Yes I agree Califchief.
A lot of medics are unbelievably and unjustfiably arrogant, even ill
mannered.
The concept that the medic is the patients employee is a good one.
The more you know about your condition the more confident you are, with
a greater ability to extract meanigful information from the doc.
Another thing that bugs me (especially with socialised medicine) is
that if you happen to be a doc yourself, medical staff (nurses, admin
etc) absolutely hate to give you the title. In their eyes only medics
can carry the title - even those with a batchelors degree (do they get
those in the US?).

Even so, there are some good ones around.

As always 'don't let the b*****ds grind you down'.

Peter

Vickie B. wrote to ask:

The only stupid question is the unasked question.  <g>

Yes, it's about a prostate biopsy.  (Actually it involves the husband
of an ASA member.  I had been hoping she would pop in here.)

I had one in summer 2001 and another in early 2002 (second opinion
by different doctor that I demanded from my PCP at the time). Both
were done with absolutely no anesthia.

My PSA is 1/2 what it was in 2001 and 2002.

I've been on "watchful waiting", 1 of 3 courses of action, since.

That's mostly the result of the blunders committed at the hospital's
cancer center and the arrogant attitude of a doctor's nurse.

And I'm quite happy at the moment after discovering this summer
all the side effects that nobody explained at the beginning.  They
mentioned impotence and  the loss of libido, but never one word
about diarrhea, constipation, damage to intestinal tract, incontience,
the damaged nerve bundles and urethra, shrinking "manhood",
itchy/burning anus,  etc etc.

Uro #2 retired last December.  Uro #3 who took over the practice
can't locate my medical records for 5 years.

The 3 urologists I've visited were ignorant of any support groups
and that bitchy nurse stated, "That's not our job.  You have to find
them."  Pissed me off that the counter was lined with dozens of
breat cancer pamphlets and names of support groups, but not
a single thing for prostate cancer.

After uro #3 said he didn't know of any groups and suggested I try
the internet, I found alt.support.cancer.prostate and 6 local groups
that meet once a month.  Mary andhave been to 2 meetings so far
and we really liked the atmosphere and information found at the
2nd group.

The general feeling at the alt.support group is that doctors try to
keep their patients like commercial mushroom growers operate - in
the dark and covered with layers of fertilizer (to use a polite word
in this group).

... Destabilize:  to take the horse out of the barn for a trot.