From the article: Sharing Internet Health Information With Your Doctor
Most of us go online to find information about our diagnosis or treatment options. But we have varied experiences sharing that information with our doctors. What was your experience with your doctor? Was he receptive? Did she get upset? Do you have advice for others? Share Your Experience
Internet Saved My Life
- After 10 years of declining health, I finally went to the internet & found information on hypothyroidism & Armour thyroid med. When I tried to dicuss it with my doctor, he gave me a Post It with two web addresses for quack medicine & quack doctors. He was so angry I could see the muscles in his jaw quivering from gritting his teeth. I refused to leave his office without a prescription for Armour. The dosage he prescribed, I already knew from doing my internet research, was way too high for a patient to start on. As I was leaving, he told me when I started having heart palpatations, to go to the closest ER!! I never went back. I started on 1/4 of the Armour 2x daily, while I searched for a new doc. The first battery of tests ordered by the new Doc included a test for congestive heart failure! It took many months & many tests but now, over 4 years later, I am taking 400% of the initial dose the other doc prescribed! I am still recovering. My new Doc & the internet saved my life!
- —Guest Juliebee
Found A New Doctor
- Had been with this endocronoligist for 10 years and never took up time during a visit. Expressed concern over possible side effects from present medicine. Told him had read it on internet and he was dismissive. Told me I could just quit the medicine and when felt bad to call him and he walked out of the office. I was stunned and later furious. I quit taking the medicine (Synthroid) for 4 months and really suffered health wise. I did not go back to that doctor, but went to my primary care doctor who prescribed Armour Thyroid which is working fine for me. Beverly
- —Beverly3412
It takes time for them to accept
- My GP, who is also my PCD, didn't agree at first but now, she agrees. At the beginning, she was very defiant about patients searching on the web. She thought I could be cyberchondriac. But when she understood that, for example, thanks to my hypervigilance (reading leaflets in medicines' boxes, searching accurate info and so on), I saved my own life, she doesn't refuse any more about sharing info she doesn't have and I have. She also knows that I actually LOVE searching info, and we could solve complicated issues thanks to my info research. Even my ENT doctor (for the Single Sided Deafness) and my psychiatrist (for ADHD) have now understood how precious it is for them to have a patient who shares info taken on the web. BTW, it's thanks to have read the leaflet in my Ritalin's box that I saved my life: my previous psychiatrist didn't inform of a potentially fatal interaction between an OTC medicine and Ritalin. GP was with her eyes like a howl (she was nearby a heart attack: poor her
- —Guest Giulia
No, I Don't Need That...
- My GP failed to diagnose the hypo for at least 3 yrs (5/09) and then didn't want to hear/learn about obtaining a FT3 (1/11)which could explain continued mental fuzziness, fatigue, depression and hair loss. She would not read the information printed from the web, but I insisted on the testing and was right! She doesn't understand that I don't like being RIGHT, I like having an understanding and reason for my continued symptoms! Am hoping that the addition of Cytomel (T3) will continue to help.
- —NorCA.Mary
Encourages Research
- My pulmonologist encourages me to research various aspects of my rare disease. He has given me the names of two medications to google and to be a part of the decision-making as to which one I was willing to try.
- —Guest mkm
Interested
- After being diagnosed with fibromyalgia and CVID, my PCP took the time to read what I had brought in for her and I think she looked some things up for herself, too. She also took the time to explain it to the gynecologist. An internal specialist said, I'll see you in six months, like he had just given up on the whole thing! He did not like it when I brought in information for him to see and doubt very much if he read it.
- —Schnickelfritz
Bad/Good
- I was experiencing a life threatening illness for which I was not responding to the usual treatment. Unfortunately, my Dr. was on vacation and I was subjected to his colleague. I tried to explain that the only change I had experienced in recent weeks was the addition of a medication, he just blew this off! I did some research and found from several sources that this medication, in a small number of cases can cause my illness. I tactfully presented this to the "covering" Dr. who humiliated me and laughed me right out of the office. My condition continued to deteriorate and when my regular Dr. returned I presented my findings. He was so humble and grateful that I had done the research, he even thanked me. The medication was discontinued and I was on the mend in a matter of days. Unfortunately, this chain of events lasted 7 weeks.
- —eljaymur
Go Elsewhere!
- If your doc is that arrrogant to think he/she needs to learn nothing else, then go elsewhere! You are the consumer, the one in the driver's seat. Take your money and yourself to someone who is willing to talk to you intelligently about your own health! Who knows YOU better than YOU?? Money and insurance talks, so be an intelligent consumer and take business to someone who respects you and your desire to learn about what ails you! Knowledge is power, I guess some docs think they are the only ones with the knowledge and this are the ones with the power. Wrong! Thank you
- —Guest Peg Feod
Agree with Healpatricia
- The interrnet is not really a source. It is a collection of sources. An MD shows contempt for information coming through this medium. Yet MDs use this medium for their information. The issue is source and not delivery method. Does the information come from valid testing, or is it unsubstantiated opinion? Everyone needs to differentiate between these, Yet MD's usually assume that patients are obtuse bloat-heads who cannot reason while MD's are of superior intelligence. My former doctor made an error because he was unaware of some basic facts that were known 30 years ago. I offered the scientific background and was told that this was internet garbage. Really? . The internet is a delivery method just as a book is. We don't hear:"Oh you just got that from a book". The internet is a delivery system and not a source. MD's use this source, too. Medicine's goal today is not diagnosis and cure. It is label and mask. The dedicated MD has a disadvantage in this climate.
- —Guest Jana
"Talk to your doctor" Myth
- I really wish the "experts" in all the media would stop telling us to talk to your doctor. Our doctors don't want to talk to us. In 8-10 min they want to observe and medicate. It is very frustrating; I don't expect my doctor to know all there is to know about everything in his/her discipline. But the other side of that coin is I expect them to listen. The doctor could even have a designated person in the office to look at the material if he/she doesn't have the time. That person could "educate" me on the resources the doctor considers reliable. No one has more time and interest in my problems than me; let me help.
- —Guest Marcia
Depends on the Doc
- One was pleased, another was displeased. I don't expect the doc to know absolutely everything about everything, and am only too pleased if they do double check things for less common conditions. So let me be part of that; I live with the condition, I'm not a cybercondriac nor an idiot.
- —PatsP
End of an Era
- I am totally convinced that the medical power will be diluted in the next 10 years as more knowledge sharing utilities appear. Doctors also make mistakes even the "big shots" and if a patient brings me questions I have to answer those even if they are gray literature because I have to educate them. I, myself will probably refer her to most valuable sources.
- —RenaissanceMD
doctor said no thanks
- I printed some pages from the internet once and took them. My doctor wouldn't look at them. He told me he knows more than I can find on the internet. He wouldn't answer my questions so I asked the nurse. I always get more information from the NP anyway.
- —healpatricia
