| Second opinions
Posted: 7/1/2008 2:40:13 PM | My mate has just gone through surgery to have her breast removed after it was found she has cancer.
4 weeks ago she went to her local GP s she had found a lump, he said it wasnt nothing to worry about and was probably a cyst and to come back in a month or so if it caused her any more concern.
Just happened she had another appointment with a female doctor the following week and decided to get a second opinion..Doc said it didnt feel right to her and sent her to the hospital 3 days later for a test, low and behold it was /is Cancer..
So, would you accept what your told as law if it comes from someone who you believe to know what their talking about...Or if you have any doubts would you seek a second opinion.. | |
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| Second opinions
Posted: 7/1/2008 2:42:50 PM | I think it's always best to seek a second opinion, if there's any shade of doubt. Especially with something like cancer.
Hope everything works out well for your friend. | |
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Posted: 7/1/2008 2:46:45 PM | I know people who have had both. One was cancer, the other was just lumps brought on by the pill she was on.
It is hard to tell, but with such a serious subject I would always want a second opinion and at least some sort of scan to back it up. | |
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Posted: 7/1/2008 2:53:15 PM | i would always ask for a 2nd opinion if I was in any doubt or felt that the doc was just fobbing me off.
Thankfully my daughter did just that earlier this year - her GP wanted to put her on antidepressants for her constant headaches....she knew she wasn't stressed or depressed so after arguing with him for 3 months she went to another GP - a week later she was sent by a Neurosurgeon for an emergency lumber puncture to drain off excess spinal fluid on her brain, the pressure of which was affecting her optic nerve. She could have lost her sight - or worse. She had to have this procedure carried out a number of times before her fluid levels were down below danger level, and now has to take drugs to control it.
How many other people are out there doped up to the eyes with antidepressants who are really suffering from physical problems because doctors take the easy option and never look further than their prescription pads? | |
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Posted: 7/1/2008 2:58:29 PM | A good friend of mine survived breast cancer only to discover another lump...went back to see her consultant who dismissed her and told her he had seen 'rather too much of you' lately!!!!
after much pain she decided to call at her local hospital.....various tests later...lo and behold....its cancer and its back with a vengeance...she has been told she now has 6 to 12 months to live...
she is a strong lady and is taking her consultant all the way as she feels she owes it to her 3 young kids.....God bless you Wilma xx | |
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Posted: 7/1/2008 2:59:27 PM | Its good we have the web these days, but I go to the doctors for a diagnosis as its likely they will have seen the condition before.
In all my years of going I have been misdiagnosed one time only that I can remember.
Doctors are good people, but I think they may lack training in certain areas.?
best of luck to your friend by the way :) | |
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Posted: 7/1/2008 3:06:18 PM | ^^^I agree ^ But as you said yourself you have been misdiagnosed yourself in the past, and hopefully it wasnt a life threatening disease like my friends.
But what the web has to do with it I dont know as she didnt look up her ailement on the net, she went to a doctor and was told not to worry...Bloody good thing she did worry.
Theres nothing wrong with seeking a second opinon especially when it comes to your well being.. | |
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Posted: 7/1/2008 3:13:55 PM | Well on Thurs evening.. i found a lump in my right breast.. I went Straight to the Dr's on fri morning, and was sent to the Hospital in the afternoon...
They syringed the lump to take some of the fluid out to be tested and i should here tomorrow morning, but i have had this b4 and i think that its a Cyst again.
but if i was unsure and my GP wasnt very sympathic then id deffo seek a second opinion as my nan dies of breast cancer 7 years ago!! | |
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Posted: 7/1/2008 3:14:27 PM | | Doctors are like mechanics you could get different diagnostic of different ones lol and it takes a lot of searching before you find a good one! | |
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Posted: 7/1/2008 4:11:16 PM | | Always second and even third opinion - luckily I can get those within a day if I ever need to. | |
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Posted: 7/1/2008 4:25:50 PM | i went through all this last year.
my sister had to have her breast removed and she said i should just go to be checked over... i did 2 days later i didnt have a clue but the doc found 2 lumps. i got the all clear in november. be there for your friend willow she may be a tuff cookie but believe me she will be in bits.  | |
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Posted: 7/1/2008 11:02:35 PM | If I was in any doubt I would get a second opinion. Doctors (GP's) are generally good people, but they are set targets and if they tick the right boxes they will earn a hell of a lot of money.
I have been misdiagnosed twice, by the same doctor. The first time with a muscle pull in my leg. Was told to rest for a week with what eventually turned out to be a torn cruciate ligament. The second time he actually wrote hypochondriasis on a prescription for sugar pills. 2 hours later I saw a doc I trusted and was given a prescription for a stomach ulsar | |
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Posted: 7/1/2008 11:04:16 PM | hi willow
a mate of mine had been treated for emphysema for 2 1/2 years.
recently it was discovered he did not have it but had a cancer (not caused by smoking) that had grown so big it had blocked the pipe to 1 lung which had collapsed he's been told it is benign and he's currently going through chemo.
my x a few years ago had to have a hysterectomy with colpo suspension.
she was in hospital for a week. when she came out she began getting pain
she called her gp. after getting her to stretch which caused her a lot of pain (he apologised for that)this reached a peak one night when she had a violent pain followed by chills and shivering. she called her sister as the kids were too young to be left. her sister took her to a&e where she was fobbed off by a misserable b!ch of a doctor and sent home. following this she was leaking pee constantly.
she went to her gp they gave her a couple of incontinance pads and told her that was all they could do. i was buying packs of the largest disposable nappies.
she called the consultants secretary who told her to come in.
when the consultant took a look he wanted to get her in there and then but couldn't arrange a bed.
she went in a day or 2 later. she went down for the op at around 9.00 am
i received a phone call from the consultant in person. he said he had just compeleted the op and she was ok that was at around 4.00 pm.
the problem was caused by the blader getting a nick which had gone septic then burst this detatched a kidney which he had to attach elsewhere as too much damage had been done to put it back. she was in for two weeks this time.
to cap it off her sister collected her and brought her home. a few minutes after she left, she called to say their dad was dead. he had been living at her house.
to the poster praising doctors just because they are doctors get a grip.
in all walks of life you get all sorts from very good all the way down to murderers. remember shipton.
if you're not satisfied ask another until you are.
hope your friend gets through it ok.
ian
edit: whats the web got to do with it. well it could be pretty useful if us old farts offer up our experiances so those young ones are forwarned! | |
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Posted: 7/2/2008 12:59:51 AM | I would always recommend getting a second oppinion, if in doubt, doctors don't always get it right, as in my case.
I have ME, and it took me 2 years to get a proper diagnosis, being fobbed off at first by my GP, so i saw someone else, who got the ball rolling in seeing specialists. | |
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Posted: 7/2/2008 1:08:27 AM | | If in doubt yourself then always get a second opinion, too many mistakes have been made by taking a doctor's word. my son was 11 mths old when my gp told me he had nothing more than a heavy cold and i was being an overprotective mum, 6 hours later my son was in intensive care with meningitis and i was being told if i had followed the gp's instructions and given him calpol and put him to bed he would have been dead by morning. i followed my instict and knew my son was ill so i took him to casualty thankfully he made a full recovery. | |
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Posted: 7/2/2008 1:49:48 AM | my dad was 46 and a picture of health, all apart from a constant pain in his elbow. the GP kept telling him it was muscle strain, tennis elbow etc and referred him for physio. my dad kept going for the physio, and although it would ease the pain for a few days, it always returned. eventually, my dad went for a private consultation as he had health insurance with his job...the doctor he saw that day requested a scan, and they found a mass on his lung. this mass had been pressing on a nerve that runs from the chest and down the arm...he was in hospital within 24 hours having all sorts of tests. the diagnosis was inoperable lung cancer and he was given 9-12 months. he died 11 months later.
so a second opinion, in my dad's case got to the bottom of his pain, but it was still too late to actually do anything about it.
the same GP saw my ex when he went because of a lump he had developed on the side of his chest. the GP told him it was scar tissue from a chest drain that had been used 8 months earlier. a week later my ex thought the lump was getting bigger and went back, they sent him for a scan and we never heard anything. we assumed it must be ok as if it had been anything serious the GP would have called him back in. my ex went back to the GP about a month for later for something else and just happened to ask about the scan results and it turned out they had lost them...the GP chased up the scan results and called my ex straight back in...the diagnosis was mesothelioma (lung cancer caused by asbestos) he was told it was incurable and he had two years tops. he died 6 months later.
in my ex's case, as opposed to my dad's, i don't think it would have made any difference how soon he was diagnosed...mesothelioma is such an aggressive form of lung cancer that it's pretty much incurable however early it's caught..and the radiotherapy treatment that he started just after diagnosis just seemed to speed the whole process up rather than slow it down..so it could well have taken him from us earlier had he been diagnosed earlier.
personally, i would only seek a second opinion if i was really convinced that the GP had got it wrong...for the most part i trust my GP completely.
GP's don't deliberately misdiagnose because they can't be arsed to check everything properly. they are general practitioners, and as such are not experts. and for the most part they work on a 'ruling everything else out first' basis. they are not useless, but they are not walking medial encyclopaedia's either. they also have their hands tied by time and money constrictions that i'm sure the majority of them hate, but such are the times we live in.
i have been in the situation where i had to ask a hospital doctor why my ex didn't have a particular drug written up on his drug chart...i was just glancing over it, as you do, and noticed that he wasn't being given any clexane (as he was bedridden on c-pap) the drug to stop blood clots forming when you're immobile....i argued with myself that they're the professionals and must know what's what, but decided to ask anyway, just in case...when he came straight to the bed and looked at his drug chart and then turned to me and asked me if i was a nurse (i'm not), i knew i'd made the right decision to question him..he wrote the drug up immediately, and a potentially fatal oversight was averted...at the time i was so angry that something so basic had been overlooked, and that, on top of a catalogue of previous errors (he was left, having a heart attack on his bed for more than 5 minutes)....
my thoughts on all this though are still quite philosophical...when we get ill, who else do we turn to? we have to place our trust in these people because there is no one else...and for the most part, these people DO get it right and we walk away quite happily. such is the nature of their job...if they make a mistake or misdiagnosis they are potentially condemning someone to an early death. it's not a responsibility i would want.
i understand people's frustration when their gp's get it wrong, i really do, but what's the alternative? | |
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Posted: 7/2/2008 2:09:38 AM | To the above case, I think thats one extreme and I hope that you sued them for negligence (it's all well and good saying it turns us into an American state yadayadayada) but if people just sit back and accept this kind of mistreatment then there's nothing to stop the GP's making the same mistakes over and over, these people only understand the language of money.
I do completely agree, no one intentionally misdiagnoses people, but that said, they're paid top dollar to treat and diagnose people, they shouldnt fob you off with what they think is the most likely solution knowing full well that there's a possibility that tests could reveal its something else! | |
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Posted: 7/2/2008 2:33:38 AM |
To the above case, I think thats one extreme and I hope that you sued them for negligence (it's all well and good saying it turns us into an American state yadayadayada) but if people just sit back and accept this kind of mistreatment then there's nothing to stop the GP's making the same mistakes over and over, these people only understand the language of money.
if that was to me, sue for what exactly? what bit are you referring to?
i guess that answers your question anyway...no, we didn't sue...in the instance where he was in hospital, we were just glad that he came out of it all ok, and in the case where his scan results were lost, knowing any earlier wouldn't have made the slightest bit of difference...he was already terminal ...if anything, not having the results for those 4 weeks gave him 4 weeks less agonising over the whole situation.
the real people at fault here are the employers who allowed their employees to work with asbestos unprotected, even though they knew that there were health risks. they are being sued, as in my eyes, it's their fault that my 10 and 11 year old son don't have a dad now, not the doctors. | |
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| Second opinions
Posted: 7/2/2008 3:55:50 AM | I have probably told you this before....
I went to A&E on Friday afternoon, as I had lost part of the sight in one eye...they referred me to an evening eye clinic at Worthing hospital.
I saw a young registrar who was still working at midnight....he gave me an accurate diagnosis, and told me he would see me in his regular clinic the following week.
Next day he phoned me, he had worried that my condition was so unusual for someone of my age and health...he had spoken to the medical assesment unit of Chi hospital, and they wanted me in, there and then.
When I got there I was told Opthamology were just passing the buck, there was probably nothing wrong- but they spent the weekend testing for anything and everything. Right up until they scanned my heart.
About 10 minutes later I was blue-lighted to Southampton to have a massive tumour removed from inside my heart. I had no symptoms and had never been ill...but it was flapping about and had it flapped on to the valve I would be dead!
I can understand when GP's get frustrated by people who self-diagnose, or read about the latest scare and convince themselves they are ill...it is no surprise they make mistakes and miss things. We are all human.
I would always ask for a second opinion if I was worried... but most of the time we worry about nothing. | |
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Posted: 7/2/2008 5:29:20 AM | With no wish to berate g.p's
Thier title is "general practitioner". ( rarely experts in any field, and often faced with conditions they are not familiar with).
I have always checked out symptoms in books, ( before the internet). and presented my findings and thoughts to the doc. Prior to doing that i was sent off with a " take a paracetomol". If you show your on the ball with things, they may not be so dismissive.
Thankfully i am in good health, but now i have young grandchildren, I am back on the ball when they get sick, and can never rest until i know they are well again.
When young i would be too embarrased to ask for a second opinion, i dont hesitate now.
I am supporting my brother who has a brain tumour, he is like a fish out of water with this, having never seen the inside of a hospital.
Yes Willow, second opinion everytime. | |
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Posted: 7/2/2008 6:17:20 AM | Doctors are like mechanics you could get different diagnostic of different ones lol and it takes a lot of searching before you find a good one!
Dont forget that Doctors are not super human.They have to rely on what information they are given by the patient also to make an accurate diagnosis.If the patient does not give all rellevent information through embarrasment etc then they really are not helping themselves.
My father was one of these patients.He presented himself at hospital with chest pains late one evening.What he didnt tell the medical staff is that 4 of his brothers had died at an early age with Aeortic aneuerisms!.They traced his heart,nothing irregular found so sent him home with indigestion relief.
The early hours of the next morning he was found by my brother collapsed on the floor,after a fantastic attempt by medical staff and surgeons to save his life he sadly passed away that same day at the age of 51.
We cannot expect doctors to save lives or make an accurate diagnosis with only limited information. | |
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