@kb49 When I was a kid, the rule was "Always trust your doctor.". As an adult, my personal experiences have given me MANY reasons not to.

More to the point of this discussion, I had a pacemaker implanted just a few weeks ago, quite possibly because the cardiologist I was going to dismissed the results of a stress test showing a Stage 1 heart block as a "test error" and prescribed a targeted beta-1 blocker, known to cause heart blocks, for my high blood pressure. Six months later, I was in the ER with a Stage 3 heart block.

Po-Op, I monitored my BP closely and found that it was every low. I called multiple doctors, including my PCP, the cardiologist, and the surgeon. The only one who even answered was a nurse from the surgeon's office, who told me to cut back on the BP meds until my BP was up to normal. I ended up cutting them back to ZERO, and still my BP was too low, EVEN AFTER MILD STRESS. That result was a major clue to what followed, but again I called everyone and again no one thought it important. Within a couple days I was back at the ER with an acute pulmonary embolism - blood clots in my lungs from the surgery - and gasping for air.

I am now recovering from the emergency surgery to remove the blood clots. Suffice to say that I am changing doctors AGAIN. In fact, I am changing from anyone associate with the particular hospital/medical provider.

I don't know what it takes to find one who actually pays attention to the patient these days. It seems to me that unless the grim reaper has already got a foot in the door, they all pass you off to a trainee in their billing department.