TexasCHLforum.com

J.R.@A&M wrote:I had a small town opthamologist drop me like a hot potato when I went to Houston to see a big city opthamologist for a second opinion. Worked out ok. The Houston opthamologist had much more sophisticated equipment and expertise for the same ding dang $40 copay.

Drop any physician who doesn't support a second opinion. What do that have to hide unless they're not competent in the practice?
While not required, I typically ask if a second opinion is OK with them. I've never had any physician say "No" or threaten to drop me.

I had one physician say it was a great idea and offered to consult with the 2nd doc when he completed the examination. It made me more confident in my original physician and his expertise.

I take statins and they work well for me (I've had a previous cardiac event).

Take care,
LabRat

I have not, but I know two people that have been told it would be better if they went somewhere else because they would not follow the doctor's advice. It wasn't quite "I don't want to see you anymore," but it was a strong hint at that.

At one point my total cholesterol was 265 and I got it down to 187 with diet and exercise.

Today, I don't care what my total cholesterol is because it isn't a good marker for heart disease. What's far more important is triglycerides to HDL ratio.

People with high total cholesterol have lower incidence of cancer. People with low cholesterol have higher rates of cancer and depression.

Y'all on statins need to click on athose links I posted above

I didn’t have much confidence in doctors in general for good reasons before the following incident.

I have major back problems and chronic pain in my left leg. A pain management doctor insisted I have a “pain pump” implanted. He made arrangements and a surgeon implanted the device. As I hadn’t received any literature I downloaded the manuals and read them.

I was in his office one day to have it refilled and he made a statement that indicated to me he had not even read the manuals that comes with the device. I found another pain management specialist but kept the follow up appointment with the surgeon to see how it had healed. He asked me why I had changed doctors and I told him. The surgeon then told me he hadn’t read the manual either.

I take a bucket of pills twice daily. I don't know about y'all, but we trust our much respected, small town Pharmacist to sort through all of the super costly AMA/Big-Pharm/Obama bovine fecal matter and provide suitable generics at small town prices.

Monte cares, Walmart, Costco, SAMS, etc. do not. If we die, we die; nobody's gittin' out alive.

Texas_Blaze wrote:Not because I carry. He doesn't know I carry all time at his office. But he's pushing me to take a statin. I did for awhile but got really bad back aches. So i asked him for an alternative medication. He said no, use what I'm telling you to use. Then he said should find another doctor.

Anybody ever been told to go away by their physician? Ive never had this happen before. Just weird.

I can see that a doctor might get upset with a patient for non-compliance and ask him to find a new doctor. I can see a doctor doing that with a family that won't vaccinate their kids. On the other hand statins can have serious side effects that need to be monitored carefully and if your doctor was too stupid to monitor you or switch you to an acceptable one then good riddance. There are plenty of good docs in this world, you just need to find one. There are also formal procedures that a doctor must use to legally dismiss a patient but why push it, find a new one that you like.

We had a pediatrician a few years back. She was a great doctor, but kept pressuring us to do things we did not agree with as result of our own research and issues we had seen first hand. I wrote her a letter stating that we were no longer going to be patients, she responded back telling us she was not going to allow us to be patients. It was basically, you can't fire me I quit.

Your doctor is paid by you ( though insurance) your doctor is your employee. If your doctor is unwilling to work with to solve your problems it's best to part ways.

you know your body best, not your doctor, and any doctor who won't acknowledge that isn't worth the degree hanging on his wall. With all of my husband's medical stuff the last few years we've gotten into the habit of 2nd opinions. So when I started having some health problems of my own and my dr couldn't recommend anything other than surgery which he really wasn't confident would solve the problem I went and got a 2nd. Then when I had a bad reaction to the Rx she'd given me I went back to my own dr, we talked we liked the direction she was going and decided on a different med, together.
My husband and I have come to a conclusion over the last few years that you have to be and active party in your medical treatment, and if your doctor isn't ok with that, get a new doctor.

Dr Bowden is a PHD not an MD and he is selling a book ...

I prefer to take my medical advice from MDs ...

I wont even enter the conversation about how he is going to cure my diabetes....

I have no health problems other than high blood sugar - Diabetes Type II. The doctor wanted me on statins because the insurance company "recommended" it for Type II diabetes patients. After some research, I basically told him no. He was OK with it but brought up the discussion again 6 months later and I still told him no.

Rpenn57 wrote:I have no health problems other than high blood sugar - Diabetes Type II. The doctor wanted me on statins because the insurance company "recommended" it for Type II diabetes patients. After some research, I basically told him no. He was OK with it but brought up the discussion again 6 months later and I still told him no.

because we all know the insurance company knows all

Soccerdad1995 wrote:

Texas_Blaze wrote:Not because I carry. He doesn't know I carry all time at his office. But he's pushing me to take a statin. I did for awhile but got really bad back aches. So i asked him for an alternative medication. He said no, use what I'm telling you to use. Then he said should find another doctor.

Anybody ever been told to go away by their physician? Ive never had this happen before. Just weird.

I had a very negative reaction to a statin a few years back. Something called Rhabdomyolisis (sp?). Switched docs after moving and the new doc basically didn't believe me, or my charts. Said he had never heard of that before and that he didn't know what else to prescribe. He ended up doing some research and has me on a cocktail of fish oil and some other things. Apparently there really isn't much in the way of decent alternatives to statins, hence the reluctance.

Rhabdomyolysis is a VERY serious condition which can result in complete and permanent renal failure with all the attendant complications. I have been involved in the care of several patients with it. It is very similar to Azoturia (equine exertional rhabdomyolysis) in horses—also known as "Monday Morning Sickness"—which can kill a horse. If your doctor is ignoring your possible renal symptoms (back pain) associated with taking a statin, then I would say that borders on malpractice and you should DEFINITELY seek a 2nd opinion. Since he is inviting you to find another doctor, I would accommodate him......in no small part because he is not trustworthy.

92f-fan wrote:Dr Bowden is a PHD not an MD and he is selling a book ...

I prefer to take my medical advice from MDs ...

I wont even enter the conversation about how he is going to cure my diabetes....

the co-author of that book is cardiologist who does prescribe statins when he believes they are really needed.

Interesting that you picked on Bowden and ignored all those signatures to the petition to the NIH link.

https://www.cspinet.org/new/pdf/finalnihltr.pdf

John Abramson, MD
Clinical Instructor
Primary Care
Harvard Medical School

R. James Barnard, PhD
Professor
Dept of Physiological Science
UCLA

Henry C. Barry, MD, MS
Department of Family Practice
Michigan State University

Stephen Bezruchka MD, MPH
Senior Lecturer
International Health Program
Department of Health Services

Christopher Gardner, PhD
Assistant Professor of Medicine
Stanford University

Lee Green, MD, MPH
Department of Family Medicine
University of Michigan

Barry Groves, PhD
Independent researcher
Oxford, UK

Jerome R Hoffman, MA, MD
Prof. of Medicine / Emergency Med.
UCLA School of Medicine

Michael Jacobson, PhD
Executive Director

Marion Nestle, PhD
Paulette Goddard Prof. of
Nutrition, Food Studies, &
Public Health
New York University

Beverly Rockhill, PhD
Department of Epidemiology
University of North Carolina

Paul J. Rosch, MD, FACP
President
American Institute of Stress
Clinical Prof. of Medicine &
Psychiatry
New York Medical College
School of Public Health & Comm. Med.
University of Washington

That's the first 12 signature (page 6). There are 24 more signatures. If these people question the NCEP's (over) prescription of statins why should I put blind faith in a clinic MD who doesn't do research? I'm not.

92f-fan wrote:Dr Bowden is a PHD not an MD and he is selling a book ...

I prefer to take my medical advice from MDs ...

I wont even enter the conversation about how he is going to cure my diabetes....

Also you might research Duane Graveline, M.D., M.P.H.

Lipitor, Thief of Memory; The misguided war on cholesterol "By Duane Graveline, M.D., M.P.H.
http://www.spacedoc.com/articles/lipito ... -of-memory

My personal introduction to the incredible world of transient global amnesia (TGA) occurred six weeks after Lipitor® - atorvastatin - was started during my annual astronaut physical at Johnson Space Center. My cholesterol had been trending upwards for several years.

All was well until six weeks later, when my wife found me walking aimlessly about the yard after I returned from my usual walk in the woods. I did not recognize her, and only reluctantly accepted cookies & milk, but refused to go into my now unfamiliar home.

I "awoke" six hours later in the office of the examining Neurologist with a diagnosis of transient global amnesia, cause unknown. An MRI performed several days later was normal. Since Lipitor was the only new medicine I was taking, the doctor in me suspected a possible side effect of this drug. Despite the arguments of the examining doctors that statin drugs just did not do this, I stopped my Lipitor."

On and MD with type 2 diabetes, Prof Tim Noakes

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fL5-9ZxamXc