I'm looking for another neurologist because my last one did 1 test on me and called it a day. So in my search for a new one, she keeps coming up and she's well reviewed (as well as the other drs in her practice). And I'm like... ugh. FML.

I have to wonder if maybe ratings/reviews for drs are pretty much useless at this point. I've seen multiple high rated drs and most of them have not worked out for me.

I have always wondered if they just pay to have positive reviews created or to have negative reviews removed.

Mostly Phen : oh, I know for a fact that some businesses do that. My father has a business and he's been approached by companies that specialize in that sort of thing. I would hope dr's wouldn't resort to it but who knows.

I also think to some degree, this sort of stuff is subjective. My neurologist had a decent bedside manner. Perhaps if I had some other issue that was easier to diagnose, I would be raving too. Who knows!

doctor shopping is so exhausting and then you have to be a new patient and give them the whole history and etc. Ugh. What a pain.

yeah and I'm going to start the disability application process soon too and ugh, I do not want to look "suspicious" and like a dr shopper but I don't know that I have much of a choice here

I'm sorry, it's so stressful to find a new doctor. But your current one clearly doesn't want to listen to you.

I just sometimes start to think I might be the problem because like almost every dr I have sucks. LOL.

Like maybe it's me? I dunno. I do think that drs are also judging and diagnosing me (or not) based on my being overweight. They used to come out and say it's weight, I think now they just keep it to themselves.

I'm trying to switch to a new doc for my husband and it's near impossible.

MarvelMouse 🐭 : what issues are you having?

Well my husband has high BP & cholestoral, but he also is pretty active. His regular doctor is dismissive of his complaints, and regularly just tells him to have less salt and other bullshit, and the husband is tired.

Ideally he could be on a more expensive BP med that wouldn't make him tired. He also has a small skin issue on his back & one of his knees is fucked up, and the doctor just completely dismisses those by saying, oh lets deal with the big stuff first.

It's been like this for about a year while the doctor fucked up his BP meds and my husband was just dragging himself around. it does not need to be like this. But we belong to an HMO, so we have to choose a network doc, and the one we want is not taking new patients. It's a cluster.

one thing thats so annoying is that there are better/newer/more effective drugs for everything these days, but the insurance co. makes you TRY the cheap older stuff first because INSURANCE. I hates them so much.

But I don't think you are the problem, it's the system that is the problem.

MarvelMouse 🐭 : oof, that sounds frustrating as heck. I will say, one thing I'm VERY lucky about is my husband works for a big corporation and we've splurged on the top tier health insurance so I can go to almost any dr I want. They cover out of network at 80% even. And I don't need referrals to see most specialists. So far, only referral I needed was

for PT

I'm wondering/guessing newer stuff might not have generic versions?

yeah i think that's part of the problem!

The idea of shopping for a doctor is literally foreign to me: Here if you don’t have a primary care physician, you’re going to sit on a wait list for years. Seeing a specialist never happens without a referral from a PCP, and that’s also a wait that varies from months to years. You never get to choose who you get.

I’m sorry that your current doctor isn’t working out, but I’m really glad that you can change to someone else

I hopeyoufind a good Dr. who will take you seriously and finally figure things out for you.

dkronfeld : I do have a PCP, but we pay a lot of money to not require a referral from one.

The irony in all of this is I did wait years. Onset of symptoms was in my early 20s, I didn’t start seeing specialists until I got married and had health insurance at about age 38.

I saw exactly one specialist before my marriage, an endocrinologist who charged 300 out of pocket back in 2001. Also pretty sure he borderline sexually assaulted me but that’s another story

Heather/Sanura🦩 : me too. I really don’t know what more I can be doing

I'm not sure you could do anymore.