Better luck with a woman vet/doctor re Ottawa vet bills

[Noah & me (GA)]

This may belong in Off Topic but I've noticed a lot of threads asking why people are paying so much or how could the vet have gotten it so wrong. First off I'm male, 59 years old. My vet, my family doctor and my neurologist are all women because men don't listen! I have brutal migraines AND Trigeminal neuralgia AND Chiari malformation. Google this stuff because it sounds made up. After seven male neurologists couldn't figure it out, I finally ended up with the female neurosurgeon who fixed my brain aneurysm (I was home the next morning) and she diagnosed me in 5 minutes. My family doctor is compassionate beyond belief. My vet has become one of the best friends I've ever had. All women! And I'd be living under a bridge if it weren't for my wife. I have PTSD. I'm not slamming every male vet and doctor, just wondering if anyone else has had the same experience.

 

[Chris & China (GA)]

There was just a segment on the news the other night about a study that was done at Harvard

You might like to read it.....it substantiates your findings!!!

Patients cared for by woman doctors fare better than those treated by men

 

[Noah & me (GA)]

There's another study, can't remember who did it, about that idiotic 1 > 10 pain chart in hospitals. I asked an admitting nurse once if anyone even looked at that and she said no. So the deal is if your pain is a genuine 5, women will say 3 and men will say 7. The doctors know this and if you're a guy and you're being honest you get downgraded anyway. All that stuff I had done was free because this is Canada (where everyone is so nice, another myth) but that means every idiot who hit his thumb with a hammer goes to Emergency on Friday night clogging up the system. Sometimes things aren't what they appear. Free Health Care, yippee! Take a number and wait.

 

[Olive & Paula]

Oh that 1-10 pain gauge. When I'm asked that I say " I can't answer because I don't know how bad it can be". It's such a stupid question.

 

[Callie & Patches]

I answer the 1-10 pain question with a list of what I cant do. "I cant stand for more then 20 minutes" "my back hurts if I vacuume more then 1 room".

 

[StephG]

I have Chiari Malformation too with pseudo-tumor cerebri, vertigo, failed back syndrome (after surgery at 22 yrs old for a ruptured disc), chronic pain, and awful memory issues. Bunch of other things-- falling apart. I have mostly women doctors. My aunt is a doctor and if it wasn't for her I'd be in bad shape. I once had a male doctor that said my monthly cramps "couldn't be that bad". I said that's funny coming from a person without a uterus. I never went back. The pain scale is a joke. I almost always use a 5-7 even on my WORST days when I literally can't breathe without shocking pain in my back and legs. In my area, if you use anything over they think you're drug seeking even if you tell them you do not want narcotics--you only want your back problem FIXED!
I tend to see the Universal Health Care system like our Veterans hospital system. There's a wait list for everything.

 

[Noah & me (GA)]

Hospitals don't like dealing with neurological issues. I once went to Emergency with a bottle of 120 Percocets to show them I wasn't looking for drugs. They didn't like that. I bring my files to prove what I have which is of no help. I've never met another person with Chiari Malformation. In Canada there is a "soft" euthanasia, when my Mom was dying we had the option of refusing her antibiotics. She had Pneumonia which of course she caught in the filthy hospital. The nurses made her life Hell and she was just warehoused with all the other "old" people. It still makes me angry. Veterans in Canada are treated even worse if that's possible.