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Keys to a Successful Doctor's Appointment
Visiting Mayo Clinic | Last Active: May 7 8:46pm | Replies (56)Comment receiving replies
I find that to be a narrow view of professions. By that definition, you’d have to learn how to speak legalese, tax, or actuarially, in order to get an attorney, accountant, or actuary to help you. Instead, those professions listen to their clients, do their research, and figure out a way to talk to their clients about it. Doctors shouldn’t be any different.
And doing nothing is doing harm for people who need care and are prevented from it because a doctor is unwilling to investigate or spend time learning about something about which they are unfamiliar.
Finally, people with CFS/Fibromyalgia/Lymes and other “mystery illnesses” have been fighting for respect for years, so these expectations aren’t new.
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You are preaching to the choir on getting respect. I have had Fibromyalgia for more than 35 years and have dealt with way too many “it’s just in your head” mentality. I learned not to mention it at Mayo specifically as any mention would prompt a “would you like to talk to a psychiatrist?” question.
If I have a run of the mill legal or tax, etc. issue then sure, don’t have to do much. If I have a complex legal, tax, etc. issue, then I will put in the time/effort to speak in their language so there is zero confusion or misunderstanding. In the end, any misunderstanding is more likely to affect me than it is the attorney, accountant, etc.
If I put in the effort and fail, at least I tried. If I don’t put in the effort and fail, am I blameless in the failure? I am jaded enough to know doctors aren’t just waiting for me to walk in so they can put there hero cape on and save the day. They are overworked, stressed by the system, and have bad days just like the rest of us.