Am I crazy? Am I wrong? Can I find Clarity?

Thriceshy

I would be okay with the prescription, though. You can always sell the pills for extra $$$... Certainly you shouldn't take them if you don't want to, nor should you consider the opinion of this doctor to be valid.

Do not sell the pills! One, you could go to prison for selling a script, and two, what if you sell the pills to someone who is then damaged by them?

Not looking to tangle, but please, please don't sell scripts. I'm sure you wouldn't, but it needs to be said.

Kris

Aliena

I'm in the UK and if my GP can find an excuse NOT to give me meds I need they will do. They dropped to dosage of my asthma medication to save money and I ended up ill. We have (for want of a better description) a tax based medical system. Your doctor seems to be throwing meds at you - which presumably you or your insuarnce company pay for. Do you think money may be something to do with this?

Regardless, she should not be prescribing meds of any sort so freely and she should have more regard for your feelings than her money!

Flush the pills and carry on with your healthy regime.

neurochamp

Just to add my two cents, since I didn't see any responses dealing with the fact that this was a college health service doctor (though, to be fair, I didn't read all of the posts thoroughly)...

I had a similar disappointing service with college health services. In grad school I developed severe chronic shoulder problems - I would wake up at night in so much pain that I couldn't sleep for days. During the day I was useless due to sleep loss, and I could barely move one arm or the other due to the pain (depending on which arm was currently acting up).

I saw FIVE DIFFERENT DOCTORS at student health services over the course of about a year. Not a single one of them believed me that this problem developed spontaneously. One even asked me several times if I had gotten drunk and fallen down, causing the injury to my shoulders (because apparently they had seen this problem before after alcoholic blackouts). At this point in my life I had never been drunk - or even buzzed - a single time EVER, so I explained that being drunk could not possible explain my shoulder problem. I don't think the doctor believed me.

Anyway, none of these five doctors really did anything for me. One took x-rays and told me there was nothing wrong. The best they would do is give me a prescription for naproxen or ibuprofen (which only got me stronger pills for cheaper than the OTC bottles of Aleve or Advil).

Eventually the sixth doctor did a thorough exam, and told me she was shocked that none of the others had told me that I needed to get into physical therapy ASAP (like, a year ago when the problem started) because IT WAS MY JOB AND STRESS (common in grad school - duh) that caused the problem in the first place, and I needed to learn exercises to stretch out my back before anything was going to get better. I went to PT for several weeks, and it helped, but it was expensive. My PT told me to consider continuing the exercises on my own and get regular deep tissue massages, which are cheaper than PT 2-3 times a week. I've been getting massages for a few years now, and I try to keep up with my exercises...my shoulders have only flared up 3 or 4 times in the past 3 or so years.


Bottom line: try a different doctor, one you trust that you can see regularly. Some of the doctors at college student health centers see A LOT of students for the same problems over and over again, and they're going to assume that your issues are exactly the same as the last 50 students they saw this week. It can be really tough to get personalized help, and you might end up with a few sucky experiences before you find a doctor that is the right fit for you. Don't take it too personally, you're obviously already on the right track if you've lost so many inches.

bentobee

I am sorry that the doctor wouldn't listen to your side -- to hear that you have been making good changes for your weight and health.

But I HAVE to confess, I'm very glad that the doctor DID bring up weight as an issue. Something that has bothered me a lot since I've started this journey is remembering all the doctors I've been to - four pregnancies with three different OB's, a couple general practitioners and a chiropractor... and none of them EVER brought up the cold hard fact that I was very overweight. Ever. I think that's insane and dangerous. Maybe I would have sobered up and stopped being in denial over my weight had a doctor propped it up as a problem.
So I have to say, while I sympathize with your emotional visit to the doc to have your knee looked at, I am overall relieved to know there are doctors out there not afraid to bring up weight issues to their patients.