@John Brunner - just please find another doctor , and do not let this other doctor get away with his lousy diagnose. i ditched my dermatologist last year, lousy bedside manner, and shows no real interest unless you want a facelift maybe. The new one is more personable and even told me what hubby could do a foot issue, and he was not even there. Keep us posted on your progress,
So I called the guy this morning and got a call back. He is referring me to a mohs surgeon. I called a few other places but cannot get in to see them soon enough, even throwing this diagnosis out on the table to speed things up. You know, I like the guy. He is easy to talk to and does not come across as incompetent or arrogant. I'm so disappointed. Maybe I should at least talk to him about it. I'm due for an annual general screening. I guess this is a benign thing to use to start vetting a replacement. I wonder how many screenings Medicare will pay for in a year? Can I go doctor shopping on the taxpayer's dime?
They will pay for a second opinion for certain... and maybe a third. https://www.medicare.gov/Pubs/pdf/02173-Getting-a-Second-Opinion-Before-Surgery.pdf What if the first and second opinions are different? You may want to: •Talk more about your condition with your first doctor. •Talk to a third doctor. Medicare helps pay for a third opinion if the first and second opinions are different.
As far as I know, Medicare only covers an annual health check, but you should be able to change doctors and still keep your plan, as long as the new doctor takes you insurance coverage. Last year, the doctor where we had been going for several years said that they were not going to take Humana the next year, so we found another doctor that was closer to where we lived, and changed over. After seeing him, both Bobby and I decided that he was not who we wanted for a doctor. All he seemed to be interested in was making sure that we took our blood pressure several times a day and brought in the record showing that we did. Since it was the summer of 2020, I had a terrible time finding a doctor that was seeing patients and also accepting new patients, but I finally did. Both Bobby and I changed to the new doctor and probably would have kept that doctor, but he said that next year, he is not going to take Humana insurance. Fortunately, we have a huge clinic here in Huntsville that is taking new patients and also takes most medicare insurances, including our Humana. So, technically, I have had 3-4 doctors in the last year’s time.
It's funny you should mention "face lift." I did some online searching for a new practice and found that a few of these places lean more to the cosmetics stuff than they do the skin health aspect of the field. One of them has a spa ("specializing in rejuvenation services and customized care for over twenty years.") Face/body/hands/hair, and Cooltone Body Sculpting (muscle tightening, toning, and more definition.) I would never have associated this stuff with dermatologists.
I won't rant again about my recent travails with doctors. It stinks going from a 25 year relationship with one I trusted implicitly to the garbage I've been mired in the past 5-6 years. What's really disappointing is I thought I would have excellent care available through the University of Virginia (UVA) Health System in nearby Charlottesville, and it's not turned out that way at all. My long-term GP would have picked up on this growth I've got. When he would do my annual physical, he would tell me the specific type of moles I had on my back, calling them out one-by-one, assuring me that they were not an issue. I hooked up with this current dermatologist because when my current GP did a physical and saw the moles on my back, he referred me to this dermatologist to make sure they were benign. I was gonna comment on how frustrating it must be for you to have seen that many doctors in so short a time, but it seems that care is so compartmentalized these days (and my current GP is primarily a referral machine) that long-term experience with a patent's health is almost not even a consideration. I guess I'll embark on yet another journey. I went through 3 urologists at the UVA system, then a urologist in his own practice, and settled on Urologist #5 near the state capital 45 miles away rather than the ones who are 20 miles away. Maybe I should expand my dermatologist search out that way. It's not like I'll be going there every week...or even every month.
If you can find any friends who are healthcare workers or know any nurses, etc., you may be able to get a heads-up as to what providers have the best outcomes. Some of the doctors I have known who were the biggest quacks had the most loyal following and some of the best physicians I have ever dealt with had terrible bedside manner. I knew one doctor who we had to report for endangering his patients', but he was defended by one of the most competent and long serving docs in the community. Eventually, the dangerous doctor DID lose his right to practice medicine, but it took several years and a lot of hassle.
That's ALWAYS great advice. When I had a herniated disc in my neck, a nurse I knew recommended an orthopedist who got me in an FDA pilot program. I was one of the first people to have a cage installed to fuse cervical vertebrae (NOVUS CT-Ti). A friend's daughter is a nurse at UVA. She works in the orthopedics department. Maybe I'll get my friend to ask her daughter. I guess we've all seen how someone gets an undeserved good reputation in many walks of life, and the reputation attracts even more undeserved loyal followers, many of whom should know better. It's frightening (and dangerous) when such poor performance happens in the medical profession and goes uremediated. But doctors are still in school incurring debt while their peers are in the job market generating income...it's a double-hit. And their education has little else that can be done with it to earn an income commensurate with that sacrifice. For that reason, I fall on the side of giving doctors the benefit of the doubt and extra support in maintaining proficiency. That being said, most industries that are self-protective, but there are few that are as insular as medicine. Perhaps I'm part of the problem. There are few times I'm inclined to report someone who I think does a poor job..it feels "dirty" and I don't know exactly what the response will be. I'm most inclined to do it if I am on speaking terms with the owner and know it will be taken in the context of improving the business and not some personal attack.
Just as a side bar, since this sack that stretches (or hangs) over our muscles and bones is the body’s largest organ and our primary source for disease protection, that it would be a of premier importance to any medical practitioner. Warts, moles, skin tags, discoloration or lack of color and not just melanomas all mean something is amiss and in my way of thinking, should be the red flags for those “practicing” medicine that they need to look at things much harder.
Sometimes it seems like the ketchup guys are vegetarians or even Kosher. They won’t touch any unclean thing.
So I go in to the UVA hospital center on Feb 3 to have this thing removed. I'm not going to an operating room. Dunno why this stuff is not done remotely in a dermatologist's office.
Yup. I don't understand it. When my doctor called I asked why this wasn't just done in the office. He replied: "It is. It's done in the surgeon's office." He probably thought I meant versus an operating room. Perhaps this is UVA protocol for mohs surgery, since the procedure might last a while as the skin is continuously taken to a lab for analysis throughout the procedure. If it means that the person who does this is a specialist with lots of experience, I'm fine with it.