All hands on deck
This is why people hate doctors
So I am in the student health clinic for the third time because of this stupid ear infection. I finished out my antibiotic on Sunday and woke up Tuesday with a small but noticeable earache and a sore throat. I went into the clinic and spoke with a doctor who looked in my ear and said that he thought it was just a secondary viral infection of my throat near the estuation tube that was precipitated by my antibiotic use. But I knew he was wrong, I just never really felt 100% and I told him that. But he gave me a prescription for something to gargle with and sent me on my way.
This morning (Wednesday) it is worse.. and has gotten progressively more painful all day despite taking 600 mg of ibuprophen every six hours. I now have referred jaw pain as well and I am just mad.
The hard thing is that the doctor I spoke to yesterday probably was not really wrong in what he recommended to me. He did look in my ear I can’t and he saw signs of healing. Over prescription of antibiotics does cause serious problems, ones that I had already begun to feel. I had been fighting a yeast infection the entire time I was on antibiotics. Yet I am angry because I know my own body and I knew something was up.. and because I don’t have the time to be sick. I am missing another lecture today and that just pisses me off. But I wasn’t very insistent with the doctor I saw yesterday—would I have been more so if I hadn’t been a medical student here as well? How should any doctor respond to a patient saying—but I just know something is not right, when evidence suggests a different course of action?
See-- my doctor could have prescribed me more antibiotics yesterday and made me happy, but given the same set of evidence I presented him with yesterday I would likely have made the same decision he did. People get mad at their doctors because there are no easy answers, easy fixes. And because it is not always clear what is right. We want our doctors to be able to recommend the thing that will have 100% efficacy, but our bodies don’t work that way, and science certainly doesn’t. SO we get mad. And frustrated.
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Okay I wrote that on Wednesday. The doctor I saw then told me that I had stopped the antibiotics too soon and gave me a new script. Only I didn’t get better. Luckily one of the anatomy professors told me that another anatomy professor—my advisor in fact, had an ear nose and throat practice in town.. so I went to see him today. He said I had a fungal infection that had gotten a good hold when all the bacteria died off. He cleaned my ear canal with something that sounded like a mini roto rooter then a mini vacuum, and sent me home with a script for anti-fungal eardrops—the same one I was using last week. I did get to go into Saint George’s and explore. The Yankee Clipper, which I sailed on 12 years ago, was docked at the carnage.
But I am tired now, and worn out from my ear adventures and misadventures. I didn’t very well on my first unified quiz, and have been demoralized by my performance. I haven’t been sleeping well because the pain meds wear off at night. I got some studying done while waiting for the doctor this morning, studied a little this afternoon, but was not nearly as productive as I needed to be with midterms so close. I have spent most of the day on my own, feeling a little vulnerable and lonely, but haven’t made that one friend yet here I can go to for support so I am reaching out electronically to .. well you.
I live for email guys--- so write.. and/or send postcards I can tack on my bare walls. Real mail is a real treat. This is an all hands on deck call for moral support. Midterms are coming, I need to be in top form and I am just tired. Thank you all in advance, I know how my friends are and I know you will be there for me. ☺
posted by Sa @ 9:19 PM
1 Comments:
I think it's a tough thing for doctors to know their patients - especially when they don't get the time to do so. I've had regular bouts of bladder infections and every time it's a new doctor, so we always have to go through the "did you strain your back?" exam when I *know* what is going on with my body. The only cure is to trust your gut and try, try, try to eke out enough time to learn more about a patient than their medical history. Is this a patient who is going to abuse the antibiotics? Is this someone who will follow directions? How often has this person been right before? And yes, even, how much will this negatively affect this patient's life if they are right and I'm wrong?
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