@speechless623 I agree, one needs to take charge of one's own health. Some Dr's do have compassion, for example my PCP. However, she can only do so much for a potentially serious condition such as mine (SFN) which is, as yet, undiagnosed. What is needed is a coordinated effort by physicians in such and all cases. Instead, one has to go to many specialists as each specialist only looks at one aspect of the symptoms/causes. The results is that the patient, such as myself, and probably you, going to multiple Dr's and wait months between visits. Meanwhile, the symptoms get worse and the patient, like myself again, spends many hours researching the literature on-line and elsewhere obtaining a "self-diagnosis". The patient thus becomes fearful of the outcome and results in developing serious anxiety about the outcome. This can result in years of searching, Dr's visits and expense on the patient's part.

But such a system is, in fact, advantageous to the Dr's as they can bill the patient and the insurance companies and make more money. When one does get the long anticipated office visit, the amount of time spent with the patient is minimal. One cannot even get all one's questions answered because of the scheduling of patients at 15 minute intervals. Some Dr's even admit they have to do this for Medicare patients and all patients because Medicare does not pay much. I can understand this to some degree. However, even if one is self-pay, as I was for many years before I qualified for Medicare, everyone is treated the same. I view this as a serious, expensive problem within the medical system. Coordinated care would help but there are more systemic issues here being debated all the time. Unfortunately, no one wants to address this "wicked" problem (well not as "wicked" as global climate change and wealthy disparity).

I think Mayo has developed a model for this by assigning and involving a team of Dr's in the patient's case and providing a "care coordinator" to insure that the patient's condition and symptoms are treated in coordinated manner by necessary participants. This could serve as a template for other Dr's and specialists. However, there are added costs and outcomes here as well. Mind you the cost of not doing this are even more expensive as this often results in unnecessary surgeries, treatments, prescription drugs (multiple drug combinations that have adverse effects not to mention costs) and other mistakes, once again not beneficial to the patient and those paying for the treatments (self or insurance companies). The bottom line is that health care reform is necessary. There are some very smart people working on this problem and I have read many books (some by the those involved in reform - including books by Dr's who agree with the need for reform and compassionate care) and others. My supposed SFN is my first foray into the medical system having been in good health most of my life. Now I am seeing the problem first hand and am getting an appreciation for what the books and others have been telling about for years. Enough rambling for now...thanks for listening to this long diatribe...Pam