[Arcsech]

This is a great question! In my experience, the differences come down to:

- The doctor is going off a very short explanation you gave in a 30-minute appointment. If you have a serious medical problem, you can dump days, weeks, or months into finding information that matches your experience down to the fine details, which can very much matter - especially if you have an unusual case of something.

- There may be new information since your doctor was trained. Medicine has advanced a lot, and while doctors do their best to keep up, there’s more new research than any one person can digest.

- You will always believe yourself, never dismiss your experiences as “exaggerated” or “drug seeking”, and never blame your conditions on obviously unrelated causes.

That last one is especially relevant to people who aren’t cis white dudes. I’ve witnessed, with my own eyes, a woman talk to a doctor about chronic nasal congestion, and his response was to tell her to lose weight. Doctors habitually not believing the experiences of their patients has done incredible harm over the years.

[giardini]

Arcsech says >" I’ve witnessed, with my own eyes, a woman talk to a doctor about chronic nasal congestion, and his response was to tell her to lose weight. Doctors habitually not believing the experiences of their patients has done incredible harm over the years."<

I've seen a similar situation but felt the doctor was stating what was important. He did accept her experiences but... Her congestion was not remotely as important as her weight, her weight was going to speed her death, and she'd best lose weight soon.

IOW he was saying "regardless of how you solve your congestion, you simply must lose weight now or you will die soon from a heart attack or stroke."

[mbfg]

Are you suggesting that losing weight wouldn't help this woman's nasal condition? What basis do you have for that?

[Arcsech]

Well, she went to a different doctor later who helped her diagnose & treat her allergies. Which made exercising easier too, turns out. Who’d have thought? (Her. One of the reasons she’d sought treatment is that the difficulty breathing through the nose was making it unpleasant to exercise.)

[shukantpal]

Why are you questioning that? You should first question "Are you suggesting such a stupid doctor exists? What basis do you have for that, show proof."

[cuu508]

Are you saying the doctor did not believe she had chronic nasal congestion?

[Arcsech]

I dunno. He didn’t elaborate. We left pretty quickly after that and she found a doctor who helped her figure out and treat her multiple allergies.