Is it like this where you live when you need medical attention?

[Jason27]

I rather not give out my location, but I live in supposedly one of the top five best cities in the US for health. I wouldn't be surprised if they are giving me wrong medicine so I have to keep returning. I already spent over $300 the past two weeks on copays and wrong expensive medicines.

[aquatilly]

Do you have a PPO or an HMO? It sounds like you have an HMO due to the "referral" comment. Unfortunately, with HMO insurance your insurance will only pay if you see a physician in your particular group otherwise you would need to pay privately or somehow manage getting authorization. I don't know your situation fiscally, but if only being able to see certain physicians concerns you, you might consider getting a PPO and you can choose any specialist or dr. of your choice. Get opinions from friends or family on a great PCP and go for it.

[midwest1]

Originally Posted by Jason27

I already spent over $300 the past two weeks on copays and wrong expensive medicines.

Have you seen all these doctors and tried two different antibiotics in the past 2 weeks? - Because that's what I ascertained from your first post. If that's the case, you must not have taken the anti-Bs correctly, because it takes at least 10-14 days to finish a course of anti-B. It's vital that it be taken on the prescribed schedule until the medicine is gone. If the medicine wasn't taken correctly, the infection not only won't go away, it will get worse.

No doctor on earth - except quacks - will do X-rays and blood tests for a red throat. Most will do exactly what yours did. A few will swab and culture the throat to identify or rule out a strep infection, but the treatment is the same even if it is strep. If you didn't like what the first doctor did and didn't take the medicine at all, much less as prescribed, you cannot say you were treated wrongly. If you then saw a second doctor and still didn't follow orders, the only person you can blame for still feeling bad is yourself. At least, that's how I see it.

I'm the last person in the world to say MDs are always right, but patients aren't either.

[BrandyBobs Lady]

I have insurance through Cigna which finally allows you so see a specialist without having to have a referral. The only thing I know we HAVE to do is call in if we have to be hospitalized. I have never had much faith in doctors or labs or emergency rooms for that matter. I have gone for pap smears and been told I had an abnormal pap. My doctor performed a copolscopy on me and this comes back inconclusive from the lab. What the ???? Ok..now she wants to do a LEEP procedure which means I have to go in to the hospital, get put under so they can cut out a part of my cervix. I opted for NO. I waited six months...went back in for a new pap smear and it came back NORMAL.

Another occurrence happened when my son had trouble breathing one morning. I took him to the emergency room and the people there checked him out and took x-rays of his chest, gave him some pain med and said he merely bruised his chest from severe coughing. On the way home he is throwing up not once but three times. I took him to his pediatrician and come to find out he had pneumonia was told to take him off whatever they gave him (Tylenol with Codeine) and he gave me something else to give him which worked. There are some doctors who do know what they are doing and others who don't know squat. You have be very careful choosing your doctor but sometimes that can be very tricky.

[smackliet]

Last year my 18 y/o son had throat pain that just kept getting worse, he had a lump he felt behind his adams apple. He is tuff so when he starts complaining i know he is sick. I took him to the dr. They said virus no worries. a few days later much worse i took him in again. A week later he was week and pale the lump larger still "just a virus". On the 5th viset my son couldn't talk or walk I wheeled him in in a wheelchair. His head hanging forward very pail. He had gotten out of bed around noon and came stumbling out white as a sheet. I knew something was wrong. I took him strait to the dr office. I didn't ask for an appointment I demanded he be seen emediately. Finally the dr says he dont look to good i want him seen at ear nose and throat. The dr scoped him and he found he had a cyst crushing his larynx and almost no air way. He was rushed to er for emergency surgery. The cyst was full of infection. He had to have a drain in for a week. The surgeon said he would not have servived with out the surgery. He has a scar on his throat from the surgery. It was a scary situation. If i had listened to the dr. saying "virus no worries" my son wouldn't be here. If you know something is wrong you have to be your own advicate.