Friday, March 7, 2008

Doctor, Are You Serious?

What will you do if doctor tell you that you have the diabetes?
Shocked?
Nothing to do & just accept the reality & fact?
Don't belief & try to argue with the doctor?
Visit other doctor for second opinion?
..................etc?
a
I have heard lots of bad feedbacks & complaints made by the customers to the doctor(s) they visited since I’m working in the medical lab for 4 years. Anyway, it may not a complaint as I said; it may be more alike a suspicious to the doctors’ professional or it may be just a misunderstanding?
a
The scenario almost the same: Patient (customer) has done a blood test in a clinic. After consulted with the doctor, (s)he is shocked & worried, as doctor told that (s)he had the diabetes & medicine prescription is needed. Well, some patients might just simply accept & follow whatever being told or advised by the doctor, but some seem so hard to belief it & manage to find out the real story. Finally they came to the lab & of course I’m the one who entertained them. After listened to their stories on the “What”, the “How” & the “Why”, I started to play my role to remove the “?” from their queries! ( So funny & weird, how come they not trust the doctor but trust me more? :p )
a
I also wondered why (how) some doctors are so expert & can simply diagnose a patient has the diabetes with just single blood or urine testing. Or without further investigation on the symptoms, family history & etc the patient might have?
a
None of the diseases can be diagnosed with only single testing (as none of the testing are 100% accurate! If there is any clinic or lab tells hat they can provide you a 100% accurate blood test results, then they are bullshit!) ; it must at least twice, or perhaps more are required. A patient tested with high blood glucose / sugar (or glucose content in the urine) at the very first time not mean that (s)he must has the diabetes. It may be due to other reasons, like patient just had the meal or not fasted over a required fasting period (10 to 12 hours before the blood testing) or sometime other underlying biological factor(s) may play a role too. Likewise, a diabetes patient can tested with normal blood glucose as well, if they are over fasted or is under effective medication control. So how a doctor can tell if a patient has the diabetes with single blood or urine test & without any further investigation?
a
Firstly, may be the doctor is still new with no experience or perhaps (s)he doesn’t know the truth behind the lab test findings! Anyway this is not a good excuse; if the so called “new doctor” has no idea on the right diagnostic procedure for the diabetes (as one of the most common disorders human being had), then what more we can expect from them? Secondly, doctor gives the patient wrong piece of information intentionally, with the hope to boost the drug / medicine selling (profits) high up? If this happen, I think the “Beast” or “Bitch” would be the best word to describes such an un-ethical doctor. Thirdly, may be patient him (her) self misunderstood the doctor’s message, especially if you don’t know how to differentiate the high blood glucose & diabetes.

For those people who may experience this before or after, the thing you must do is to ask doctor do another blood test for you, or ask doctor to do the OGTT (Oral Glucose Tolerance Test) to confirm the diabetes status. Of course now-a-day, there is another test that you may interest to get it done---HbA1c (Glycosylated hemoglobin). HbA1c may able to monitor & tell your blood glucose level in the last 2 to 3 months, although it actually is used to monitor how well a patient is under a medication control.
a
With the HbA1c, you never can cheat to your doctor if you are a diabetes patient who never obeys to the advice & instruction in diabetes control plan; even if you have tried to over fasted (with or without strenuous exercise) or take the medicine only a very short period from the date of the blood testing, the HbA1c test will still shows an abnormal result (poor control).
a

Symptoms of High Blood Glucose or Diabetes
(Picture grab from www.xtend-life.com)

a

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hospitals,doctors, and the medical field in general..they are all business.. they are all in it for the money and what is in the best interest of themselves..not always of the patient...

BB COMMUNITY said...

amei79, long time no see, can spend 5 second to vote in my blog before the vote section tutup? visit here http://bbmarketplace.blogspot.com/2008/03/election-is-coming-vote-me.html

thanks a lot

xniquet said...

I'll be damn if the doctor diagnosed me with it, cause i have to give up drinking pepsi XD

Apple said...

Thank you for the information. :)

amei79 said...

milly:
Is true, but not all doctors like this, some are very helpful.

bb community:
As u wished, voted few days ago.

x:
lolz, 4me, u mustn't drink too much of pepsi even though u are healthy...

apple:
Welcom...