Why doctors are dismissive of seniors

Lavinia said:
It seems that most doctors believe that all old people suffer with dementia. I get spoken to as though I'm a child with little understanding.
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I haven't come across this in recent years. However, I have had hospital nurses ask me if I went "poo poo" recently. I rather pointedly say, Noooo. However, I did have a BOWEL MOVEMENT this morning. And I say it with great emphasis. Point made: I am not a toddler, don't treat me as one.

This almost exclusively happens with foreign born nurses. To be clear, I take no issue with immigrants or immigrant health care workers. Quite the contrary. That said, I find they are more apt to infantilize patients, particularly older ones.
 
My doctor says let's listen to your tummy. I laugh but that is what he says and other things that one would say to a child.

My husband was told by a new doctor at a clinic we used for over 30 years that he could not help him and the nurse said to find another doctor somewhere else. All he wanted was the checkup by medicare that they do yearly. I guess because he is also disabled with some ailments, too but that was not the nature of the visit.
 
StarSong said:
I haven't come across this in recent years. However, I have had hospital nurses ask me if I went "poo poo" recently. I rather pointedly say, Noooo. However, I did have a BOWEL MOVEMENT this morning. And I say it with great emphasis. Point made: I am not a toddler, don't treat me as one.

This almost exclusively happens with foreign born nurses. To be clear, I take no issue with immigrants or immigrant health care workers. Quite the contrary. That said, I find they are more apt to infantilize patients, particularly older ones.
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The nurses meant no offense; it's a culture thing.
Snowbirding in Florida hotels, all the help spoke Spanish as their original language and they all called me 'grandma'. It was meant kindly, as an honorific.
 
gruntlabor said:
The nurses meant no offense; it's a culture thing.
Snowbirding in Florida hotels, all the help spoke Spanish as their original language and they all called me 'grandma'. It was meant kindly, as an honorific.
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I realize being referred to as "Mama" is a cultural endearment and accept it as such, but draw the line at people referring to my body functions as wee-wee or poo-poo.

Nobody in the medical profession has called me "grandma." Not sure I'd love that...
 
Over the years, started in my mid 30s, I went about 10 different doctors and luckily all of them have been nice to me, including Gynecologist(child birth), several specialists for different problems., different years.

One thing I need to be careful is I should not a change of doctors, one for Ortho. doctor for Tramadol(leg pain) and the other, GP for Xanaxa(sleep).
I need to be an established patient with two doctors every 3 -4 months' appointment.

The current Gastroenterogist(G.I. doctor) was hesitant to Rx for my G.I. issue, partly I'm not his established patient, although he did my colonoscopy 3 years ago.
 
Mitch86 said:
I consult my Amazon Echo Shows for all my medical problems. I'm age 91 now. They solve all my medical problems except they cannot write prescriptions. However, it's probably best NOT to use any prescriptions since the side effects of most prescriptions are more damaging than the illnesses.
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I don't understand anything about Echo, but you're sure right about the rest of it.

Sometimes they're necessary and helpful, but too often they're neither.
 
Lavinia said:
It seems that most doctors believe that all old people suffer with dementia. I get spoken to as though I'm a child with little understanding.
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What do you say when that happens? I get irate, but do not let it show in my voice. It shows up spectacularly in my words.

One physician yelled at me because he misunderstood what I said. I just looked at him and said "you are fired", and walked out. He misunderstood because he wasn't listening. Lots of docs don't listen. I cure that by asking them a question about what I said. It was the yelling I took umbrage with.

One doc spoke to me as though I were completely ignorant about most things. I had just met him. I gave him a polite speech which was mostly me ordering him to treat me with respect and why I would not put up with him doing otherwise. Amazingly, he apologized!!! He was my doctor for 13 years, and he was the best doctor I have ever had.
 
debodun said:
When I use medical terminology, that really seems to grind most doctor's gears. They will say something to the effect, "How do you know that?" When I reply that I have an educational background in medicine, they will counter with, "You're still not a doctor."
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Only some years ago many doctors did not even know lymphedema and lipedema.

All members of our support group for venous diseases, lymph- and lipedema had a much better knowledge.
 
George1959 said:
Only some years ago many doctors did not even know lymphedema and lipedema.

All members of our support group for venous diseases, lymph- and lipedema had a much better knowledge.
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I suffer from PMR (PolyMyalgia Rheumatica) and the people on the forum I'm a member of in the UK (PMRGCAUK) seem to be better versed than the doctors most of us meet.

I recently volunteered to be a 'patient' for young hospital doctors to examine, so that a panel of older doctors could judge them on how well they knew the illness I was supposedly suffering from, which was GCA (Giant Cell Arteritis), and what they'd recommend as a course of action once diagnosed. One of the judging panel was a young(ish) rheumatologist, and he and I ended up having a disagreement over something he said.

According to him, people with GCA and/or PMR, nearly always had raised inflammation markers in their blood, with only around 1% not showing any difference.

I disagreed with him and pointed out that the foremost expert in the field in the UK (Prof Sarah Mackie) has said that up to 1 in 5 people with either PMR or GCA never show any raised markers in their blood.

At that point he shouted that he had worked with her. So it seemed to me that he obviously doesn't listen when he's told something important.

I just hope that he subsequently got in touch with Prof Mackie in order to clarify who was correct, and that she put him right, because he was definitely wrong according to what she's previously written.
 
When my systolic blood pressure reading went over 200 and I could count my pulse by the banging in my head about 10 years ago, I had little choice but to get on blood pressure medication regardless of any side effects.

I still struggle with high BP, but without medication, I most likely would have had a stroke years ago.
 
Mitch86 said:
I consult my Amazon Echo Shows for all my medical problems. I'm age 91 now. They solve all my medical problems except they cannot write prescriptions. However, it's probably best NOT to use any prescriptions since the side effects of most prescriptions are more damaging than the illnesses.
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You sound more likely half your age, in your 50s or 60s, not at age 91 because a majority of old folks at least two Rx meds. You may live to be at age 100 or beyond. Lucky!!!

As for 'side-effect' I rarely get, except one of Rx meds. Gabapentin which makes me sleepy. I take it during night. ' Make me sleepy' is a good thing because I struggle to fall sleep. I need 'sleep aid' for good night sleep. I think many old folks have sleep problem, because Melatonin in the system started to deplete as we age.
 
Never had a problem with any doctor ever. Also, I am so very lucky that both my brothers are doctors, one is a GP and one is a retired oncologist. Also I take very good care of myself, not overweight, walk every day, don't smoke, don't do drugs, and I don't drink alcohol anymore, in my seventies. I did have uterine cancer 3 years ago but otherwise I try to keep up a healthy regimen.
 
debodun said:
I always ask for an early appointment time figuring the doctor won't be as delayed, but that doesn't work. One time I had the first appointment time in the day and the doctor still didn't see me for about 45 minutes.
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You have no idea how busy doctors are, my brother, the GP goes into his office on the weekend just to complete paperwork done on patients. During the week, their clinic, is open until 8 pm on some nights and on many of those nights, he doesn't get home until midnight, again paper work. In addition I found this info. on the internet:
A doctor's first appointment of the day can be busy or delayed due to a "domino effect" from the previous day, urgent administrative tasks, or unexpected clinical demands before the first patient even arrives. While often considered the best time to avoid long waits, the start of the day is frequently when doctors catch up on hospital rounds, review urgent lab results, or handle emergencies.
 
debodun said:
I had to invoke this 2 years ago when the doctor refused to let me see blood test results. Why do that think a patient wouldn't want to see this? Maybe they think the patient would:
1) self-diagnose
2 )be overly concerned with an abnormal result
3) or, most likely, they think most patients are ignorant and wouldn't understand the results
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Yes to all 3 according to my brothers, both doctors. I am guilty of this myself, looking at my blood results with an out of range result.
 
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