Tuesday, January 06, 2009

Things That Make You Go "hmmmmmm"

I caught part of the Oprah show today. Did you see it?

I was flabbergasted when she shared that she had been seen by four different doctors for her physical symptoms and not one of them performed a thyroid function test. Not one of them!

That doesn't really have me going "hmmmmm" ... It has me going "WTF?!?!"

If Oprah can't even get a THOROUGH exam, where does that leave the common person. Up shit creek, that's where. I certainly hope those so called doctors are embarrassed.

(My mother use to get very frustrated and angry because the doctors wouldn't listen to her. They would brush her off, discount what she was trying to share with them. They couldn't even let her just talk it out... because you know, time is money. However, even Oprah's money didn't get her excellent care. She had to be the sleuth.)

Doctors who think they know it all make me very concerned.

6 comments:

Brenda said...

I didn't get to see the show, but last night I caught Larry King doing a show about her weight gain. I didn't catch the entire show and don't know the whole story, but parts of this show bugged me, because of my weight issues right now. I am reluctant to say much more about it until I do know more of the story, though.
I have found over the years that it is better to do a little homework of your own if you are being treated by a Dr. Everyone makes mistakes, doctors included. Oprah is another story though. You would think she would have the BEST out there, and they would be like you said, EMBARRASSED to say the least, to have not diagnosed and treated her properly. I am interested to find out more about her story.

Wanda said...

I totally agree... When our daughter was so sick for over 4 months. They couldn't diagnois her, but she researched and kept telling them she thought it was a parasite...they would never admit it, but finally after months of being sick, they gave her a antibiotic that was designed for parasites, and thats when she started to recover.... How sad that we have to diagnois our own illness...

BTW - The yellow wavy dishes...
The dinner plate, small plate and bowl -- Ross $2.99 each. The other little plate, thrift store, $.75 Napkins ~~ thrift store, 4 for $1.00. Ross only had two of the wavy ones, but hey it's just Don and me and I love dishes. And that's the story of the yellow dishes.

LOL:Wanda

sandy said...

when I did medical transcribing for 30 plus years, many times, I'm yelling at an invisible doctor that is not clear on what is going on with the patient. I am saying ...such and such such...test for this...it sounds like this..and sure enough...I would get his follow up report after lab tests, etc....to transcribe and it would be what I thought. I should have been a doc.

just saw the news about all the flooding up there, how are you holding up around where you live.

Sue J said...

Oprah is an intelligent woman. Why didn't she ask for a Thyroid test to be done? Or can you not do that in USA? I know your doctors are restricted to the type of tests/treatments they can do by the insurance mobs, which I think sucks.

The Crusty Crone said...

Thx for commenting everyone.

Sandy, there's some flooding going on in places, but boy are the folks in Washington getting hammered. They're getting the worse of it. Where I am is totally okay. And I hear ya about being able to know medical things after a while. I got just a little of it going on when I was working in a hospital. "You better come check this person right away... not looking good."

Sue, its good to see you again. Oprah was the one that brought up testing her thyroid. The doctor she was talking to didn't realize one hadn't been done. DUH, huh.

Unknown said...

I didn't see the show but I can agree about some doctors at how they do not even bother to really check you out, like I have had a few of the dumb docs in my life time and I will never forget the time that I was supposed to been prep for gall bladder surgery but instead some other doctor thought I was pregant and wow did we have a round of it cause he was fixing to prep me for child birthing!