Noah Vaughn3 said:You can't even offer advice anymore without being told you're self-diagnosing or playing triage. I was simply saying it’s helpful to have that info—to read up so if you feel an illness coming on, you might feel less panicked.
Look, Angela Bailey30, you seem desperate for me to lose my cool and show my hand, but that’s just not how I operate. It’s honestly quite tragic... I find myself unable to make you see reason. And whenever I actually try to be helpful, you somehow twist it into something else.
No, I don't "desperately" want anything. I just want you to realize that patients are essentially a massive group of laypeople, and you need to stop treating them like they've got medical degrees. There’s an old saying that advice is a dangerous gift, even when it comes from someone wise—and it’s incredibly risky to suggest someone evaluate their own symptoms using some handbook, regardless of who authored it. It's reckless.
Look, if you’re really that bothered by on-call shifts and the whole weight of working for a government agency, then just open a private practice and be done with it. And honestly, if being nauseated is your main reason for deciding whether or not a kid needs to see an ER doctor in the middle of the night, then you’re exactly the kind of physician people should stay far away from. Especially after seeing how you responded to Allison's post.
Noah Vaughn3 said:I wanted to mention something—it’s not strictly related to the current topic, but still relevant. Even my father has one (despite the fact that my mother is a physician), it's called "The Family Doctor from A to Z." It comes with first aid instructions, and honestly, you shouldn't overlook it. It covers 18 different categories encompassing various systemic illnesses, treatment methods, and even natural remedies.. I guarantee you'd find answers to most of the questions people ask on this forum in there. It might actually help folks distinguish between what's an immediate emergency and what can wait for a clinic visit.. so, I just think if more people took the time to educate themselves using resources like that—rather than just relying on advisors.. life would be easier for everyone. I'm not saying you need an entire library of medical texts on your shelf... but this is genuinely useful stuff.
Just give it some thought; the more you know, the less panic there will be, and fewer awkward trips to the doctor.
So, thanks for the advice, future doctor: go ahead and diagnose patients yourself, perform your own triage. Whatever floats your boat, I suppose.
Benjamin Murphy2 said:1) Isn't it just embarrassing when parents drag their kid into the ER in the middle of the night because they "feel sick"? The kid hasn't even thrown up once! 2) ER shifts are meant for urgent, critical situations where things could seriously escalate overnight, not for people showing up whenever it fits their schedule. Once people actually grasp that, there’ll be a lot fewer arguments at the front desk.
1) Not really. Especially if the parents aren't medical professionals; they come in because they honestly HAVE NO CLUE what's happening and they're worried about their child (unless, of course, they should feel ashamed for being concerned).
2) Fine. Let's all just go to med school, diagnose ourselves, and then perform our own triage to decide what actually qualifies as an emergency and what doesn't.
Well, give my best to your mother. It’s quite kind of her, really. Who knows, maybe our paths will cross on some street in Chicago or something... though, given how much you've managed to inflate your own ego in this thread already, I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't recognize me through all that self-importance.
Look, Amazon, what you just said is absolutely appalling. When someone comes to you looking for help, they’re operating under the assumption that they’ve walked into the office of a true PROFESSIONAL—someone who actually took the Hippocratic Oath and gets paid specifically to assist them. It's their job. What kind of additional humiliation are you asking for? Especially from someone who is actually sick? Throughout this entire debate—whether you want to admit it or not—it’s clear that your concern for "professional dignity" is just a thin veil. In reality, your ego is what’s feeling bruised, viewed through the lens of your career. If you truly respected your own profession, you’d be just as critical of the negativity creeping into it.
And if you're honestly expecting patients to act submissive in front of you, then, sorry, but you don't belong in the medical field.
Benjamin Murphy2 said:Do you honestly believe I could have grasped all of this back in grad school? It’s a bit late for that now; once you hit your mid-thirties, your professional title isn't exactly changing overnight. I manage, somehow. Though, I can't help but think—especially when I'm stuck at the office from sunrise to sunrise all through a Sunday—that I might have been perfectly fine without any of this.
Well, if you couldn't wrap your head around certain things during your studies, despite all those endless drills and constant activity, I suppose it's a good thing you finally figured it out now...
Benjamin Murphy2 said:Honestly, I had no clue what I was signing up for when I enrolled in med school. Nobody really does, and frankly, nobody can predict it. If I’d realized back then that I’d be spending significantly less time with my family than if I’d just gone into law or linguistics, I might have thought twice about the whole thing.
And once you figured that out, why didn't you just switch majors? It’s hard to wrap my head around the idea that it took five or six years to realize that. Look, I studied linguistics, and I know firsthand how grueling translation work can be—especially simultaneous interpretation in a booth. It carries an immense amount of responsibility, too. When there are multi-day conferences, you spend almost all your time working rather than being at home. But even then, it doesn't compare to the life of a doctor.
Oh, absolutely. They aren't criticizing any other profession, not even a bit. Not the military, not the transit workers, not the construction crews, not the lawyers, not the police... just doctors. Yeah, right.
Look, I could go on forever about how society treats the military, just sitting here lamenting until next Tuesday, but there’s really no point in it. My career was a choice I made, plain and simple. When I stepped up, I signed on for the whole package—the good, the bad, and the ugly. That includes being looked at sideways by kids on the street, even if I did sacrifice a decent chunk of my health out in those trenches for their sake. But hey, it was my call. It’s the same logic with medicine; if someone chooses that path, they should just own it, pros and cons included, instead of whining about how people perceive them.
Look, I’m not here to bash people who actually pull their weight. In fact, I’m genuinely grateful to the staff who helped my father navigate his final days without unnecessary suffering. But honestly? Seeing that level of incompetence paired with pure arrogance... it just grinds my gears.
brisknomad6 said:I’m not even exaggerating... in my view, a doctor shouldn't just have technical expertise; they really need to possess genuine humanity, empathy, and a sincere willingness to explain things...
I'll second that. And Benjamin Murphy2, I’m not buying that argument you made in one of your posts—the one where you claimed that because you had such an exhausting shift, you shouldn't have to deal with someone coming in with nothing but a common cold. Look, I’m a professional soldier. Nobody asks me how many hours or days I’ve been in boots on duty before handing down a command. But that was my career choice. I don't complain about it. Similarly, I believe choosing to be a physician was your choice. No one forced you into it; you knew exactly what the job entailed. So, I’m not going to let you use a grueling shift as an excuse for your grievance.
Honestly, who’s actually being arrogant here? Is it the doctor demanding I provide a urine sample, or is it me—the uneducated patient—for having the audacity to ask if those two things aren't exactly the same thing? Apparently, questioning her brilliance is enough to get me kicked right out of the office.
Look, if you’re talking to me, first off, I’m a guy, not a lady. Second, I also grew up in a small town, so we aren't exactly worlds apart there. Third, that Chief of Medicine was actually a professor at the medical school for most of my mother's colleagues. And honestly, if you’re currently a medical student, I have to say—I’m genuinely terrified of catching anything after seeing your level of literacy.
My late mother spent several years being shuffled through different diagnoses—everything from brain tumors to neuroischialgia. It wasn't until I happened to cross paths with a chief neurosurgeon, described her symptoms to her, and had her hand me a specific list of tests to run that we finally got the truth: it was Parkinsonian disease all along. Now I can't help but wonder how much damage those four or five years of incorrect treatment actually caused, simply because someone failed to master their medical training or just couldn't be bothered to order the right scans in the first place.
A quick death is actually a blessing. Living in constant pain and suffering, drifting through life in total helplessness—stripped of any basic dignity because you can no longer even control your own bodily functions—that isn't really living at all.
Death, without question. I watched my mother struggle through sixteen years of illness before she finally passed, and I saw my father go through the exact same agonizing decline. Now, my sister-in-law was just diagnosed with lung cancer. I’ve looked death in the eye more times than I care to count. I don't fear the end. Honestly, I wouldn't want to live any other way—trapped in a body that's helpless and drowning in pain.
There is no such thing as a healthy cigarette. Not even those famous Herbalife ones made from medicinal herbs are actually good for you. Why? Because the whole damn point of smoking is inhaling smoke. And let me ask you—what kind of smoke is actually "healthy," even if it’s just burnt medicinal plants?