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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 4th Dec 2014 at 4:21 AM
Default What do you enjoy\dread about doctor visits?
Today, while at the hospital for an appointment for my migraines and headaches, I was to have blood drawn. While there, I saw a woman with multiple birth defects like a mis-shapened face and body and only one arm. She was cussing out the day as she was told to go to different offices throughout the hospital. Knowing that the woman has seen the doctor likely more often than I have, but I do see the doctor a lot...

...It got me to thinking that no one truly enjoys doctor visits, unless the doctor is attractive to you, then you fool yourself into submitting. Today was another routine preliminary exam. They may put me on a headache medicine that has the side effects of weight loss, anorexia (that seemed like the biggest red flag) and excessive sleep. When I ignore the anorexia, it sounded like the fairy tale of "Sleeping Beauty".

I also had to tell the nurse that I can only have drawn blood with the needle used for babies (anything bigger in gauge will leave large marks) and they listened, but I didn't realize that they'd need 5 vials of varying sizes' worth of blood. I have anemia from both mom and dad, so I was loopy until I got home and drank some orange juice to rebuild my sugar reserves.

I only put up with doctors because I'm heavily dependent on them.

I had an attractive doctor once, he was just a sweet guy who was unlucky in keeping a wife or staying in business due to lack of visits based on location. However, he's out of my network and out of my way. I was very affectionate when I thanked him (This was when I had a surly attitude towards outsiders, people who weren't as intimately familiar like family and doctors). I just hope I didn't give him a cold when I kissed him on the cheek one time: That would be unfortunate.

Overall, I'm usually adamant of doctor visits.

What are your feelings about doctors and medical centers of any type and size?

Personal Quote: "I like my men like my sodas: tall boys." (Zevia has both 12 and 16 oz options)

(P.S. I'm about 5' (150cm) in height and easily scared)
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 4th Dec 2014 at 11:49 AM
I remember the last time I went to the hospital and it was terrible. The Doctor didn't speak good English and had a very strong accent so I had trouble understanding what she was saying so I was convinced she would give me too much anaesthesia and accidentally kill me. The nurse was a really sweet old lady though, so that was nice.

The Doctors aren't as bad, but I always feel awkward there. I went a few months ago when I got chicken pox again (third time) and I saw the Doctor just google my symptoms. I could've done that at home! Whats worse is when they ask you to pee in a cup to check if you're diabetic or whatever, I'm not cool with that so they always have to take my blood instead, with this tiny little needle and I always get scared because I'm terrified of needles, even though they explain "It's not going to hurt at all" and it doesn't. I dunno, I just really don't like the feeling at all.

~Your friendly neighborhood ginge
Theorist
#3 Old 4th Dec 2014 at 2:31 PM
When I go to the doctors, I know how the conversation is going to go.

I go in complaining about {fill in the blank} and what I'm told is, "Well, that's not normal." In the back of my mind, I always think "Thanks, dude! I really needed you to confirm that!" What comes out is a eye roll and questions about how to deal with whatever the not normal thing is. I'm so glad I pay thousands of dollars out of pocket ( I have a 8,000 dollar health insurance deductible thanks to Obamacare) to be told my health problem at the time is not normal.

I eagerly await what comes next year as not only will I have to pay 8,000 k out of pocket, but I'll also have a 40% tax dumped on top of that.
Theorist
#4 Old 4th Dec 2014 at 4:51 PM
I enjoy nothing. I dread everything.

I find nothing more terrifying than medical stuff. My dad was a doctor and he'd leave medical journals laying around and when I was really young, 8 or 9 maybe. JAMA, I think they were. I'd read them and they'd terrify me like nothing else I'd ever seen or read. He would also bring home videos of case files and watch them on the living room TV. My whole childhood I thought I was dying.

I would much rather be covered with (non-venomous) spiders than see a doctor for any reason.
I know this is a fear I need to get over because as I get older, I know I'll need to face my nightmare head-on, and I get paralyzing fear just thinking about it. Just typing/thinking about it now, I feel anxious and my fingers are ice cold.
I can't even really rationalize that I'm being silly, because when I rationalize it, it seems like a perfectly reasonable fear to me and I don't get why "normal" people don't have it.

Resident wet blanket.
Mad Poster
#5 Old 4th Dec 2014 at 5:00 PM
Not much. I used to hate having blood drawn, but after X number of vials over the years, including learning how to do it (nursing studies), I'm weaned off any remaining fear. I don't like it, because it seems there are some very touchy nerves exactly where the lab technicians like to poke my arm, but I tolerate it. The worst is when they have to poke around. I can often feel it all the way from my fingertips to my shoulder. My record on one doctor visit was somewhere around 8-10 vials (not kidding!).

I used to hate getting vaccines and similar, but we've had to practice on fellow students, so I'm for the most part weaned off that fear as well.
#6 Old 4th Dec 2014 at 10:04 PM
I don't normally see the doctor much, but when I do, it's either with my endocrinologist (for my thyroid issues, I have a family history of it) or my psychologist. It's kinda rare for me to get sick nowadays. Even if I do, I don't go to the doctor. For me it's best just to stay home until I get better. Unless things take a turn for the worse.

Life is paradoxically coincidental to the ironical tyranny applicable to the unparalleled definition of reverse entropy.

"A thunderstorm breaks the wall of darkness." - Lyrics to Storm

"Meh." - me
Forum Resident
#7 Old 5th Dec 2014 at 7:42 AM
The only thing I'd be scared of is to be cut open and operated on. I have almost no fear of general medical procedures because both my parents are doctors, so I've been exposed to some of the worst indirectly from medical textbooks and first aid guides. Doesn't mean I like gore.

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Scholar
#8 Old 5th Dec 2014 at 8:36 AM
Going to the doctor doesn't bother me really. I don't mind having my blood drawn, I'm not afraid of needles or blood or pain (as long as it's not extreme), and I donate blood every 8 weeks. Not afraid of vaccines either.

I don't get sick very often but I do see my psychiatrist fairly often I guess, but that's not the same as a "normal" doctor. I'm pretty awful with him though. Here is how our conversations usually go:
Him: "So, how have you been feeling?"
Me (sighs): "Fine."
Him: "Fine? What does 'fine' mean to you?"
Me (grumpily): "I'm alive, aren't I?"
Him: "Yes, but how do you feel?"
Me (grumpily again): "...I'm alive. Not so great though, I guess."
Him: "And what does that mean to you?"
Me: "Well, I want to die all the time, so..."
Him: "Ah. I see."
Pretty sure I'm not his favorite patient, but anyway. Usually when something is wrong I delay going to the doctor for a long time...not because I don't like doctors, but because I don't want to go there if it's nothing.

“Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
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Theorist
#9 Old 5th Dec 2014 at 10:34 AM
Knowing that the doctor is going to be upset when I tell them that I looked up my symptoms on the internet, so it must be cancer. Very understandable. Why am I even wasting the doctor's time when I can just misdiagnose myself beforehand, then stop by to get their expert and objective response, and then ask "are you sure it's not x?" This happens to doctors a lot, and they have a term for patients who freak themselves out. It's "cyberchondriacs."
Mad Poster
#10 Old 5th Dec 2014 at 12:30 PM
I used to think that having my blood pressure taken was even more uncomfortable than having blood drawn, but lately I've been through far worse things. Ever tried gastroscopy? I've been through a lot of examinations lately, but that's the only time from my teens and up that I've actually panicked during an appointment. And panicking when you've got a long tube down your throat is not a good idea. Trying to calm down so you can breathe properly also isn't easy with said tube blocking half your throat. I suspect the local sedation wasn't quite as effective as it should have been (and it tasted horrible, like I imagine a very strong banana liquor would taste. When it kicked in, speaking and swallowing was very uncomfortable, and of course the nurse with me just had to ask a bunch of questions). I sincerely hope I never have to do that again...
Alchemist
#11 Old 5th Dec 2014 at 1:28 PM
Enjoy: you often get to skip a lesson because you have to go to the doctor! And you feel taken care of
Dread: a bit scary to take syringes
Inventor
#12 Old 5th Dec 2014 at 3:40 PM
I go months, even years in the past, at a time without going to the doctors. Depression and anxiety keep me prisoner but some times I manage to gather enough motivation to get the momentum going. I can go to the doctors, wait a few days for a blood test, go back to the doctors, start some meds, go back to the doctors with updates. But the momentum has to keep going. If something happens, like if the doctor doesn't give me a follow up appointment, or they don't call me when they said they would, then they've basically thrown a brick wall up and I just fall off the face of the earth again. I know it sounds stupid but I just withdraw. Then it takes me even longer to get back because now, not only do I need to gather more motivation but I'm also embarrassed that I let myself slip backwards.

I also feel very patronised by doctors. Like they'll stop and explain very basic things, usually repeating themselves, because they think I'm stupid obviously, and when they say things that I actually don't understand, they don't even TRY to explain it to me, I guess they think it's a lost cause because I'm so stupid. I have to ask, and they seem very shocked when I'm able to comprehend what they're telling me.
The worst is when I talk about my eating disorder (SED/ARFID) and they just don't understand. They think explaining to me (repeatedly in a single visit) the "importance" of "variety" will some how magically fucking fix me. I KNOW that stuff, I could be a fucking NUTRITIONIST with how much I know about food because of all the YEARS of research I've done, trying to find ways to get over my disorder. If anything, knowing just how much I'm hurting myself every time I have a fucking meal makes me feel like crying.

So in short, I hate the doctors because getting there is almost impossible and when I do manage to get myself there, I'm treated like an idiot.
I also feel like a hypochondriac because i have so much stuff to tell them, because of how little I go. Sometimes I have to leave important stuff out because the doctor says "we only have 15 minuets so we can only talk about one big problem or two little ones" :/
Mad Poster
#13 Old 5th Dec 2014 at 4:24 PM
I've been through a few doctors lately. The first one barely even looked at me, and I always got the feeling he was stressed and rather wanted to move on to the next patient. The next one I just didn't like. He sometimes struck me as rude and a bit 'I know better than you'. The third one I'm quite happy with. He listens to me, and talks to me more like an equal, and I have the feeling he takes me seriously. If you're unhappy with your doctor, check the possibilities of finding another one. If the doctor don't take you seriously, it's hardly even worth the time, particularly if you're stuggling with a lot of sensitive stuff.
 
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