How can 2 Doctors have completely opposite diagnosis?

speaceman · #1 06-29-2007, 12:37 PM

I just don't get it. Medicine is somewhat based on science, is it not? Don't they all learn the same thing in school?

Dr. #1 who I saw in canada when I fell hiking and twisted my knee says the following:

Well, it's not too bad. Chin up old chap. Most likely a torn MCL (ligament in knee). Wear this brace for 6 weeks and then get some physical therapy. I don't think you even need an x-ray. It'll heal on it's own. Pip pip and all that. Cheerio.

I go see some doctors now that I'm back in the US just to make sure.

Dr #2. (Takes 500 x-rays). Well, I'm not sure. You can't bend your leg all the way flat so I can't tell what's going on. No brace, no crutches. Walk on it. Come back in a week. We'll see then. You may need an MRI. You may need surgery.

I ask him about Dr #1s prognosis and he says, "I'd agree if it's just the MCL. However I can't tell. I'm not going to say. Come back in a week."

Um... Okay? Can anyone explain that one to me?

As far as bedside manner, Dr. #1 sure as heck made me feel better. He may be wrong, but at least I wasn't left wondering if my leg was going to fall off or not.

It would have been worth it to got to Med School just so I could tell Drs to shut the F up. Seriously.

(And I don't normally hate doctors, nor am I afraid of hospitals. This just ****es me off).

John · #2 06-29-2007, 01:19 PM

The first doctor is paid by the state (country) and doesn't stand to benefit from you getting a lot of lab work, x-rays, etc so you're treated to what the military refers to as "cattle call medicine"

Hell the only thing missing to make it a trip to a military doctor is a bottle full of motrin.

DanB98TJ · #3 06-29-2007, 02:44 PM

It's just a matter of finding a good doctor.

Sounds like #1 didn't give a damn since there is no profit for him to do more, and the second one probably just doesn't want to do battle with the HMO. Even with a good doctor, the friggin' HMOs play games to avoid doing MRIs or other "expensive" tests to find out what is wrong.

The doctor that did my knee surgery in 1985 wasn't good, so I just got an MRI to see what needs to be done this time around...only took about six weeks to get that approved.

speaceman · #4 06-29-2007, 04:23 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by DanB98TJ It's just a matter of finding a good doctor.

Sounds like #1 didn't give a damn since there is no profit for him to do more, and the second one probably just doesn't want to do battle with the HMO. Even with a good doctor, the friggin' HMOs play games to avoid doing MRIs or other "expensive" tests to find out what is wrong.

Well, I guess we'll see next week. I'm going to have to see about lining up a 3rd opinion too.

It's just stupid. No one does anything to the point anymore. I've wasted 5 or 6 hours on this and I have no clearer answer than what I had before.

Just tell me what the problem is so I can decide what I want to do with it.

That's probably the other thing about it. I'm stuck in HMO land and the Dr. #2 knows it, so he knows how long everything takes so he knows he has awhile before he has to do any real work.

As for Dr #1, socialized medicine or not, if putting on a brace for 6 weeks is not a good idea, I don't know why anyone would suggest it.

Dr #1 could be completely correct at this point besides which. That's the thing that gets me. I just don't know anything.

Anyway, that's the end of my rant on Drs. for the day.

My annoyance with Drs was quickly replaced with dealing with the idiots at ATT trying to get DSL working correctly.

Dear ATT service type person: If you don't know what I"m talking about or you are talking about, please quickly connect me with the person that does. I don't want to have to hold 15 minutes and go through 5 people until I get to the one person working over there that knows what's going on.

Thank you.

The best was when the lady told me that she couldn't tell me what ATT's ISP settings requirements were because I was inputing them into a 3rd party router and that I could pay for tech service.

The wanted me to pay for them to verify that I only needed to check off PPPoE and put in my username and password.

What a bunch of bastards.

PK99TJ · #5 06-29-2007, 04:27 PM

Hillary-care will help to smooth out those annoying discrepancies between Canadian and American health care. A quick legislative fix, and health care will be just as effective as public education, the war on drugs, the war on poverty, immigration policies, and gun control -- and then everyone will be happy.

Robert J. Yates · #6 06-30-2007, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by PK99TJ
Hillary-care will help to smooth out those annoying discrepancies between Canadian and American health care. A quick legislative fix, and health care will be just as effective as public education, the war on drugs, the war on poverty, immigration policies, and gun control -- and then everyone will be happy.

Since some of those policies you lumped into your rant on Hillary are republikan based, I'm assuming its acceptable to you for us to refer to them as Bush-care.

PK99TJ · #7 06-30-2007, 08:12 PM

Sure, call it what you want. He's definitely no saint when it comes to larger and larger government, although it is a real stretch to pin all those failures on him.

But thankfully, he's not out there advocating universal healthcare, which is a total disaster.

blkTJ · #8 06-30-2007, 10:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by speaceman

Dear ATT service type person: If you don't know what I"m talking about or you are talking about, please quickly connect me with the person that does. I don't want to have to hold 15 minutes and go through 5 people until I get to the one person working over there that knows what's going on.

I'm not so sure that person exists.

I recently got an ATT DSL connection as well. upload speeds were consistent and reasonable but download speeds were sub-dial up at times. called customer service, explained the problem. they said an actual technician would call me the next day.

four days later i called back.

a week later a technician came out. I explained the symptoms and he knew EXACTLY what was wrong before he hooked up ANY test equipment. It ended up being a problem with a fiber optics card at some hub location.

Then there was the time I got home from work and I couldn't access the internet. Reluctantly, called customer service. The first thing out of my mouth...

"is service down in my area???"

I get...

"well let's check a few things first..."

about an hour later (after she's made it through her entire script of network connection and control panel settings as well as having me power cycle the computer and modem at least a dozen times) she says...

"I'm very sorry sir, it seems that service is down in your area, for upgrades."

after thanking her for a wonderful evening, I hung up as she started in on additional apologies.

what a joke.

speaceman · #9 07-01-2007, 12:39 AM

I know, it's a scary thought that the only thing that could make a cable company look good is a phone company.

Cutch · #10 07-01-2007, 05:25 AM

The knee only has a few structures in it...a couple of ligaments, tendons and cartilage.

Usually a quick physical exam can determine damage to the ligaments...consists of tugging and supporting your leg. If you have a minor tear in your mcl...a brace is probably the right action...prevents further tearing and allows the ligament to heal over with scar tissue. Very seldon is surgery needed for a mcl sprain.

I'm not a doctor though I played one as a child.

Good luck.