Hypochondriacs

[eldragon]

It seems to me that the available information today - via the internet, mostly - and the advanced medical testing we enjoy today - combine to create hypochondriacs.

My husband is 41 years old and has always been very athletic and healthy. He has never smoked or taken drugs, rarely even drank beer. He has always been a bodybuilder, with little bodyfat.

But recently he has fallen prey to doctors who, I suppose, are well meaning enough. One is a stomach doctor who has convinced my husband that he has a pre-cancerous stomach ailment. I asked the doctor right out if the condition my husband might have always leads to cancer and he snapped "No! I didn't say that! 1 out of 200 become cancerous!' So, he has prescribed 3 very expensive medicines for my husband to take. One is Nexxium, which reduces stomach acid and works very well - my husband has been taking it for years. With insurance, however, our co-payment is $50.


And now this same doctor has precribed huge bottles of a dark liquid that needs to be taken before each meal. My husband eats 2 meals a day at work - he can't be lugging these huge gallons of liquid medicine to work with him! Also, the co-payment on that one is $50.

Then, another doctor told my husband he has high blood pressure, so he takes medicine for that.

Another doctor tested my husband for diabetes and says he has that. We will find out Thursday what mediication my husband needs to take for it.

We are going broke.


Yet, my husband feels fine.

Are these doctors doing a disservice and creating a invalid out of an ordinary man?

[Melos]

I think a lot of doctors do just that.

While it is quite possible that your husband has these ailments and feels fine, there are other ways to deal with them rather than glugging dark liquids and taking handfulls of pills.

I vote for second opinions for everything.... and natural health support.

[palefrost]

I hate doctors. Im convinced they make you sick lol. I wont go to one unless im dying or preggers. I know they gave my mother in law some hormone replacement treatment that made her thyroid go nuts and she needed to have it removed. I think alot of the meds they push they dont have a clue about.

[LyricB]

I think a lot of doctors are simply doing the best they can...and prescribing things like crazy so they don't later get sued for not treating the possible ailment.

I do fully endorse second opinions, though!!

[Fluffernutter]

With things like diabetes you can live for years in a diabetic or pre-diabetic state without feeling sick enough for it to disrupt your lifestyle, but that doesn't mean it's not affecting your system in the long run (kidneys, ability to heal from wounds, etc.).

Regulating his insulin levels now could save problems down the road. With the newer classes of oral meds fewer people with type 2 diabetes (which I'll assume for the moment is what he has) have to resort to injections now.