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Doctors are the only people I’ve encountered who are ready to inform you of their poorly supported contradictory conclusions with full confidence, and are fully ready to meet any pushback with gaslighting or the dreaded “difficult patient” label.

They approach the phenomenon of dropping trust and respect for their profession in much the same way.

It’s really frustrating. I don’t get why they feel entitled to acting this way when no one else does.


After making you wait 40 minutes later than when your appointment was supposed to start, I’ve looked at your chart for about 2 minutes and have spoken to you 60 seconds I’ve confidently diagnosed you with X. Here’s a prescription, let’s see you back in 6 months.
My favorite is the "bless your heart" head tilt that strongly implies you're just too damn stupid to follow what they're saying, when it's obvious on its face that they're contradicting themselves.

"I was correctly diagnosed with it before." "Correct." "I do not have it now." "Correct." "It is not 'in remission.' I just do not have the disease." "Correect." "But it isn't curable." "Correct." "So if it wasn't 'cured,' what did happen to it?" {head tilt} "You tell me. Follow it through. You used to have it. You do not have it anymore. It's not in remission. But it also hasn't been cured. What does that leave?" "#$%^! I don't know! That's why I'm here, asking you! As far as I know, all it leaves is contradiction and impossibility!" "Now, now. There's no need to be difficult."

(This is almost word for word the last conversation I had with my GI. I'm not exaggerating. I'm not paraphrasing. I went through it exactly like this, and she responded to me exactly like this.)

My trick is to learn the terminology/jargon of the specialists by buying meds students used textbooks. It completely changes the conversation dynamics even if initially it appears to slightly confuse them.

Sometimes it angers them but then it's a clear signal that you must see someone else ASAP. When we grilled my wife first oncologist on his protocol, he broke down and said that he was not up to date on the latest research. We requested someone else, he was a much better fit and most importantly she is still alive, her metastasis disappeared and the latest scans and bloodworks results are still NED (no evidence of disease).

I actually tried this once and it quickly led to hostility. Thanks for your insight and I’m happy your wife is doing well, take care.
Same happened to me. It was a "How dare you try to speak my language?" type of response.

They were almost as offended as the people in Barcelona when I ignorantly tried to speak to them in Spanish.

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