a doctor who looks at the whole person

[Guest guest]

Oh Barbara,

I am so sorry about the rude, crass doctor and your son's diagnosis. I too have

had my share of rude ones, crude ones, non-caring ones, ones who just needed my

$ to pay their boat off, ad infinitum. I even tried an MDA clinic once when I

was in my early 20's. Just as rude, crude and gave the patient (me) no respect.

I can totally relate to your son being so sick of doctors. I sure

was, in some ways, I still am a bit.

As for finding someone who looks at the " whole " person, if there was

a doc out there who was kind, caring, compassionate, and had medical

training in neurology, orthopedics and psychiatry, plus had

the " alternative education approachs " that my dogs' veterinarian has,

now that would be the " ideal " doctor!

Meanwhile, until that " combo " practitioner shows up, you might want

to search AMA's Doctor Finder, get names and phones of docs in your

area and start making calls to their office - you'd be surprised what

kind of info receptionists will tell you. In the Doctor Finder you

can look up a doctor's credentials, where they went to school, etc.

There is another site I have that shows how to check out a doctor's

background - like malpractice, what other patients say, etc. I need

to go look in my bookmarks for this.

Perhaps you might want to ask us here if anyone knows of a well-

rounded doc in your area. (Example, in the subject line, put " need

doctor in ______________) and put your city. Someone just may respond

with " the one " .

One way I found my Internist here was by asking OTHER Doctors. (I had

already seen an Orthopedist here, and he was pushing me to get an

Internist. So I said " who do YOU recommend " ? Since I trusted Dr. H's

suggestions. The guy he recommended turned out to be THE BEST. I

also asked him (the orthopedist) this question " would YOU, YOUR WIFE,

or YOUR CHILDREN go to this man? " Well, I got an affirmative reply on

that. So then I started seeing my new, well recommended Internist,

Dr. D.

I have often thought that medical schools should require docs to take a year of

two of classes in " patient relationships " . Really, if my dogs' Vet ever retires,

I told her she should teach classes to human docs about kindness and compassion.

This Vet is superior - she calls me back within 2 hours of my call to her. She

explains every little detail, answers every stupid question I have, assures me,

gives me her emergency/cell/contact numbers, etc. and on top of that, her

" patients " can't even speak for themselves! Now I understand why it is more

difficult to get into Vet school than Med school!

~ Gretchen