mostly-human
Bluelighter
- Joined
- Nov 5, 2005
- Messages
- 1,055
That is not surprising. GP's are often pretty incorrect with their information.. As disturbing as it is to think of Doctors as regular humans, who make mistakes (often!), GPs really are right up there amongst the most incompetent of their trade. No one does 7+ years of medical school and all the rest, to become a GP.. the really skilled people become surgeons and specialists and whatnot.. GPs are for the people who were the bottom of their grade in med-school. Over my years, of going to GPs, I couldn't even count the amount of times they've misinformed me, sometimes about quite serious things too.. And they never admit that they're guessing, or they're not sure, sometimes that is the worst part, they're often arrogant enough to tell you EVERYTHING with a sense of authority and assurance even when clearly, they don't have that much of an idea.
My wife is a bit of a Google-Doctor, she's often diagnosed issues I've had, BEFORE the doctors (and she's been right). Likewise, there are some conditions she has had and the doctors have been unable to prescribe anything useful and will tell her that they KNOW there is no medication out there for it, then she'll do some extensive research online and eventually come across something, the original arrogant doctor won't admit their mistake and will even have the nerve to tell her she shouldn't be researching her condition herself, but rather she should just trust his shitty, half-assed advice, but if she takes her research to another doctor and they don't have to stake their pride on it, they'll confirm she's right and put her on it.
A great example of this was when she was suffering from Restless Legs Syndrome (and we weren't even withdrawing at the time, it was just a legitimate case of it). Her stupid doctor basically said there's nothing he could prescribe. Eventually she came across what was at the time still fairly experimental / trial medication for treating Parkinson's disease, which also treats RLS symptoms. The medication is L-Dopa (levodopa). And it's fantastic; it by no means completely resolves all the symptoms, in fact, after taking it you will be acutely aware that your legs are still frustratingly restless - HOWEVER - and this is a big one, it *does* relieve the symptoms enough to allow you to sleep. And that is how you notice the difference; not taking it your legs are dreadful all night and you get no sleep, with taking it, your legs are awful all night, but you get some sleep - not great sleep, but definitely some real sleep and that make a freaking world of difference. We've been taking it during acute opioid WD now for years and it's a wonder drug in that respect.
Anyway, that's a little off track, my point is, GPs can be pretty useless.. Don't get me wrong, 80% of the population or more (I'm just pulling a truly arbitrary number here, from my arse) are still dumber than your average, useless GP. But, at the risk of sounding arrogant myself, if you ARE a smart person, like if you're genuinely a person who is noticeably above intelligent (as in, other people notice this, about you) - then chances are that the GP is telling you information aimed at people much dumber than you and they probably aren't actually well-informed enough, or more to the point - well-resourced enough to care - to be able to give you the sort of information that will be truly useful, interesting and cutting edge. In many cases, taking your case to the Internet, if you're smart enough to locate facts amongst BS, you'll actually come out much better informed than having a shitty, short consultation with a flunk-out doctor who has little to no interest in your well being and probably hates them too !
