Do you trust doctors?

Some I do. Others, not so much. I know when it came to my son when he was little, I did not trust any doctor sufficiently to leave the exam room. A good thing too. Once, when Grant was suddenly sick we took him to a local urgent care facility. About two months after this, we were reading an article in our local paper about a doctor who had been arrested for distributing child pornography over the Internet. It was that very doctor who had examined Grant. We took Grant back there a few months later. When we checked in, I asked if Dr. So-and-so was going to examine Grant. The receptionist replied, "He's not practicing with us any longer." "Thank you", I answered.

Doesn't matter whether I do or don't, it's not like I have an alternative.

I trust doctors that they will do the right thing and not harm me intentionally, however, I don't trust that will take enough time and make enough effort to understand my case and try to solve my problem most effectively. That's why I still have UTI after two years.

I do, though I second guess them a lot too. I prefer to have a dialog with them. I don't like when they just tell me what to do, end of story. I've caught them being wrong too much. But, I still basically trust them.

No. Have somewhat of a doctor and dentist phobia. The only really nice doctor I have ever been in contact with in my whole life was my opthalmologist and now I can't afford to see her anymore. I've had some really nasty ones -- an eye doc and a dentist -- that have contributed to my distaste and distrust of docs.

Absolutely not.

Yes and no. Doctors are human, most do the best they can, but like all of us, are not perfect. Mistakes happen, a symptons are missed. Being a Dr is very stressful, someones life is in your hands. For the most part I trust my Dr, if I feel she is missing something we discuss it. I think it is very important to have a good Dr/Pt relationship, dont be afraid to discuss things with your Dr.

I'm not really happy making a blanket statement here. I suppose if pushed, I would say that I trust the profession in general, even though there are individual doctors that I wouldn't trust at all. All doctors are human, and have the capacity to make mistakes - that shouldn't be confused with incompetence or untrustworthiness. I do think that most people (in the UK at least) do trust doctors and healthcare professionals in general. Heck, they even trust medical students - not one person has turned to me and said "You're a student? No way are you taking my blood!"

Logically I know I should not but I do tend to just accept what they say as gospel (which is an odd thing to say since I don't accept the gospels as being true). One might say, "I want to believe". I'm not saying that I logically think doctors are actively out to harm anyone or even particularly incompetent, just that they're only human and working in a field that's more guesswork than science.

Biggles, I'm about to bug you with my own question now that you've mentioned taking blood.

I went to get my blood drawn yesterday. I left the piece of taped cotton until I came home (12 hours later) because my shirt was tight with long sleeves and when I removed the tape I found this: http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v295/kierchehof/... Did the lady or something wrong to make me to be so bruised?

The picture isn't very clear, but it looks like a little bit of blood leaked out of the punctured vein and into the skin before a clot was able to form. As long as that's the extent of it, and there's no swelling or pain (except perhaps typical bruise pain) then I think the most likely explanation is that she didn't apply enough/prolonged enough pressure after withdrawing the needle, or quickly enough after withdrawing the needle. The former is easy to do if you have fast turn-over of patients (like in a phlebotomy clinic) or if she told you to apply the pressure yourself and the latter is more likely to be good technique than bad (some people press the cotton down as they are withdrawing the needle, which can damage the inside of the vein). If she fished a bit for the vein, then she could have nicked it before hitting it properly and the "nick" could have bled a bit while she was drawing the sample - but again, that's not necessarily bad technique, sometimes you just don't quite hit the vein because they are quite mobile and can be pushed out of the way by the needle. It can also depend on the state of your blood - the thinner your blood, the more likely you are to bruise - but that's such a teeny bruise that I don't think you need to worry about that! I've caused much worse when taking blood from elderly patients who are on lots of blood-thinners

Unless you have pain or evidence of more extensive bleeding (that really is a tiny bruise - I've seen people on blood-thinners bruise the length of their arm from a single needle puncture) then it's probably just one of those things. I once fainted whilst having blood taken and slumped sideways out of the chair with the needle still in my arm - I had a great bruise then, surrounded by finger marks where the nurse had tried to hold me up! (Disclaimer: I know very little about medicine relative to the vastness of the field and in no way should my comments be taken in place of real medical advice!)

Thanks for your answer.

I don't think my blood's thin. I don't take aspirin and don't think I've taken anything in past week or so.

After reading your explanation, I think the fault is mine. After she taped up the cotton, she left me to hold the spot. I didn't do it for long enough, I just sort of put on my shirt and forgot about it.

Sorry about the photo quality. I took two photos inside which were blurry. Then I went outside and it looked better than the first two. Beneath the bloodpool, there is a much larger teal bruising that sort of runs along my vein.

If it isn't hurting you and you don't have any "arm model" photo shoots coming up then there's no point kicking yourself about lack of pressure. I certainly wouldn't bother to apply pressure for very long if it was my arm being jabbed because I'm not that bothered about getting bruised (and I seem to bruise easily if the random assortment on my arms and legs is anything to go by), though I'm more careful with my patients!

Now you point it out, I can see the larger bruise - it's probably the same thing, but has run alongside the vein as that's the path of least resistance. A small amount of blood can spread a long way - so there's probably only 1 - 2 mls maximum in that entire bruise. People on blood thinners can often bleed quite a bit more (still only talking about 10 mls or less - not litres!), regardless of the pressure applied, and can end up with a "swelling" of blood around the vein, which makes me feel bad but doesn't really seem to bother them and is reabsorbed by the body fairly quickly.

Nope, don't model my arms

I'm hoping it disappears soon; I just don't want people thinking wrong things.

for the most part yes..... as with any field there are those who are excellent and those who are not. i trust my family practice physician and my NP. i trust the physicians i work for for the most part.

Most of the time

As opposed to teachers, lawyers, business executives, car mechanics,police officers?

I vote yes, but trust is kinda a strong word.

In general? Yes and no. It really depends on how well I know the doctor. But I guess I lean more towards "no". I'm cautious with my money.

yes.

Yes and no

I don't really trust this medical system. Emergency care...fine. Disease care....NO

Yes, of course. Why wouldn't I????

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harold_shipman

Not really...they still haven't got it right, that is why they "practice" medicine. Why do they need to "practice"..they should have if down by now...

> Not really...they still haven't got it right, that is why they "practice"
> medicine. Why do they need to "practice"..they should have if down
> by now...



My father once told me he would never in his life try Mexican food. He said it was obvious they couldn't cook, because they made refried beans. If they would fry them right to begin with, they wouldn't have to refry them.

My doctor gave me the good stuff

Mostly, but alot of them don't do everything they could and you have to tell them the answers.

Mostly. I figure there's a pretty good chance they know more about their subject than I do.

Some more than others.

Absolutely not.

Yes, 100%

I trust medical science more than I trust individual doctors. There are unscrupulous people in all professions.

People who don't trust doctors are like people who don't trust the police.
Generally you have nothing to fear if you haven't been doing anything wrong.