@bustrbrwn22 Vet doesn't call but is readily available, so is PCP and so is neph, am very fortunate to be able to contact easily by email or phone. Buckey is slowing down, sleeping a lot, which labs do anyway. Still does the potty thing ok and still has that lab appetite but gets winded during playtime and I let him rest. If he's ever in pain, I'm braced to do whatever is necessary to alleviate his suffering painful though it might be for me personally. I wish elders in our society had the right to choose when and how to leave this world.

More and more of our medical treatment has come under the purview of corporate medicine/for profit medicine. Many large medical institutions are utilizing corporatized systems, strict appointment durations, network referrals only, dispassionate bureaucratized patient contact, among other things. Many small/medium medical offices strive to remain economically viable and look to the next patient, next test, next procedure for the income stream. In this time of emerging animal rights, the veterinarians are not quite in the same scenario, and hopefully they will not be.
Then we have wonderful institutions like the Mayo Clinic and some others. They tend to be not-for-profit, and they are patient driven. The motto at the Mayo Clinic is that the patient comes first.
Hopefully the patient driven model can be the beacon that becomes the enlightenment.

@bustrbrwn22, Two of my favorite groups of professionals are vets and pharmacists. Better listeners, more compassionate and responsive than majority of my docs. If one of docs' first tenets is "first, do no harm"; they are missing the boat entirely on pain management and improving quality of life for millions of patients.

Whenever I read of members who have medical specialists "teaming" to communicate with one another and the patient for treatment options and procedures it truly gladdens my heart.

Several years ago I told my young vet, who I'd sat with as he'd euthanized several of my beloved pets, that when my time came, I'd instructed daughter to call Him for help. Poor guy didn't know what to say but to his credit did manage a smile and nod.

Personal opinion is that docs' 1st thought is " what labs/tests can I prescribe". While diagnosis is a primary goal, most have forgotten or never learned that treating the "whole patient" should be their first concern.