It’s the “god” cult that doctors fall into… which in a way was understandable because in the 18 and 19 hundreds they pretty much developed the power of life and death. But they forget it’s “our” body, not theirs. ( Some of that is an attempt at objectivity, which is why they will believe a test result over what a patient tells them. Of course, the whole point of medicine I thought was to make us patients feel better. )

Nowadays though most of the problems that patients face are either strange things the doctors haven’t seen, or “lifestyle” issues. In both cases the doctors can’t do anything unless the patient is on board. Now some patients like to be told what to do … but folks like you and me, well we look at doctors as expert advisors. They interpret the data and the jargon, keep abreast of the latest developments and give us their expert opinion… but the decision is ours. Lots of doctors don’t like taking orders from people with no medical education…even if that person is the patient.

BTW: Technically you own your medical records so they can’t keep them from you. They put up one hell of a fight about it, but if you really want them, they have to turn over the files.

( And I’m sick as a dog with a chest cold / flu… something going around. )