Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Prescription Phobia


A Doctor is supposed to be a person you can trust your life on. The confidence and faith on a doctor is tremendous and extreme. It is one of the most unusual and pure relations in the world. One will blindly try and follow whatever the doctor will ask them to do.

But how correct or righteous is it? Is the blind faith we keep on our doctors a tad bit overrated? If you ask me I will definitely say YES!

There was a time when the means of communication and knowledge were limited. People did not have an easy access to good books, journals etc and hence the information horizon was extremely limited. In this scenario Doctor was considered to be someone equivalent to God. His word was power and his touch was magic. I have heard my parents’ recite the stories of Doctors, who with just a look at you would tell the symptoms as well as the details of the disease being faced by you. The medicine they gave would cure you in no time at all.


After the huge globalization, the Internet and Google the scenario has changed a lot.Today everyone considers themselves to be doctors by merely putting  symptoms on net and checking the solution.One good thing about this is that people are highly aware of their conditions and the fact that what exactly needs to be told to the doctor. In addition to this people also have an easy access to check the medications provided to them, their usage and side-effects; all can be known with just a click of few buttons.I am not saying that doctors have lost their worth and don't mean anything. I am totally aware of all those magical surgeries that happen all over the world. The hard work, that extra intelligence and that power is really commendable. I also understand that to the families of such people doctors are just like God or should I say angels in disguise.


But the bone I have to pick with doctors is strictly based on my personal experience. After I shifted to Mumbai (I write this line in every other post of mine now-a-days) I frequently started getting ill. Not that I did not fall ill before but yea before these troubles were taken care by my parents and not me. However here as I am responsible for every action of mine and falling sick is not as easy as it had been before.

So my visits to the doctors here have been nothing short of a trauma and tension. The general tendency of any doctor now-a-days is to hear the symptoms, jot down a long list of tests relevant (or irrelevant) and that is all. Rest of the information will be given after the reports are obtained. I mean “hello, did I just pay Rs 500 to get all these tests done”? “Couldn’t I just do it myself and know what I am suffering from?” Not to mention the extra cost to be incurred for all these tests.



I have not been able to build any sort of a relationship with any of the numerous doctors I have visited here. I have to trust the doctor in order to respond to his medications (yes I am that weird). I strongly feel that the amount of trust I have on a doctor is directly proportional to the speed with which I recover. Also I have a habit of giving a detailed description of the symptoms and the problems that I face and I hate it when the doctors nod their head impatiently over the vivid and clear picture that I present. Now I will present1` before you a list of varied and different types of doctors that I have met in the past 1 year:



1. The Impatient one - This one lady doctor that I have visited more than twice. She has already written the prescription while I am still narrating my symptoms. In-between she will interrupt me to ask my name and age to fill in the prescription. I end up feel so incomplete and hurt. I mean isn't it really bad to interrupt someone while they are talking? And not just some random talking but conveying important information to you! So this is like something I really don't approve off and that one quality that I never expect to be in my Doctor.

2. The Come-Hither one - This is the one Doctor that I visited only once (for which I curse myself everyday). Now he had some serious doubts about this profession. I strongly feel that the animal inside him thought that he can pretend to be a doctor and take advantage of the situation which presents him to be alone with a only-lonely girl visiting him. So to check my breathing he took his own sweet time. And his hands refused to be removed from my stomach where he was apparently checking my digestion! This was one of the ugliest moments of my life and I am dead sure that this has happened with at least 90 % of the girls out there.

Girls, next time whenever a doctor tried checking your breathing by putting his stethoscope on your chest, just interrupt him and tell him to check your breathing from your back. As per the information that I have received Doctors can check our breathing perfectly from the back and are even encouraged to practice this for Girl patients.

3. The One-Medicine one - This was one strange doctor who insisted on giving his own medicines. Ok! So far so good. But then I noticed that a woman in my PG suffering from Epilepsy popping the same Green Pills he had given to be for headache and nausea. Now I know that Homeopathy medicines are the same for all but he was not a Homeopathic Doctor. He was a Physician (or so the board on his clinic said). Needless to say, his green pills freaked the hell out of me and that was the last I saw of him.

4. The Over-Smart one - This one doctor I visited for severe shoulder pain. So the prescription consisted of all the tests I had ever heard (and unheard) off. Ultrasound, ESR, X-Rays, Blood Test, Urine Test and what not! Apart from that a few medicines. When I tried to probe him with some information about the medicines all I got in reply was "Painkillers". Okay, painkillers, fine. After going home I randomly checked the medicines on Google and my-oh-my! Mr Smarty Pants together with painkillers was feeding me Anti Depressants and Tranquiller. I mean hello? Not where did that come from? Still I did not lose faith in him, I immediately consulted my family doctor, who by the way freaked out the moment I mentioned the names of the medicine. That was the last time I saw Mr Smarty Pants and his anti depressants.

These different varieties of doctors have shaken by belief so hard that it is really hard to fall sick now. What I have decided to do is, accumulate my diseases, go home to Jammu and consult my family doctor and be relieved of this tension and trauma.


6 comments:

  1. Hello Sneha,

    You explained this topic so well, there is transparency in points you liked to put across and honesty in expression of your views!!

    And what a way to end the piece of writing? with a touch of humour, I was laughing reading the last lines. So, is it easy to accumulate all problems and get them sorted all at a time, lol ;)

    Couldn't agree more with what you said, yes trust is important and for every simple problem doctors are suggesting too many irrelevant tests - I see it as commercialization of corporate treatment from Super speciality hospitals, its turning business day by day.

    In older generation most people believed doctors blindly and their belief was so strong that they got cured sooner. Sometimes in simple problems, self belief also works wonders, so trust in doctor adds the psychological advantage to the medicine we take in.

    Amongst the doctors you visited, I hate the 2nd one the most, yes that come hither - I feel you've not just spared him for no mistake of yours but also didn't teach him a lesson. If you stay quiet he'd repeat the same in future.

    I would always suggest a girl in your place to give that *** a tight slap and simply walk out of that place. Report his misbehaviour in case anyone demands an explanation. In our society, perverted behaviour is least expected from a doctor - its an insult to his profession.

    Next time, never let go such people without punishment, be it a doctor or even more respectable person in the society - give him what he deserves.

    Anyway, a though provoking topic you choose to present here as a blog post, you sure will leave readers with a question next time they visit for treatment - if all that their doctor said is perfectly true or not!!

    Hope that next time you find the right doctor and hope he/she wins your trust with a transparent, relevant and trustworthy treatment.

    Wish you good luck, take care,

    Cheers,
    Sai :)

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  2. exercise, eat gud food, nd dun get sik is the best way to stay away frm docs.. please take care..

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  3. I always aprreciated prescription in which the diagnosis was pointed and one or maximum two medicines were given with a piece of knowledge that what they are for.

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  4. Mujhe apne bachpan ke dino ke ek do doctors yaad hain, wo puri baat sune prescription ko haath bhi nahi lagate the and their diagnosis was so perfect that most of the times test wasnt required at all...

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  5. I totally agree, in my family a couple of times we have come across doctors that have tried to mislead us like an unnecessary operation, however at times the other good doctors have also helped us by overruling and negating the bad diagnosis made by the the doctors who are all about making money.... thank god now that my sister is a doctor herself so that we do not fall into the traps of commercialization.....

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