AIBU to think people should NOT offer their half-baked medical theories?

[cingolimama]

DD was in hospital for a several days with complications from a common stomach virus. She's fine now, at home, resting, eating and drinking. But as this has happened before, DD's being refered for diagnostic tests at GOSH, to see if there might be an underlying problem.

However, rather than people just contacting me and wishing us well I've had a torrent of amateur diagnosies from friends. "Crohns disease", "food intolerance", "a structural problem", "an allergy", or "pre-bowel cancer" "vitamin deficiency". Is this supposed to be supportive? Am I supposed to go and tell a highly qualified medical professional to be sure and check for something because some fool read about it on the internet? Am I supposed to be reassured by this nonsense? I've just been saying, as gently as I can muster in my sleep-deprived state please fuck off this isn't helpful. WTAF?

I have not praticed for 8 years so I really do not know very much about revalidation. Just that every 5 years you have to be fully assessed, but no idea what that entails. GPs have to sit it too and you are correct there are a small minority who do not seem to know very much. When my sister was a med student she had to do a student post at a GP surgery with this doctor who measured every patient's legs and then told them their symptoms related to the fact one leg was longer than the other. Even headaches, psych problems, the lot, he measured their legs. He even had a big chart above his desk of an anatomical diagram of a man with one leg longer than the other that he pointed at when explaining to the patients that their issues were caused by leg length. At first I thought my sister was trying to wind me up but she swore she was telling the truth.

Ral, she was pulling your leg

I understand that in theory all doctors are supposed to keep up with current medical practice. But the reality of doing that in this day and age is really impossible. I spend on average 2-4 hours a day researching the new scientific and medical advances in the field of mitochondrial disease. No one could manage a job AND do this for all the new diseases and advances out there. Most of the medical professionals I come across are old enough that they didn't actually know anything about mitochondrial dna and it's function when they were in medical school. I think a really great doctor (like my ds' pediatrician, neurologist and geneticist) recognizes that they can't keep up with everything and know how to discern that their patients are informed and might be coming in with useful information. When I figured out what my ds probably had (after a lot of Google searching) I went to his pediatrician and neurologist who both listened and followed up on the research I forwarded to them and added their expert opinions and then helped me get the tests we needed and ultimately the referral to the specialist and the diagnosis and most importantly a successful treatment. Instead of condemning my ds' doctors for not figuring this out themselves, I view them as excellent doctors for recognizing that they can't be omniscient, but can keep an open mind about new advances and listen to those around them (and hopefully differentiate between the intelligent suggestions and the garlic in your ear to cure earache suggestions).

ralt I have met that doctor!!!!