally got in to see the replacement doc.  Guess you have to be admitted to the hospital in order to get a f/u appt.  He is an osteopath, which is new for me.  Seems to be a good guy, at least he took the time to listen to me.  I told him I was a cast off from the other doctor who left the practice and honest to God he said to me, "so, you're angry too?".  Guess there has been a great deal of fall out from my previous doc leaving the practice.  People are touchy about their doctor, you establish a relationship and there is a bond formed.  Fingers crossed that the "new guy" works out.  I so did not like being left out in no man's land. 

[Perry]

I can't really complain too much about things medical up here, we have it pretty good. About the only thing that I don't like is going to the walk in on Thursday mornings. It dispenses methadone to addicts on Thursdays so it can be a scary place in the waiting room!

[Gypsi]

The osteopaths I have seen were pretty good doctors, they had an extra year of training and seem to be slightly more open-minded and health oriented, instead of being just pill dispensers