I was about this age the last time I went to a doctor. Sort of.
I’m terrible with maintenance.
This explains why I once over-heated the engine of my Corolla on the way to work and why the Nativity scene stable I’d handcrafted out of Paddle Pop sticks collapsed in on itself just a few Christmases after its debut under our tree. Things break.
So do human bodies but, like any man, I’ve an aversion to doctor’s surgeries of a particularly strong flavour.
I hate them. No, wait. Let me be clear. I LOVE doctors and I love surgeons and science and medicine. I like the idea of finding solace for most that ails me. Cures, even. It’s a delightful safety net.
But I’d sooner visit the sun from a slingshot than take myself off for a check-up. It’s been eight years and I’m not proud of it.
I confess that I have a cavalier attitude to my own health. I was a heavy smoker until 3 months ago, drank with reckless abandon in my early years (who didn’t, am I right?) and ate burgers like they were caviar. There was a certain ‘she’ll be right’ attitude whenever illness prevailed.
Only rarely in the past eight years have I even remotely felt like a visit to the doctor’s, or an emergency ward, was warranted but I was usually distracted by life or a shiny object after the briefest of moments and life went on its merry way.
Men, rightly or wrongly or just plain badly, are mechanics of sorts. Not always of the motor variety. We make genuine appraisals of our own bodies like we would a complex machine. Squeezing bits here, testing for abnormalities there. All very solemn and serious and … measured. On the surface.
But I get the impression we could find a shark still gnawing on an elbow and come to the conclusion that everything would be fine after a lie down.
Guilty.
There’s a lot of research going around but it seems almost universal. Men overwhelmingly only go to the doctor when sick and are about 20 per cent (in Britain) less likely than women to go at all. Furthermore, 70 per cent of men in their 40s had never had a prostate exam. Any guesses why?
My reasons are not for comfort per se, but rather because I have a gripping fear of what the doctor will tell me and of the needles he will jettison into my flailing limbs and the laundry list of ailments previously unknown to me for which I will have to seek further treatment. Yes, I am somewhat aware that this is precisely why a doctor’s check-up is necessary.
I asked around our editorial meeting recently, as a genuine plea, whether I could organise to have blood tests done, needles administered and the litany of other uncomfortable tests conducted while I was knocked out, preferably on an anesthetic that wasn’t administered by a hypodermic.
They laughed.
And so it goes.
What’s your relationship like with your doctor? What about your partner’s relationship?
Comments
105 Comments so far
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Only men can do this, no women’s issues!
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So, Rick, just checking in to see how you went with making that appointment yesterday…
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Not well…
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I bet someone else would even make the phone call for you at this stage!! Be like the Nike ad Rick ‘Just do it!’
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Hey Rick, Here is another one.
One of my best friends left a suspicious looking freckle for too long without getting it checked. She told me she knew she should go to the doc, she meant to, but she was always too busy.
She died last year, aged 25.
Once, 2 years into her treatment, she told me she felt so guilty for putting her family through hell for it as she knew she should have gone to the doctor months and months before she did.
MAKE THE TIME TO GO. And then go regularly, once a year or something. I have to go once every 6 months as I too am high risk for skin cancer.
You will feel so much better for it once you have gone. So many things can be treated, even the really dangerous stuff. Don’t leave it too late.
=)
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It’s my New Year’s Resolution so I might make it before the year is out! Promise…
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we’ll hold you to it!
you’ve just scored 100,00 naggers…
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My dad is just like you Rick, never goes… Suffered from a bladder infection for so long, when he finally went it took months of treatment to get him back to normal, and guess who gets bladder infections regularly now.
What’s worse though, I received an e-mail a few years ago from my dad… saying he had finally taken himself to the doctors after not feeling well for a while, and was diagnosed with rectal cancer!! Thank God he went that time, the cancer was discovered early on and operated out succesfully. I am thinking his brush with the bladder infection had taught him a really valuable lesson.
Meanwhile, I’ve married Mr. Invinsible… Sigh…
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FFS, just go. I found a brain tumour last year that had been there for who knows how long. I had virtually no symptoms apart from a long history of headaches. You just can’t always tell.
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if i was a doctor i would set up a men’s health clinic that required no appointments, had television in the waiting room and cool drinks and coffee machine, cools magazines and really nice easy going men’s health doctors. a bit like a barber but they do medical things.
you have to make it easy for men, and somewhat appealing..
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I would love to see the same for women. I go eery year because I’m on the pill but I’m bad at going and I don’t ask all the questions I want to.
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Youth health services used to like that. Pool tables, internet cafe, condoms, friendly nurses and doctors. Then the funding got reduced.
Briliant call.
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Remember those mere male columns in woman’s weekly?! Anyway, this post reminded me of them… My grandma used to read them to me when I was little, I still remember her giggle
. Anyway, I digress. To join the litany of advisors, Rick you really should go to the doctor for a nice checkup. 
.
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When I was living in the UK, where you are restricted to seeing the same GP that you are registered with, there was usually a wait of 1 to 2 weeks for an appointment unless it was an emergency. Almost every time without fail my problem just got better before I got to my appointment, which made me feel like there was little point going to the doctor in the first place. I have also been told a lot of bullsh** by GPs (such as it was impossible for my 6 month old daughter to be allergic to dairy, but if she kept vomiting it up I could just give her Ribena instead of milk) and I found for my kids it was a lot more useful to see a nurse. So I always go to a bulk billing doctor as I don’t think it is worth to pay the gap fee, even if it is only $5.
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Nah. Rick, you’re about 12, it’s not like you actually need to get regular prostate checks or anything. Apart from checking for STIs, and I know you would never have sex before marriage, why on earth would you bother going to the doctor unless something was actually wrong?
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So you haven’t had an STI check for at least 8 years.
Sorry Rick, but that is disturbing.
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Oh, unless you haven’t had sex for… 8 years.
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Oh, I love talking about my sex life!
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Hehe. I hope that didn’t come across as too rude.
Its just that I have been gobsmacked by the fact that most of my boyfriends (in the past, not all at the same time!) had never had an STI test. What, are they just hoping that the girls will take care of that stuff (as with the contraception)?!? Surely by now everyone knows that heaps of STIs don’t have any noticeable symptoms. And that condoms don’t necessary keep you safe either (warts and herpes as a quick example can be transmitted even if you use a condom). STIs can do major damage if you leave them unchecked. Can even make you infertile!
Rick-babe, I know you’re gay, but I reckon that by the time you are 30 or so (and hopefully way before) gays will be able to get married and have kids (well already can, but you know what I mean) here in Aussie. Don’t write yourself off for being able to have a rad little mini-me Rick. It would be a shame coz you are awesome!
Hope this doesn’t scare you too much Rick. You’ll probably not have anything wrong anyway. Either way you win – 1/ you have something and go “phew, at least now I know and so I can sort it out”, or 2/ feel great/lucky coz you are “clean and pure” or something. I’ve experienced both. Nothing to be ashamed of. xx
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Ha! My husband waits to go to the GP until he has 3 things wrong, then it’s “worth it”.
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I do this too. Value for money, I say!
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I save the unimportant stuff to do when I have an actual problem. Or, conversely, I always ask for prescriptions early if I’m at the doctor before I actually need a refill.
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This is not meant to scare people off – my husband went to see our GP about a “dodgy tummy” in Feb of this year. Turns out the slightly off feeling he had was very advanced colon cancer. So in his case there is nothing that can be done cure wise as its a rarer variant that was humming away for years without any outward indication it was there. If he didnt listen to his body and seek advice straight away he would not have had a chance to fight it & he would have died very suddenly – with no chance to say goodbye. I know thats pretty extreme – ‘Go to the Dr or you will just drop dead one day’ but the idea of not knowing and being better off doesnt cut it.
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I haven’t been to the doctor since my youngest daughter was born 3 years ago. I moved to Australia and don’t have a GP, so I am now due for a pap smear (okay, overdue by Aussie standards but I only just worked this out, it was every 3 years in NZ).
I have never in my life had a check up. I had pap smears but always at the women’s health clinic that just did pap smears, breast checks, and STI checks.
I finally conquered my fear of the dentist, my fear of a new doctor looking at my privates is next.
(note, you can now get a local anaesthetic for needles)
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You can contact family planning centres in some states and they have nurses who do all the girly tests so you don’t need to see a Dr if you don’t want. Our GP also employs a nurse who does all this so I see her, not my male GP as I too am not so keen on showing my Dr my ‘privates’. If you call around, you may be able to find a Dr who has a nurse available…
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Excuse me, but women can be doctors as well. Just ask for a female doctor. And what if you asked for a nurse and got a man?
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I went to the my (hot!) doc for a checkup – I saw the psych at the Baby health centre, and told her I’d had a couple of down days, and she suggested blood tests for Iron and Vit D deficiencies. Hot doc ordered the blood tests AND pap smear from path labs. I was a bit thick, and didn’t understand why – apparently for every pap test, the male docs either get a RN to do them or they do them and get a female chaperone into their room! I couldn’t believe it. What a sorry state of affairs for people who’ve done nothing wrong to have to worry about this.
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This is standard practice in most places I have worked, it’s for both doctors protection and for patients comfort and their protection too. It is common for patients to not voice their discomfort about any aspects of their care, for fear of upsetting their doctor, so it’s just standard so all bases are covered.
But for taking swabs and things it’s actually handy to have another person in the room to hand things over and twist off lids etc.
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I just think it’s a shame. For a simple procedure, and I can’t think of anything less sexual than a pap smear! What a shame there’s no trust to start with. I don’t care who does it!
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- or simply a female doctor…
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Everyone who is sexually active should be getting at least yearly check ups for STD’s. People should be getting yearly check ups on their blood to check for things like diabetes, cholesterol (often silent symptoms) and get blood pressure checks, skin checks, etc etc.
Just because you feel well doesn’t mean you don’t have a problem developing, if they find it early they can correct it and you’ll save yourself massive trouble years down the track. Trust me, you don’t want to have a heart attack/go blind/be infertile/get skin cancer if you could have easily prevented it.
In an ideal world the majority of health care would be preventative, not treating severe things that could have been avoided like we do now.
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Even though my aunt and one of my best friends are dr’s, I have a deep fear and mistrust of them. I was (finally) diagnosed with a thryroid disease at 15, after more specialists than I can remember assured my mum that there was nothing wrong with me, one even implying thaqt she had munchausen’s by proxy. Lovely.
Last year I had some alarming symptons for ages, when I finally got up the guts to see a dr I was told ‘oh no, you’re too young for it to be serious, we’ll just keep an eye on it…” I was mortified (i have a great fear of people thinking I’m a hypochondriac — see above experience!). When it didn’t get better I briefly mentioned it to a different dr, who said we should get further tests – oh look, cancer!
Surgery took care of that, mind you I’ve been completely constipated for over a year and my surgeon says it’s because I was pregnant/now breastfeeding…
The worst thing? The wonderful dr who found my cancer and was so lovely and supportive died from cancer herself a few months ago. RIP Dr Merideth, I miss you.
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I use time as the excuse, Rick. I have to work for a living. Going to see the Doctor when I’m not actually sick seems like such a freaking hassle and a waste of Saturdays. Then if specialists get involved, it’s days off work, etc… it never ends.
Plus if you “know” you have to declare it on all your life insurance form, which probably fucks your chances of getting insurance. What’s more important? Providing for your family, or your health?
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You summed up my thoughts so well!
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Sigh. I should probably go for a check up. Is that what you ask for? A genearl check-up? They pinch fat, look in your ears and stick something up your bum?
Where’s a fact sheet, Rick? What do I even ask for! LOL
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Hmmm….I have the BRCA gene (which means I can never life insurance) but it doesn’t bother me. I’d rather know and be aware.
It’s not about life insurance…It’s about life! (I know that sounds like some corny tag line but it’s true!)
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I’m only partically serious.
Though, you have the advantage of having the crutch of providing for dependants removed. For you, my worst has already happened: you can’t provide for your family past your death. Sounds like a zen position to be in.
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What great timing on this article haha!
I finally got my boyfriend to the doctor today – after 4 days at home sick!
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I’d had the same GP from when I was 3 years old. LOVED him, his wife was also a GP, so I’d see her for pap smears, but him for everything else. I saw him regularly for my asthma, and it was great to have all my details get sent to him even though I was shunted from specialist to specialist.
Then I got excruciating non-stop pain. I’m not joking, I saw 16 specialists over 5 years before they found the cause. 14 of those specialists declared it all to be in my head and referred me to psych’s.
My GP TRUSTED that when I said I was in pain, it mean’t I was in pain. So he never gave up, he never said no to giving me the opiates I needed (no other Dr would prescribe them for me), he never stopped referring me to different specialists. If he had not had that belief in me, I would still be wondering if maybe I was madand I would still be in writhing on the floor screaming then passing out pain! He would not have had that belief if he had only seen me a couple of times.
Then he retired.
It took me 10 months to go see another GP, I also wouldn’t go to hospital when I had severe asthma attacks. Had a major aversion.
Only reason I saw the GP was my tongue had felt swollen for 3 weeks, to the point that breathing was impaired and I mentioned it on Facebook and had a HEAP of people telling me to go to emergency and don’t I know how dangerous that could be *L*
My husband has been to a Dr once since I met him, and I’m not joking, he was 35 and hadn’t been since he was a kid so didn’t even have his own medicare card.
He’s had ribs I’m sure were broken – It’ll be fine!
Deep burn from soldiering iron – It’ll heal!
Knuckle on one finger is about twice the size it used to be – Oh well!
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My dr is at retirement age and I don’t want him to go. They take so long to train
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*L* Love it!
and so very true! hehehe
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My mum’s a nurse. Worse, she is a Director of Studies and TEACHES nursing (& midwifery). So when I found out people go to the doctor, I was thoroughly surprised. I thought you only went to the doctor when you were practically dying.
These days I only go for prescriptions and certificates when I’ve been off work. And now, with my husband having chronic illness, half the time I can just squeeze in a prescription on the end of his visit instead of making my own!
I do go every 1-2 years for a skin check & other female requirements. I’m pale, covered in freckles & moles and have a family history of skin cancer. I will have a skin cancer at some point, but if I keep getting it checked we can remove it before it’s malignant.
I’m going to go against the grain here and say I don’t see why you need to go if nothing is wrong with you. You’re not old enough to need a prostate exam regularly yet. Maybe get your skin checked if you need to? I don’t know what else going when you’re not sick is meant to achieve.
Sure, go if you’re worried about something. But it doesn’t sound like you are.
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prostrate checks are waste of time:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostate_cancer_screening
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My husbands grandfather lived until he was 100 and when people would ask him what his secret was he would say ” don’t ever go to the doctor”. Having said that…. Rick u really should go see one
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Well, with advice like that!
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My great grandmother died a day short of 106, and she abused the last doctor my Nan and Pop got to come and see her at home – “Go home and look after your babies!!”.
They’d got her a female doctor thinking she’d be more comfortable with that. Errrr….
But yeah, I don’t recall doctors coming to see her or her really going to the doctor. And she used to eat butter, salt, dripping… She was awesome.
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Dont feel too bad Rick! There is a tendency to equate health with medical visits but the two are not synonymous. For people under the age of 40 with no symptoms who eat well and exercise regularly a routine visit to the doctor may not achieve that much.
Tests have a role but there is also a downside called false positives where you get a finding of disease but there is no disease. The more tests done on healthy people the more false results we get.
And BTW the reason 70% of men in their 40s have not had a prostate check is that there is no recommendation for men of that age to do so unless there is a family history of prostate cancer or they have symptoms. The false positive rate of routine testing leads 49 men to have surgery which will not affect their life expectancy for every one where it saves their life.
Things are not black and white in medicine.
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Thankfully!
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I dunno about this, prevention and early detection is better than cure. Check ups save lives
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yes, but not for prostrate checks.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prostate_cancer_screening
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I like this comment! It acknowledges that there are grey areas (to continue the metaphor), even in medicine. And I agree with it. Health and medical visits are not synonymous. Look around a doctor’s waiting room…full of sick people
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It’s harder for women to get away with not seeing the doctor for years, because we’ve got pap smears that nag at you when they’re not done. Rick, if we can stand having one of them every couple of years, you can stand going for a once-over that won’t involve anything so intimate for quite a while yet.
My partner is pretty diligent with psychological appointments but, for physical problems, he’s a typical man. Twice he’s broken his ribs and not seen a doctor except for a St Johns ambo. He says he was sure he hadn’t punctured a lung or anything serious, and it’s not like they can plaster it…
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Rick did you write this so that we would all tell you what you already know?
You need to go to the doctor.
Even if it scares you. Even if you think the worst will happen. Even if the doctor will tell you to give up smoking.
Now that you’ve posted this here you have no choice but to make an appointment with a GP TODAY, and then report back on how you went. If you don’t have your own GP ask Mia or Lana or Nicky or Jason or any of the other lovely people you work with! They will have some good reccomendations.
It will be fine. I promise.
It might help you to think of it like this: the only thing worse that getting news that you are really sick, is NOT getting news that you are really sick and then dying when you’re 40.
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Sort of. And because Mia told me to after complaining about something to her late one night last week!
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Well, go on then, the anticipation of something is pretty much always worse than actually getting on and doing it.
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Firstly….Rick! Go to the bloody doctor!
I have an awesome doctor and have to go to her every 3 months for various reasons. She once told me that it’s important to ‘invest’ in your health and wellbeing. Yes, pap smears and breast checks are uncomfortable but they don’t take long and I figure that doctors have seen it all so there’s nothing to worry about.
My partner is actually surprisingly good and goes to the GP for his yearly check up. His doctor is mid 30s and easy to chat to so it’s not too much of a hassle.
My mum had breast cancer 13 years ago and it was detected early in a routine mammogram. If she had been complacent about regular visits to the GP she might not have been so lucky!
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I shall collect all the comments like this and maybe convince myself to go.
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I want to see a follow up article!!! No excuses now
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My husband, and many of my male friends, are exactly the same. I always get the impression it’s about not wanting to face up to what the Dr will tell them about changes to lifestyle (eg. stop smoking & drinking and start exercising more). If they don’t go, they can pretend they can maintain status quo.
Men!
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When I was doing my nursing training, I did a placement on a cardiothoracic unit at a major public Sydney hospital. The overwhelming majority of my patients were men in their 40s, 50s & 60s who had previously had major cardiac events and were requiring surgery. Most of them were in for valve replacements, some were in for CAGBs (Coronary artery bypass grafts). Because we were a ward with cardiac monitoring, although we weren’t “the cardiac ward” we also had a lot of patients who’d had heart attacks, a few who’d had such severe heart attacks that their heart had stopped beating all together and they’d had to be resuscitated; a few were fortunate to be near a hospital or at work with someone who was first aid trained, a few by their children and one by his wife. All of these people are incredibly lucky to be alive.
As nurses we’re privy to medical histories in the notes and it blows my mind that for the majority they had no GP listed. If I asked why they’d say “nah, don’t need one”. For some, they’d not seen a GP for over 10 years. “She’ll be right” they’d say and then make some joke about “the ticker still ticking”.
For most of them, there either were NO signs pre-heart attack (or there were lifestyle signs, but not medical signs) or there were, but they’d been ignored. So many of them got the shock of their lives when they’d ended up in hospital, even more of a shock when they’d landed on a ward requiring major surgery.
Please do NOT be complacent about your health. In this particular instance, the survival rate for people who have a cardiac arrest outside of hospital is incredibly low. In the single-digits low. It’s only marginally higher if it happens in hospital. An annual check up doesn’t even have to cost anything if you go to a bulk-billing GP, takes at most half an hour and could save you a long stay in hospital, ultimately saves the health system in general a huge amount of money and could save your life. Not even thinking about the pain your loved ones go through when you’re suck in a hospital bed with an uncertain outcome.
Rick. Go to the freaking doctor.
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Well, my mother and brother are hypochondriacs and go to the doctor for every little thing (in fact my brother is home sick from school today and is going this afternoon). I don’t go to the doctors much, only if i’m really really sick, but then again, i hardly ever get sick.
I do however, have to see a neurologist once or twice a year for my epilepsy, but thats manageable. I went to see my GP this morning to get my medical form for driving filled out though. Epilepsy= more paper work and money essentially :-/
I haven’t been to the dentist in 3 years though haha, just haven’t got round to it
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I am so with you on the epilepsy thing. Even when you are stable, there’s the drivers licence ringmarole (admittedly necessary to ensure the safety of others as well as my own), the meds, and the neurologist/EEG thing. Paperwork, paperwork…
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I had to go through a similar drama with my licence. If you have brain surgery, they consider it an acquired brain injury.
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You haven’t been in 8 years? Wow, you should see all the new stuff doctors can do now!
They have thermometers disguised as interactive dinosaur robots and diagnostic tests based on Harry Potter plots.
True story.
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You know, I honestly don’t know if you are joking … something tells me you are BUT I WANT THIS TO BE TRUE.
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Pretty sure the best way to find out is a visit to the Drs as a follow up to this post, and report back to us the results
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I’m not one to joke about such important matters! Oh, hang on …
But seriously, how good would those things be?! And easy enough to invent I guess. Perhaps I should google ‘patent law’?
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My boss has Wiggles bandaids!
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I do too… For no good reason
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We do at work! We ONLY have wiggles bandaids. It embarrasses anyone over the age of about 6.
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I loath going to doctors, dentists and the like. Weirdly enough I regularly see my chiro every 2 weeks though…
However, I did manage to go this year for blood tests as my sister was diagnosed with one thing and I had similar symptoms – I’m all ok though. Before that, it had been about 5 years, and I did get diagnosed with PCOS when all I wanted was something to clear my skin up!! Sigh!! Did help in the long run to understand my body I s’pose.
I am yet to get my skin checked. I’ve the type is skin that makes white walls look yellow when I stand next to them, and scared of the diagnosis a doctor will give me…
Same goes with dentists! Loath ppl fiddling in my mouth – it’s not right!!!
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Oh don’t even get me started on dentists!
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Ditto with Dentists – never went for 20s years…now go annually…still hate going…
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i don;t mind going to the dentist- excpet for the bill.
My dentist charged me $80 to count the teeth of my 4 yo and turn a glove into a chicken for her. $80 for 15 minutes+ whatever extra he was getting from HCF. Highway bloody robbery. None of us have been back since.
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I have impacted wisdom teeth & they need to be removed. I feel the best way to solve this issue is to not go to dentists or look at x-rays. They can’t be removed in the chair. I react really strongly to anasthetics – hallucinations, delusions & aggression so I’m really NOT keen to go under to get them taken out.
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Had mine out last year…2 of them came out like champagne corks…the 4th one was MIA (never seemed to have existed)…the 3rd one, well…look over there…monkeys!!!
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Make sure you ask questions and push for answers when you get them out. Too many dental surgeons just tell you what’s “normal” without knowing a thing about you.
I had severly impacted wisdom teeth and had them out under anesthetic, was swollen from my eyes and down my neck and took codeine for 2 weeks because of the pain.. My GP even gave me oxycontin I was in so much pain!
All because I didn’t ask enough questions and push for answers before the surgery.
Learn from my mistake and make INFORMED decisions about your health (and teeth)
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Oh my goodness! That sounds terrible! I’m a nurse and so worried about infections, the surgery, etc. I’d expected to look like a chipmunk for a few days, but nothing like that. Eeek. Thanks for the warning!
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I should add that I do have some (one grandparent) history of severe swelling in the family, but in 23 VERY accident prone years I’d never had that kind of reaction.
If it makes you nervous take a look at acupuncture and Chinese medicine.
Being a nurse you might not like the idea, but I genuinely believe that finding balance is important. Not just for your body but also the balance between western and eastern medicines!
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Just get them out. I’ve had mine taken out, it isn’t always a drama. In fact, for my first one (I got one out and then 2 more out 4 years later) I left it too long (was a student, didn’t have any money), got a massive infection which went through into my jaw, the dentist had to get some of the bone out with the tooth it was soo bad.
But seriously, that in no way compared to the pain of the actual infection. THAT hurt. Quick quick, get those teeth out before they get infected, thats all I can say.
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Oh Rick, get yourself a cute and charming dentist like I managed to. I actually now LIKE going to the dentist. Lame but true. I’m swooning just thinking about him. But I’m not single. *sigh*.
But seriously, there are hot dentists out there, find one!
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I thought very smugly that as I’m 26 I won’t get my wisdom teeth….until my mum told me she got her wisdom teeth at 30 and had to have surgery to get them removed! *gulp*
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My grandma had to get hers out when she was 65!
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i might wear glasses, have a dodgy back, no hair anywhere (sadly), depression and anxiety, but my dentist announced to me one year that my wisdom teeth had grown in the past year. No probs whatsoever.
I’d rather have hair, though….
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I never went to the Drs in my 20s or 30s…but I never felt unwell and never got sick…still feel the same in my 40s, but I go for an annual check-up just because…not because I feel sick…
I think that’s the hardest thing about forcing yourself to go to the Drs…especially if you’re one of those people who never gets more than the occasional bad cough, like me…
I just go because I’m told people in their forties should get checkups…not because I want to go…
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I think it’s important to find a GP that you’re comfortable with and will go through all your questions without rushing. I hated going to the doctors because the clinic i used to go to was a super clinic and they never had the time to really go through things with you. I always felt rushed (and i understand that super clinics are really busy) but now i found a doctor who is really good and i feel really comfortable with.
My partner rarely goes to the doctors but then again he is rarely ill and being only 24, doesn’t really require anything other than the annual checkup.
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My hubby still hasn’t recovered (emotionally) from having a rectal exam 10 years ago. Meanwhile I have had treatment for cervical cancer, twice yearly smears for 5 years, IVF with the accompanying ‘investigative’ surgeries/examinations/tests, 2 pregnancies followed by 2 labours and 2 children. Now just back to the normal annual tests. If I complained about how emotional, uncomfortable and embarrassing these things were I wouldn’t have time to enjoy my hopefully long and happy life!
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Amen!!
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I love doctors. I have a great friend who started out as my GP (I’d still see her except, as Kylie said, sometimes you have to draw the line somewhere- my line is now my waist)…that doesn’t seem to stop me from having White Coat Syndrome! I get nervous every time I go to the doctor or dentist. Whatever. I might look like a loon, but at least I will know if my body is broken
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It’s a bit like doing the speed limit with a cop car behind you. Still there is the panic! But doctor, I’ve done nothing wrong! I think…
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My partner is exactly the same.
He hasn’t been to a doctor in the last 10 years (at least) despite my whingeing and attempted bribery! I almost got him to make a doctors appointment once – he had a small infection between his finger and fingernail. I told him that I had the same thing once and the doctor said if I didnt get it treated I could lose my finger (when in actual fact the Dr just gave me a script for penicillin and sent me on my way) however the day he finally decided he didnt want to risk losing his finger, the infection cleared up naturally! So bribery, whingeing and even scare tactics haven’t helped convince him that he should see the doctor at least once a decade!
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I have a chronic disease and my daughter was born very prematurely and so for the last 6 years we have become very familiar with drs and hospitals. We are on first name terms with our GP and the receptionists there.
I need blood tests every 6 weeks so got over my fear of needles pretty fast a while back
My husband on the other hand puts off everything rather than go to the dr. He is finding now in his 40′s things just start needing a bit more repair and maintenance then they did in his 20′s and 30′s but he is still fighting the visits to the drs tooth and nail.
He is however at least talking to me about the need for getting his prostate checked so Im thinking in a year or so he may actually get it done. Ive said how much worse than a pap smear can it be anyway
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These days it doesn’t even resemble a pap smear. It’s a blood test… No rubber glove action unless they find something in the blood test first. How freaking easy (and unfair) is that!
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Rick!! I am girl and feel exactly the same way!
I do, however, force myself to go to the doctor for regular check-ups and the like but I HATE it. Every single time I go in there I get super nervouse that something is terribly wrong with me. I am a nutcase lol.
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My mother had a “She’ll be right” attitude to her own health until about 18 months ago. She developed a visable lump on her breast and decided to bury her head in the sand as she had a fear/deep mistrust of doctors (for various reasons I won’t go into now).
She didn’t tell anyone about the lump until we noticed she was acting very strangely/not herself, and I confronted her. She broke down, told us about the lump and that she had been ‘self treating’ it. She was in complete denial that she needed medical help, but I convinced her to see my GP (who is a fantastic doctor, very ‘human’). The GP told us to go straight to a major Melbourne hospital, as it was most likely breast cancer. The hospital freaked out and told us it was too serious for them, so she ended up at a cancer specialist and within days they removed her entire breast and surrounding muscle and then had radiation and is on hormone therapy as well.
All seemed to be going well, but we found out last week that the cancer has now gone into 2 sets of lymph nodes, and we haven’t seen her specialist yet (we don’t even know yet if it is secondary cancer or a completely different one), but I’m thinking the outcome will probably be bad…
I can’t help but think ‘If only’. If only she’d gone for regular breast check-ups, and had an early detection of the breast lump. If only.
I know this is probably an extreme example, but please don’t hesitate to get things checked and have routine examinations regularly. You never know what the outcome could be if you don’t
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This was the comment I expected and rightly so …
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Moral of the story? Suck it up and go. You have time. If you think you don’t have the time, make the time, or you might be leaving something too late.
I’m sure you are perfectly healthy (BIG pat on the back for giving up smoking!), and there will be nothing wrong, but wouldn’t you rather find a great GP when you’re healthy so just in case something does go wrong in the future you know who you are talking to, you trust them, and you don’t put things off and let them worsen all because you don’t have a doctor?
I battle with my mum’s situation every single day (and it seems it is far from over) and I am so, soo mad at her (not to her face, but on the inside) for being so damn stupid and literally gambling with her life because she was ‘too scared’.
Please Rick, just go. You’ll regret it far more if you don’t.
(Sorry, I don’t mean to be bossy and dramatic, it’s just a very raw nerve in my life, and a cautionary tale of what COULD happen)
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its always worth getting anything you’re worried about checked out. A bit of time and money spent is always worth peace of mind. I hope your mother is ok.
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I saw a woman in emergency when I was in my final year of nursing training just like your mum, but she’d let it go longer and just got transferred to the Peter Mac (oncology/palliative care hospital in Melbourne) straight away. I’ve never forgotten it.
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I am happy enough to go to the doctor as necessary and organise the kids to do so as well.
My partner not so much. Has to be extreme for him to go and then I usually have to make the appointment for him.
For me it’s Dentists. Can’t stand dentists. Haven’t been for a very long time and don’t want to go. Will take the kids but not me…..
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My mother is my GP, and my sister is my consultant paediatrician. My kids have never, ever seen a doctor’s surgery- they think that the doctor comes to you, brings Smarties and stays for dinner. I cannot tell you how grateful I am to have two medics in my immediate family, always up for faxing through a script any hour of the day or night or taking that anxious post-midnight phone consult (or even getting me some sleeping tablets for that upcoming trip to Bali that involves an overnight flight in economy. Ahem.)
All that said, I do have a local GP I see every year for my pap smears. Mum offered to do them, but you have to draw the line somewhere.
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Lucky indeed! Part of my excuse is that I always say I don’t have the time … which is partly true.
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‘Don’t have time’ is just a convenient excuse. I’m pretty sure that, if you had an appointment on a work day, Mia would be totally fine with you arriving late or leaving early.
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Shhhhh!
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My Mum is a GP too and it’s just fantastic! I still go to the Dr’s for regular check ups and anything that Mum can’t figure out on the phone (she lives 4 hours away) – but otherwise I don’t know what I’d do if I had to visit the doctor every time I needed a new prescription for my asthma medication or birth control! I think if I ever have kids it’s going to infinitely more useful, but reading your story Kylie I think I’ll have to convince Mum to move closer so the Dr can bring smarties and stay for dinner!