Hopefully this is not too far off topic but I have noticed other medical related topics in this group so here goes. I’ve been using the same family doctor for a long time. Over the years we’ve addressed all sorts of medical issues. The problem I’m running into these days is I have little need to visit with him lately. He has farmed me out to so may specialists that it seems now the specialist can handle it. Got a cold call the COPD doctor he can handle colds. Lost your hearing go to the ENT. Need a an echo test go to the cardiologist. Need Mhos surgery go to the dermatologist and on and on and on. Is your elbow hurting again go the the Pain Management dude. How about that swollen ankle from cellulitis better go to the Infectious Decease guy.
So I’m seeing my PCP less and less and less yet I feel he needs to be in the loop. What kind of excuses do you use to go see yours? The heart guy always wants my latest blood tests from the family doctor. I guess that’s about the only thing left to see him about.
Oh, yea, before I forget. Have you tried to get in to see a doctor lately? Any doctor it doesn’t matter. You’re talking at least two (2) weeks lead time. By the time you get to see the dude you are either dead or you forgot why you needed him to begin with.
From a medical perspective, one should see ones PCP for all the problems that you mentioned other than the Mohs surgery which is actually an endpoint not a starting point for a skin lesion. If you ache go see the PCP. If you have a cold go see the PCP. If you have an infection anywhere go see the PCP. Hearing issues - yep PCP. Skin sore/lesion - see the PCP. The PCP screens all these problems and initiates screening tests like bloodwork and xrays, determines if it can be treated or requires a specialist.
Recently I needed to change a blood pressure medicine (that my cardiologist wrote) because of a side effect. I jumped online and scheduled an appointment the next week (actually that Monday) with my PCP. He has given me his number and told me to call anytime I have a problem, but I told him thanks that I don’t like to be treated any different than his other patients. I feel fortunate to have a doctor that has this kind of availability because so many of them are hard to get in to see as you have noted…doc
“What kind of excuses do you use to go see yours?”
My PCP is female, about 25 years younger than me, and very nice, and quite attractive, lol. I rather enjoy my annual checkup.
She’s a good doc, stays on top of what tests I need to get done, but other than that, knock on wood, I don’t have to see anybody else. I know that the day will come when that is no longer the case, but for now her, my dentist, and my eye doctor are the only ones I’ve had contact with.
No, the dermatologist is the person the PCP sends you too after you show him your skin lesion/sore. PCP’s usually just screen for the more complicated things and send you to the appropriate specialist like a dermatologist. The PCP does not do MOHS surgery usually that I know of. It’s probably exclusive to the dermatologist but the PCP can look at the skin lesion and say it’s nothing or you need to see the dermatologist…doc
That is the reason the PCP exists in the first place. To screen OUT the stuff not needing a specialist. AND making sure you are seeing the appropriate specialist based on what he/she can determine.
I am considering canceling a stress test. I have no chest pain when I exert myself. I have no heavy sweating. I have no shortness of breath. I have no plague in my chest or my leg arteries. My sleep doctor sent me to a cardiologist last year just a good recommendation for someone turning 60. The cardiologist looked at an archived video footage of my arteries and said no plague. He said no worries and there is no diagnosis. Then he invited me for a stress test. I said how about next year? He said sure because it is not important to do.
@ImAGolfer In my head even though they are specialists I think of them as PCPs who specialize in an area that is better care overall.
In the Desert, when you have worked outside for extended amounts of time, you should have your skin checked at least once a year. They always find pre cancerous growths on your skin and have to remove them. I get checked twice a year.
Not sure what you mean about liquid nitrogen etc. Primary care docs do very few procedures unless they are PCP internal medicine but many are family physicians.
Dermatologist would use scalpel, liquid nitrogen and lasers. I don’t know what a PCP would use any of those instruments for. They don’t hardly do any procedures…doc
True up to a point, but even an experienced dermatologist can’t always be sure when looking at the earliest lesion.
My SCC was one of 2 largish but ordinary looking freckles. Not obviously different from each other or a good many others, come to that. **Dermatologist apologised when performing the biopsies and admitted that they would probably both be procedures of exclusion (excuses for a billable procedure, dh reckoned…a frequent squawk of the salaried) Well, he got his comeuppance as he was the one who answered the phone when dermatologist called with the unfavorable news.
** I should add that my skin cancer screening visits began decades ago with self referral for that as I have a lot of moles also, rather than via a PCP. Freckles had gone all that time without remark.
Right. Diagnostics first, procedure if necessary. Can’t see a PCP setting themselves up to perform biopsies on Likely Suspects…and I’d want to know a really good explanation why a procedure was done (with scalpel or anything else) without a biopsy