Ken,

Depends on the doc, but a male doc may listen better to a male patient, and
a female doc to a woman patient.  Janet's always gone to a woman when
possible; her OB/GYN agreed to be her primary care doc, but then she
retired, and so Janet's been seeing a guy for OB/GYN stuff, which she's not
as comfortable with.  She's pretty much settled on a woman who's double
boarded in internal medicine (IM) and physical medicine and rehabilitation
(PM&R) for primary care, but last time she needed to see Carrie, she ended
up seeing Carrie's husband who is an IM doc, as Carrie wasn't available.  He
was also very good.

The only woman docs I've seen have been very good.  Both were surgeons, who
don't tend to listen well, no matter what. Remember that my Dad was a
surgeon by profession, so if I'm slandering the profession, I have pretty
good personal credibility to do so. The male docs I've seen have also been
very good.  I think it helps that I "speak the language," as Janet often has
me go in with her to appointments with new docs, especially men, as I can
function as a "translator," not only for her non-standard speech, but also
for the "language."  I went to see a new doc yesterday for the pressure sore
on my ankle, and Janet said "try talking to him as a layman and see if his
reaction is different."  I did at first, and his reaction didn't seem to be
differrent, but I "slipped" into the jargon after a little while, and he
seemed more comfortable with it.

Janet and I have a really good relationship with the docs and the staff at
our neurologists office, so I go into appointments with her and vice-versa.
It's great, because I'll often forget to mention things, but she'll speak up
about them, and Josh (my neurologist) will say "tell me more about that."
It also helps a little I think that Josh (Dr. Knappenberger)  was pre-med
when my dad was overseeing the pre-med students at UW, and teaching anatomy
and physiology.  Wyoming is often described as a medium sized city with
_very_ long streets.  (500,000 people in 100,000 square miles)

Remember also the definition of a GP - a "doctor who knows less and less
about more and more, until he knows nothing about everything," vs. a
specialist, who "knows more and more about less and less, until he knows
everything about nothing."

On Oct 31, 2007 9:47 AM, ken barber <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> as you know from former post our first attempt to get
> a primary doc was a bust with them looking first at my
> meds and then refusing to have me.
>
> we have decided to try a internal med. doc as they are
> suppoedly better that a GP  for comlicated situations.
>
>
> now, since we can only just pick from a list, my
> question is would a female doc maybe be more likely to
> listen to me about my compications of CP than a male
> generally speaking?
>
> i hope my question is not confusing. if you anser,
> please give me your insights.
>
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-- 


Kendall

An unreasonable man (but my wife says that's redundant!)

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one
persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress
depends on the unreasonable man.

-George Bernard Shaw 1856-1950

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