Do you sometimes think doctors are talking out of their textbooks?   

I see you sensed my frustration! Oh yes, it just really ticks me off. Yah, I have though of visiting a naturopath. Someone said it's not covered by insurance, so I don't if we can afford to, but I seriously don't want to go to any more textbook doctors who are going to tell me the same thing again. Grrrrr.

Are you serious? Yah, why should you pay someone to diagnose you out of book when you could very well do that yourself, right? Heck, we might as well buy our own medical book and be our own doctors. And these lame remedies, grrr . . . I'm sorry the pills she prescribed did not help. My doctors prescribe BAD stuff for my daughter . . . I read left and right from people who have her condition that in the long run it's BAD stuff.

Yeah I was wondering why I was paying her to read a book. I'm sorry your daughter got bad stuff. She stopped taking it right? How is her condition now?

Thank you for asking! Well, we used the lower dosage cream - and it worked VERY well - but only temporarily. The eczema returned. A later visit, the doctor gave us a higher dosage cream - again, it worked VERY well - but only temporarily AGAIN - and the eczema returned worse than we started. This stuff is steroidal and thins your skin if you use it long term. Bad, bad, bad. An everywhere I look online, people say to stay away from the steroidal stuff - it's a quick fix and I've read the horror stories of people who did use it long term. Well, it seems instead of looking at external fixes, now we're looking into internal fixes (like diet, stress relief, etc) . . . it's just hard - and there is no cure for this. Anyway, I think I have learned a lot more from my own research than going to the doctors and asking for their textbook advice!

Ah yes I know about steroidal cream and how bad it can be because yes it does thin the skin. Haha look you know more about the condition now than your doctor! Well I hope you find something that works. Have you tried lotions to treat her symptoms? I know there's a few over the counter ones that claim to calm eczema. Oatmeal scrubs and stuff. I've personally never had it so I don't know how well they work. But it's better than that steroidal cream. Good luck :)

Oh gosh, we've tried ALL that stuff. Oatmeal bath helps sometimes and there are a lot of creams and lotions specially for eczema - but many work for a while and then maybe the body builds a tolerance and we have to try something else. I found a forum for it with everyone making suggestions as to what they use . . . so I'll have to keep trying there. Forget the doctors . . . all they know is what's in their books (no help!).

Oh good at least then you're getting help from people who have experienced it and they know more of what they're talking about. Doctors only know what they've been taught but they rarely experience all the illnesses they talk about. Experience is a far better teacher.

Yes, I find that the better doctors are the ones who have gone through these issues or they knew someone personally who had gone through it . . . but how many doctors have?! If they don't know how these illnesses are "personally", they really don't know how certain people suffer . . . we can be just another number on their patient list.

Indeed. I just had this problem again last night. I went to the hospital for an infection that I've been dealing with on and off for the past 6 months. I knew more about my condition than the doctor did. He wasn't super helpful and I waited 2 hours for them to give me the medication I had already recommended for myself. So I pretty much paid a ton of money for a piece of paper with a prescription on it.

Oh no! Are you ok? Was it the lip thing again? Sorry to hear the doctor wasn't too helpful . . . but I guess it was no surprise, eh? Hope you get better soon and that maybe you can find another doctor (or helpful source) to get rid of your infection once and for all.

Yes I'm ok now, thank you. No it's my bladder and kidneys. I've been getting infections regularly lately and I keep trying to tell each doctor I see that this is happening WAY too often and that someone needs to come up with something better to fix me. But eh they don't listen too often. I think I'm going to look for a specialist next time. If it's the only thing they doctor in, maybe they will know more? One can hope.

Is it the UTI thing? I hear a lot of bladder/kidney things can be helped with diet (though I'm no doctor). I've had some bladder infections a while ago, but haven't in recent years - when it feels like it's going to happen, I fix it early with "diet". Hope you find a more suitable doctor and soon!!

I've had an UTI 3 times in the past 3 months. They're worried it's something worse like kidney stones or cysts because the infections aren't going away with regular antibiotics. So now I have to have some tests done. I tried clearing up the uti with natural means (diet, cranberry juice, water) but the pain got sooo bad I had to go to the emergency room :( Now they're pretty sure something else is wrong but no one knows for sure what that is. Not helpful!

How about yogurt? Plain yogurt - not the flavored sugary stuff. Apparently there's good bacteria in it to help with it . . . and I eat a lot of that when I know it's coming. I heard cranberry juice can help, but on the flip side they say juice has a lot of sugar (even if it's natural, sugar is sugar), and that's something you want to avoid with an UTI. I think I read tomatoes and strawberries were also not good (acidic foods) as well as dairy. I am no doctor - but that's what I've read. I hope they find out what's wrong and can treat you soon! Sorry to hear you've been in pain!!

Yes I've tried it all. I've researched it online many times and tried it all because I hear you don't want to use antibiotics often as you build up a tolerance and get infections easier. I'm sort of at the mercy of the doctors now :/

Well, I certainly hope a remedy is found for you. Yes, you are right about antibiotics. I'll keep my fingers crossed that you get better soon!

Thank you hun. And I'll continue to keep mine crossed for your daughter :)

I don't understand all these prescription medicines. You notice on those commercials they have all these crazy side effects and even in the ads they say that you should talk to you doctor about them. That's insane that the doctor did not talk to you about it first. And it's ridiculous he dropped you as a patient! Now that I think about it, I think doctors that have prescribed me medicines didn't discuss side affects either - they just hand it to you. Sorry to hear about your mother. Yes, I think doctors and the western medicine world don't know everything . . . they're just winging it some of the times - playing God like you said.

I understand that doctor's can't always give the correct solution - but they should at least be open to other solutions that are not in their medical books to FIND a solution for the patient. For instance, my daughter's doctor insists that diet and food has nothing to do with her condition, but I am reading that it may possibly have a lot to do with diet. And online, I have found a great deal of people who say that diet indeed affects their condition . . . so how can this doctor be correct? There has been many advancements in technology, but they haven't found the answers to everything yet . . . so we can't trust it all just yet.

I think I used to believe in doctors when I was a kid, but as I got older and went to the doctors on my own, I have gotten "wiser". I think doctors are knowledgeable, but that doesn't mean they know everything. I, and I'm sure you have too, have heard horror stories about being diagnosed incorrectly - so it's just so hard to ever trust these doctors.

Yes, I know what you mean. I remember once my husband had major pain in his chest - and we spent more than a day in the hospital as they gave him a bunch of tests . . . and NONE of them were conclusive. In fact, at one point we were waiting and waiting and waiting - and after all that my husband's chest pains went away. Then one doctor looked at him - a doctor we hadn't seen in the emergency room that day yet - and he gave him a diagnosis which took 2 seconds after looking at him (this was the only doctor that made sense to us - why couldn't we have had him in the beginning!). Oh, doctors make me so mad sometimes.

I think many doctors can give the correct diagnosis, but the best remedy is not given to the patients. The "best" remedy seems to be medication - left and right - final answer. Or unnecessary surgery. A second or even third opinion is always a good idea, but it's soooo frustrating with their ideas are the same.