Hi, @ausie, Perhaps the single most alarming and disturbing fact I discovered over the past year was how important is was for me to become a very proactive and insistent patient advocate for my health issues. Always blessed with excellent health, I never questioned a doctor; never paid attention to annual lab reports, always relied on what docs said or didn't say regarding labs or diagnoses. Never again.

U.S. docs are well trained in prescribing tests and making diagnoses. They are not trained in the importance of diet and its effect on many chronic health conditions. It took numerous pleas from me to get various docs to prescribe an appetitie enhancer, order additional tests and sign off for an insurance covered dietitian consult. I learned that I was at stage 3 CKD at my 1st visit with the requested nephrologist; my pcp's lab report had not mentioned it and at that time I didn't know what an eGFR was.

While members in MayoConnect do not pretend to be docs, we are the frontline with help, encouragement and experience because we are the ones living with our various conditions. You said it best: "Knowledge is gold". With it, we can learn to better manage our conditions; without it, we are at the mercy of too often overworked healthproviders who in some cases have neither the time nor training to help us take preventive measures early on. Time spent on learning how to better manage our health issues is some of the most important time we can spend if we want to continue to be the "stars" of our own lives. Best to you and all as we learn together.