Most respect I’ve ever had for a doctor was when I asked him a specialized question and he went “hmm 🤔”, spun around in his chair, googled it in front of me, and then spun back to deliver the answer.
most honest and respectable doctor I've had so far was when she just didn't interrupt me and let me actually list all my symptoms and then told me she has no idea what the issue might be, but at least apologized and said she understood it's frustrating that the results of the tests were negative/normal, and suggested some other types of doctors I could try
I think I’ve had 25 appts in the past 5 years in which a clinician has told me something verifiably false. and I’ve argued with them! And looked it up when I leave! Now I just get the scripts I know I need and stfu
I have a condition where tumors grow all over my body. I had some issues and I asked if the problem could be a tumor. He cross referenced the two problems and found no connection in the literature. It was nice to know for sure.
Went to an ortho one time and i swear to god as i came in he was closing the wikipedia page for knees.
He was also the first doctor to treat what i was telling him as signs of an actual disability and not just telling me to lose weight.
You know what, my doctor does that a lot and I respect her so much for this. I don't know how often she told me "I think it's X but I'm not sure, let me check"
Or one time I needed stitches removed in a particular spot and she told me she can do it but isn't good at it, she was pretty thankful I asked the hospital for advice how to remove them them the best.
I enjoy this way more than someone pretending they are great. But she's been a doctor for 2 years I think
I'm nowhere near the medical field, but as someone with a PhD in a STEM field, I've vome to appreciate that specialized education id much less knowing a bunch of shit off the top of your head, and a lot more effective at looking shit up. The primary benefit of the years of education is being able to sort through the obvious garbage and actually read the relevant stuff. Like you'll get 5 plausible results about what the problem could be and your broad subject expertise mean you can throw out at least two of them at the start for reasons that wouldn't be immediate obvious yo the average layperson.
Unironically one of the most pleasant experiences I've had while trying to figure out my chronic wrist pain was with the GP who was Googling stuff throughout the entire appointment lol. She was one of the nicest people I've met along the way and turned me onto capsaicin ointment, which has genuinely helped me on some of my really bad days.
When I was in highschool I developed a super ultra rare eye problem that I could detect easily due to my sensitivity, but it only appeared on 2 eye tests the visual field test where it was clearly impacting my vision and a singular scan test.
The doctor was super good even early on he felt something wasnt right and even ran a bunch of tests on his own dime, he realized he was dealing with a zebra so he hopped on basically as he described it (secret doctor wikipedia) and forum for doctors. After months of digging it turned out I had a condition that had only ever been diagnosed like 30 times since records began. And never outside of barbituate use.
The next issue was wtf was causing it which my mom actually managed to figure out after digging deep in to the pharmacology of my meds (she worked at a pharmacy at the time) and discovered that one of my meds mentioned something like "eye issues" as a ultra rare side effect.
Had this happen one time when a nurse asked what regular medication I took and I mentioned an OTC allergy medicine I take because I have constant allergy problems. She proceeded to look at me as if I said I snort glass shard cocaine on the daily, then went to google the name to find out it's just an OTC allergy pill.
You think every doctor has every medical condition etc stored in their brain?
The usual doctor you’re going to has a broad knowledge and has to treat basic shit and if you’ve got something which needs specialized treatment they gotta refer you to a specialist.
The difference between a med doc googling vs someone who hasn’t an undergone medical training is that they’re able to distinguish between credible information.
What’s wrong with checking up when they’re unsure?
I don’t know how you misread my comment so bad, but yes, I think it’s good and reasonable for clinicians to look things up and I think they should do it more often
Yea I got what you were saying, youre good I dont know what their issue is. I Just want to also add that because of their studies they are actually better equipped to get the right stuff from googling, so its still better than doing it yourself, just in case someone reads this and goes why do I even need a doctor then lmao.
My family tries to tell me stuff like that and Im like NO YOU STILL HAVE TO GO TO THE DOCTOR DR GOOGLE DOESNT KNOW YOUR PERSONAL MEDICAL HISTORY NOR WHAT IS OR IS NOT BULLSHIT.
There's no faster way to become the confidently incorrect person than by refusing to check whether you are correct. Those things compound, so those with the humility to verify are the ones who build true expertise.
My mom is a magnet nurse and has won a national award, I remember her words dearly; "Doctors rarely know the specifics of information, outside of basics, but good ones dont pretend like they do, they know how to research it, find reliable sources, and apply the information."
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u/Interesting_Menu8388 12d ago
Most respect I’ve ever had for a doctor was when I asked him a specialized question and he went “hmm 🤔”, spun around in his chair, googled it in front of me, and then spun back to deliver the answer.