How to Know If Your Doctor Is a Great Doctor

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I can talk all day long about bad doctors, just see yesterday's post. I have frankly had more experience with that kind of doctor than the good kind.

I do know that excellent doctors are out there, however. I will give you my personal check list that I have to have in my doctors. If he or she doesn't have these qualities, I move on until I find a better doctor.

I base these traits on three fabulous doctors that I have the pleasure and good fortune and thankfully now good health -- thanks to them -- to work with. One is a female ENT (Ear, Nose, Throat), one is a hormone specialist (he was the first doctor to believe that I had a thyroid problem and he fixed it) and one is a thyroid surgeon (often called one of the best thyroid surgeons in the country). I can easily add a fourth excellent doctor and that would be the TV doctor named Dr. Oz. I love that he cares about people with every fiber of his being. Had he not become a heart surgeon, he would have made a great shrink.

Traits of Excellent Doctors:

• They are rarely late for your appointment and if they are, they quickly apologize for keeping you waiting. They bother to put magazines in the waiting room in case they do run late. Simply putting up medical graphics or drug company promotions on the wall does not count as reading material. If you see an abundance of Big Pharma advertising, leave.

• They do not require you to wear that silly paper gown unless they have to examine something under that gown.

• They do not repeatedly interrupt you.

• They do not wear ties and often they leave that white doctor's coat at home as well. Bad germs love ties and that white coat often puts a lot of distance between doctor and patient.

• They are not offended if your bring in internet research that you want to discuss with them. This kind of doctor is thrilled to have a patient who is knowledgeable about their own health and one that will be an active partner in their own health care. They often recommend books for you to read to further your knowledge. This kind of doctor is never threatened by an informed patient.

• They don't stop learning the day they receive their diploma from medical school.

• Many of them don't mess with insurance because they refuse to allow an insurance suit to tell them how to best treat their clients.

• They spend at least 30 minutes with you; often they spend an entire hour with you.

• They ask how you FEEL and then they listen to what you say.

• They understand the body as a whole and thus treat the body as a whole.

• Many of them understand drug interactions so thoroughly that they could double as your pharmacist.

• They never denigrate holistic health care; instead they integrate it into their knowledge base and practice.

• They actually do the basics that every doctor should do: take your temperature, your pulse, your weight and your blood pressure. If you are seeing a thyroid doc and they never bother to actually walk over to you and examine your thyroid, fire that doctor.

• They often have a nutritionist on staff or recommend that you see one.

• They treat you with respect and assume you are an intelligent being who can grasp the finer points of your illness.

• They say that their best knowledge has come from their patients, meaning as they help patient after patient back to a state of health, they learn something new with each case and that helps the next patient they see.

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How to Know When Your Doctor Sucks

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Are you aware that you can fire your doctor?

Every time I visit a doctor, I act like a client, not a patient. Patients can't fire doctors; customers can. Doctors are like fish in the ocean and you can easily get another and another and another until you find one who treats you like you deserve to be treated. Pay out of pocket if you have to. What is more important than your health?

Here are reasons I have fired more than 15 doctors and took my insurance or my cash elsewhere:

• They spend 15 minutes or less with you and act rushed and very non-interested in hearing about your health concerns.

• They interrupt you a lot and/or finish your sentences for you.

• They are more than 20 minutes late and never apologize for keeping you waiting.

• They are arrogant, haughty and full of themselves and thus have no time for you as there is only so much room in that brain of his and it is filled with thoughts of his awesomeness.

• They refuse to give you a copy of YOUR lab work. It is YOUR body and YOU are legally permitted to have YOUR lab results.

• They tell you "it's all in your head." That one causes me to stand up and walk out immediately without saying a word to the doctor. Even if I am sitting there in that flimsy paper gown, I will grab my things and change in the bathroom. He can figure it out later why I walked out, if he even cares that I did. It tends to at least startle them and give them an opportunity to wonder about what they might have said to offend you. Of course they also can decide you are indeed crazy and it is in your head but at that point I don't care what that doc thinks as he is fired.

• They refer you to any doctor ending with an -ologist in their title. This often means they have no idea why you are before them whining again about how tired you feel so they push you off down the road to an -ologoist who will then most likely give you a prescribed drug and never consider your body as a whole. There may be a real need to one day see an -ologist but be on the lookout for this cop out move by your primary doctor.

• They say you fit the Four F Profile -- Forty, Fat, Female and Fertile. When a doctor has the nerve to lay this one out, I am so very thankful I never took that concealed weapon class after all because this line causes me to go postal. I am likely to respond by telling this sort of doctor that he/she forgot the fifth F: F**K YOU!

Okay, fine, not everyone feels comfortable using the f-bomb in a doctor's office. I think you might though if your body is falling apart for a few decades and doctor after doctor blows your concerns off. Or worse, they prescribe the wrong medicine or remove the wrong body part surgically from you and you end up sicker and sicker and sicker.

If you aren't willing to walk away from an incompetent or lazy or uncaring doctor, then you are saying that you are willing to stay sick. And sick you will stay.

My excellent thyroid doctor wrote this down for me on his stationary the very first visit I had with him: "Never let your doctor determine how you feel." Sage advice.

For tomorrow's post, I will share the ways to know if you are sitting before a truly remarkable doctor.

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140 Million Americans Suffer From Gluten Issues

How many people are suffering from Celiac's Disease? At least 1 in every 133 Americans. What is that tally? 2,115,954 people. That number does not include those of us believed to have a gluten insensitivity. That number has been estimated to be as high as 140 million Americans. Surely that includes someone you know, or you?

Read that number again. Say it out loud. 140 million.

Know how many Americans actually got a Celiac's Disease diagnosis last year? Only 40,000 people. The rest of you are being given flat out wrong diagnosis's from your doctors, year after year after year. Scarier still, some of you never even have a single symptom that would hint that you have a gluten issue. That is why it is vital to get tested if a family member has an issue with gluten. You could be killing your guts and not even know it.

If you have a few of the following symptoms and your doctor never thinks to test you for Celiac's, fire him. If you have some of these symptoms and you never try a month with no gluten to see if you feel better, fire yourself as director of your own health care.

I know, I know, I can be too blunt. I am blunt but I got that way after being here for 44 years and never getting medical care that would have helped me until very recently. It has made me a little crabby. That and wheat. Wheat definitely makes me crabby.

Here are some of the symptoms of Celiac's or a gluten sensitivity. Please know that since every body is different, we can all have different symptoms. For example, I had ataxia, which is a balance disturbance. I would literally run into walls (and no, I was not drinking). My husband would hear a loud BANG followed by a loud cuss word. He would ask, 'what's wrong, honey?" And I would have to reply that I ran into a wall. Again. Really it was more like falling into a wall since my balance was so awful. I had bruises all over the place. It wasn't pretty. It too made me crabby.

Symptoms:

The main signs and symptoms associated with gluten intolerance (celiac disease) are due to the inadequate absorption of nutrients from food. This condition results in:

Abdominal bloating and pain
Diarrhea
Constipation
Foul-smelling gas and stool
Steatorrhea (an increased amount of fat in the stool)

Some of the signs and symptoms associated with gluten intolerance occur as a result of the malnutrition and vitamin deficiencies often caused by the condition. These may include:

Anemia (low number of red blood cells) and fatigue. Due to a lack of absorption of vitamin B12 and iron.
Weight loss. Due to poor absorption of carbohydrates, proteins and fats.
Bone pain, bone weakness and osteoporosis. Due to a lack of absorption of vitamin D.
Swelling (often around the ankles and feet). Due to fluid retention
Tingling and numbness from nerve damage. Due to deficiencies of B12 and thiamine.

Other indicators may include behavioral changes, muscle cramps, joint pain, mouth sores, tooth discoloration, itchy rash, weight gain, seizures, missed menstrual periods, infertility or miscarriages.


Okay, all the reasons above are making me crabby just reading about the endless possibilities!!!

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