Funny timing of this post! I am in the process of hiring myself a new doctor. My last one moved to another state, so that kind of sucked for me. I really liked my former doctor. So I have met a couple, I am still in the process of deciding. Here is a closely paraphrased version of one of the conversations with one of the prospective MDs. The first question I ask him is...
Edd: How do you feel about e-cigarettes?
Doctor: They are dangerous and should not be used. They are no better than standard cigarettes.
Edd: Where did you get that information form?
Doctor: (clearly shocked at my question) The FDA and my 12 years of medical training. You want to argue with a doctor?
Now at this point, I am pretty sure that I am done with this doctor. But I want to make sure.
Edd: I did not realize I was arguing. It seemed to me I was asking a question as to where you got information from. You know, to learn something new.
Doctor: Sometimes a patient just needs to do what their doctor says. Why are you debating this with me? Do you think you are smarter than a doctor?
Now I am certain I am done with him.
Edd: Certainly I am smarter than some, not as smart as others. You think it's smart to get all of your information on a subject from the FDA? For that matter, to get all of your information on any subject solely from one source?
Doctor: (standing up, clearly irritated by my 'uppity' attitude, he is as done with me as I am with him) I think I don't need to explain myself to you. Patients like you are the problem with practicing medicine today.
Edd: (standing up as well) I agree, you do not need to explain anything. I won't work with a doctor who feels he does not need to answer my questions.
Doctor: (fuming, glaring) You will be looking for a doctor for a long time, Mr. XXXXXX
Edd: Perhaps, but there are worse alternatives, sir.
The consultation took less than sixty seconds. Okay, so in addition to it being an entertaining story, the lesson is to choose a doctor who suits you. You do not have to put up with the doctor you have now. You do not have to confront the doctor like I did, you can just hire a new one.
As a physician assistant I am disgusted by the attitudes of the medical community in regards to e-cigarettes. "The FDA and my 12 years of medical training."
Perfect example of embellishing. 7 years dude (Medical school =4, residency=3. 4+3=7.) Unless college counts as "medical training." I'll get into the whole embellishing thing, and why physicians feel they need to do that later.
It took me less........LESS.....than a week to do enough research to know THAT "DOCTOR" is full of shyte. I have been a practicing PA for nearly a decade. My main areas of practice have been urgent care / primary care and sports medicine (current). I have been on a serious health kick for 7 weeks TODAY. My wife and I have both quit smoking for the exact same 7 weeks. We started
vaping the instant we quit. BOTH of our lung functions have improved from purely an anecdotal standpoint. I guarantee....in fact.....I PROMISE....if I ran PFT's (pulmonary function tests) on both of us, which I have some good experience in, they would be improved. Perhaps not incredibly improved, but significantly improved. I can run. YEP! I can farther, faster, and with less effort than in the past FIFTEEN years.
I have lost weight. NO....quitting smoking did not cause me to gain weight. I have been exercising....and HARD. I am starting to feel really good and look pretty good as well. Patches didn’t do this. Gum didn’t do this. Lozenges didn’t do this. SSRI’s didn’t do this. Chantix sure as heck didn’t do this (I wouldn’t touch that stuff even if it could.)
Any physician who considers e-cigs more dangerous, or equally as dangerous as, analog cigs is lying to you. There isn’t enough prospective or retrospective data out there to make that claim. In fact, the vast majority of the data that does exist speaks to the contrary. End of story.
My father is a primary care practitioner (MD) and has seen both of his son's quit smoking using this method and could NOT be happier that neither of us had to use brain altering prescription chemicals, given the thumbs up by the FDA, as our means of doing so (Chantix etc.) Oh, by the way, he has been a doctor (MD) for 30+ years.
I have worked with around 10 doctors in my career. I've been in charge of their patients when they leave town, call in sick, or leave work early. I write their prescriptions (I have my own license to do this), take patient calls at 2AM, and round on the weekends. I can say EASILY 50% of them are self proclaimed D O U C H E S!
If you are not happy.....get the heck out of there. In fact, RUN. Many of them are embellishing how WIDE their knowledge about a particular topic is when, in fact, it is quite minimal. Dr. House is the exception. Your doctor is most likely not Dr. House. The key to having good patient rapport is being honest with your patients. When you don't know enough about a particular subject; the very next thing out of your mouth should be, "I've not heard or read enough about that, but I will get back with you on it."
Patients are VERY capable of seeing
through your B S. The problem is, many MD's believe it is impossible to distinguish B S from the real thing, because they are SO GOOD AT……….well………….shall I say……….embellishing.
