Log #90 (Held Hostage)

One of the biggest things I've learned in the past few weeks is that it's far too easy to allow ourselves to be held hostage by the medications we take.  No one wants to feel bad and I don't blame anyone for seeking solutions to their medical problems.  What most of us don't do (myself included before now) is really study about the medications we take and the interactions they have with each other or our bodies.

It's too easy to trust doctors because we all know what grueling education they had to go through to get where they are, but they are still human and fallible.  Besides, how much of their education is driven by pharmaceutical companies who promise solutions while their eyes are glued to the value of their shares on the stock market?

There are a lot of medications out there that really work for various kinds of ailments, but when a doctor has three appointments booked for the same time so he can get more money from the insurance company do you really think he wants to stand there for 30 minutes trying to get to the real root of your problem?  No!  He tries to remember which drug will work best for your SYMPTOMS and then get you out of the office so he can get to the next patient.  I know that not ALL doctors are this way, but there are far more than you or I would want to believe.

Too many times these days you will hear stories where someone diagnosed themselves correctly by searching their symptoms on the Internet and yet the doctors they'd been seeing for years couldn't get it right.  The reason is that the doctors aren't really listening to us.  "Here's a pill, get out of here and come back in a month."

My point is not to bash the medical industry or even the way it's run; my point is that we have a flood of information available to us and we need to take some responsibility for our own lives.  I, for one, do not want to find myself strung out on pain medication ten years from now without any resemblance to the man I once was.  I will use the God given freedom I have to see that I get the absolute best medical care/treatment I can get without blindly giving my trust and my life to some doctor.

PLEASE MAKE COMMENTS!!!!  If you have similar experiences then please write them here.  It may help someone else when you write your point of view.  ANY comment, question, or suggestion is appreciated!!!