It took me being on disability for almost ten years to learn to say NO to doctors and tell them that I'm still in pain. Especially since, with the way disability is set up, doctors have ALL the economic control in my life. They control my family's economic future, and mine.
In order to have some quality of life, I and my husband learned to stay on top of issues when we could. I didn't consciously mislead doctors. I was female and a people pleaser. You're taught from day one to make people feel better. In the show, House, he phrases it as everybody lies. I don't think it is so much that as it is that everybody has their perspective, including doctors. That's the hard one to get around. They are supposed to be there and unbiased to treat you. HA! As a migraneur I call Bullshit on the entire industry! I have had too many doctors in Emergency Rooms who have wanted me to put on a huge show of pain or have treated me as a drug seeker. I don't DO narcotics most of the time. They don't work well on migraines. They help with some of my other chronic pain conditions and I and my doctors have been discussing issues back and forth, but the current boogie man era of every one who is on a opioid is a drug seeker or drug addict is a crock of shit and it has been blown WAY out of proportion by a media that is looking for ratings. Responsible people who need pain relief were just barely being able to get it, and now it is becoming impossible again.
There are less than 1,000 Headache specialist neurologist in the United States currently. They have many other options to prescribe. And there are many people like me who have multiple pain conditions who aren't a one stop shop for easy answers. The human body is not a quick fix shop and the only way the doctor/patient relationship works is if the doctor actually listens to the patient and if the patient actually takes ownership of their health. After 20+ years I finally have. Some doctors find this VERY disconcerting. But my primary care doctor is an Internist at Oregon Health and Science University Hospital and carries a full load teaching and a full load of patients. He is one of the permanent doctors on staff so he has a huge load and he is very receptive to working WITH me to keep me as healthy as I can be. I have finally discovered that by being just a bit bitchy in my old age and refusing to let doctors or nurses put me off I get better care. I make sure I ask the questions. If I don't feel like I'm getting answers, I outline my concerns in an email to the doctor before my appointment so we can discuss it. And if I don't get taken seriously elsewhere, I follow up with my own doctor and ask him who WILL take me seriously.
But I've always wanted to suggest to them that they not prescribe any test however that they haven't experienced for themselves.
Most tests aren't too invasive or painful and don't do lasting harm and can be done to male or female, i.e. the mammogram, and if some of the doctors and technicians who where performing these tests had to go through the procedures at their own place of business those procedures would be FAR less dehumanizing.
I can tell you now that if a few more male doctors have to stand in a line wearing little pink half aprons over their Moobs (man-boobs) while waiting for the glass plates to squish them flat as they are told to cozy up to the cold @ss machine something would be done about the procedure *smirk*.
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