This is so true...and so many people take their doctors word for it, no matter what...but it is just like any other profession-an engineer, a lawyer, a hairdresser-you have the top of the class, and those who are the best at what they do, and then you have the ones who passed by a couple of points.
Hey hey HEY!!! I'd like to see some of YOU get even accepted to Med school - the top 0.5% of the academic population is actually eligible to apply, and they select down from there. The academic standing is actually a moot point. There are great diagnosticians who weren't at the "top of the class", and often those at the top have actually NO PATIENT SKILLS whatsoever. Add to this the examination system (is it a practical exam? recitation of memorized material? is it an unbiased exam? is the grading scale on a curve?), and you don't necessarily have a reflection of what makes a good health care practitioner.
This is no different than saying that any nurse who wasn't at the "top of his/her class" provides poor heath care, and I KNOW there are a number of nurses online who would take exception to this.
If any of you think that med school is a breeze, I invite you to apply. And once in, I'd like to see you be at "the top of the class" consistently. And if not, I'd LOVE to hear your opinions as to whether the "top of the class" equates to "best physician". Until then, if you don't like what you hear from your health care practitioner, get a second opinion.
Sorry if this sounds harsh - in my chosen profession, I was not at the top of my class. Those who were were actively cheating during exams (some were caught, some not) or choosing the exams that they would fail in order to write a supplemental exam 3 months later (without detriment to their class standing) or were Mormon in a predominantly Mormon faculty (and thereby "earned" some leeway, which was obvious to those of us who weren't Mormon). Does this make them "better" than me? I doubt it. At least I earned my way honestly. And I stand my by professional skills (20 years of honest, ethical, and successful work). AND I challenge those of you who judge in this manner to take a long look at the successes in your life, and examine how you would feel if your abilities were judged in such a high-handed manner.
Hey hey HEY!!! I'd like to see some of YOU get even accepted to Med school - the top 0.5% of the academic population is actually eligible to apply, and they select down from there. The academic standing is actually a moot point. There are great diagnosticians who weren't at the "top of the class", and often those at the top have actually NO PATIENT SKILLS whatsoever. Add to this the examination system (is it a practical exam? recitation of memorized material? is it an unbiased exam? is the grading scale on a curve?), and you don't necessarily have a reflection of what makes a good health care practitioner.
This is no different than saying that any nurse who wasn't at the "top of his/her class" provides poor heath care, and I KNOW there are a number of nurses online who would take exception to this.
If any of you think that med school is a breeze, I invite you to apply. And once in, I'd like to see you be at "the top of the class" consistently. And if not, I'd LOVE to hear your opinions as to whether the "top of the class" equates to "best physician". Until then, if you don't like what you hear from your health care practitioner, get a second opinion.
Sorry if this sounds harsh - in my chosen profession, I was not at the top of my class. Those who were were actively cheating during exams (some were caught, some not) or choosing the exams that they would fail in order to write a supplemental exam 3 months later (without detriment to their class standing) or were Mormon in a predominantly Mormon faculty (and thereby "earned" some leeway, which was obvious to those of us who weren't Mormon). Does this make them "better" than me? I doubt it. At least I earned my way honestly. And I stand my by professional skills (20 years of honest, ethical, and successful work). AND I challenge those of you who judge in this manner to take a long look at the successes in your life, and examine how you would feel if your abilities were judged in such a high-handed manner.
I meant no disrespect to you personally. All I was saying, is that not all medical professionals are equal-even if they carry the exact same degree. There are wonderful and basically "crappy" professionals in every single field out there.
I wasn't saying that test scores/grades were the only thing that make a doctor good or bad- I was only using it as an EXAMPLE of how 10 people can have the same exact job, but it doesn't mean they are equally good at it.
I've had good doctors and bad doctors, and have no idea of what their class standings were. The point was, an "M.D." or any other string of letters after one's name does not make one infalliable- it just means they got through the coursework. Get a second opinion if their advice bothers you, or a third and a fourth.
*Serenades everyone with Weird Al's "Like a Surgeon" sung to Madonna's tune "Like a Virgin" *
I finally made it through med school
Somehow I made it through
I'm just an intern
I still make a mistake or two
I was last in my class
Barely passsed at the institute
Now I'm trying to avoid, yah I'm trying to avoid
A malpractise suit
Hey, like a surgeon
Cuttin' for the very first time
Like a surgeon
Organ transplants are my line
Better give me all your gause nurse
This patient's fading fast
Complications have set in
Don't know how long he'll last
Let me see, that I.V.
Here we go - time to operate
I'll pull his insides out, pull his insides out
And see what he ate
Like a surgeon, hey
Cuttin' for the very first time
Like a surgeon
Here's a waiver for you to sign
Woe, woe, woe
Woe, woe, woe
Woe, woe, woe
It's a fact - I'm a quack
The disgrace of the A.M.A.
'Cause my patients die, yah my patients die
Before they can pay
Like a surgeon, hey
Cuttin' for the very first time
Like a surgeon
Got your kidneys on my mind
Like a surgeon, ooh-hoo like a surgeon
When I reach inside
With my scalpel, and my forceps, and retractors
Oh ho, oh ho
Ooh baby, yah
I can hear your heartbeat
For the very last time
I agree there is s sting of truth...the OBGYN with my first child almost killed me. He made the very serious mistake of making me have my daughter naturally when he KNEW she was large. (Off the charts percentile wise, in weight, frame, length, etc.)
Rather than the c-section I begged for, I ended up with a hairline fracture in my hipbones and my daughter ended up with a shoulder injury-because he chose to do a vacuum extraction instead. (Her shoulders were wider than my hipbones, and it injured us both when he forced her shoulders through my too small bone frame.)
Afterwards, I had to have emergency surgery-which he started BEFORE giving me anesthesia-until he realized why I was yelling. He also seemed to forget that my husband was in the room for a while witnessing it.
I agree there is s sting of truth...the OBGYN with my first child almost killed me. He made the very serious mistake of making me have my daughter naturally when he KNEW she was large. (Off the charts percentile wise, in weight, frame, length, etc.)
Rather than the c-section I begged for, I ended up with a hairline fracture in my hipbones and my daughter ended up with a shoulder injury-because he chose to do a vacuum extraction instead. (Her shoulders were wider than my hipbones, and it injured us both when he forced her shoulders through my too small bone frame.)
Afterwards, I had to have emergency surgery-which he started BEFORE giving me anesthesia-until he realized why I was yelling. He also seemed to forget that my husband was in the room for a while witnessing it.
Geez!!! Are you SURE he was a doctor at all???? He sounds like a blazing idiot!
I actually walked with a slight limp for a couple of months after her birth...
Yes, he was an idiot. There was a very lengthy process in filing formal complaints legally with him...
Nonetheless, my next two babies were monitored very closely for size, and my next baby was induced a month early (a 9lb 4 oz preemie) and my recent son was 9lbs 3oz. I went into labor naturally with him, though-also at 36 weeks instead of 40. They would have both been an estimated 11 1/4 pounds full term.
Both boys were also large framed-but I had them just small enough that I could deliver naturally.
Yikes! And I was mad because the doctor had me pushing too soon with my third baby, and she went back in, instead of out. That's nothing, I can see now!
9+ lbs at 8 months! WOW. That's amazing. And that doctor should have lost his license for that...
What bothers me about this is that she acted annoyed at your question, when you were paying her to answer your questions. You don't need that. I hope she just lost your business, and your referrals.
Every chiropractor I have been to went to medical school, and then EXTRA training to be a chiropractor. Maybe they don't all have to do that. I don't know. But to me, that means they know everything a general practitioner does, and then some. Doctors will often give you pain meds to mask a symptom, and then you have to go to a chiro to fix the cause of the problem. Of course doctors think chiros are all quacks. If you don't keep having the symptoms to treat, because the cause of the problem has been fixed, guess who isn't getting as much business? Make no mistake, healthcare in this country is run as a business, focused on the bottom line. I hate it, but it's true.
And this is almost totally off topic, but right before I signed in here and read THIS thread, I was reading a very similar thread on my sleep apnea support site, so I just got a whole big dose of these stories at once. I'm not sure if this is against any rules? But I'm going to post the link to the thread I was just reading.
(If for any bizarre reason, you're interested in reading the other thread about doctors I just read, I'd skip the original article if you don't have sleep apnea, cause it was boring.)
