I find it's a good sign that he jokes about it. I've encountered many doctors who were bitter and insecure about patients who researched their symptoms online, and reacted with a knee jerk, passive aggressive "you're a hypochondriac" prejudice that pervaded the diagnostic process.
It's definitely a good sign that he jokes about it, on the other hand, I would prefer a doctor that acts as a consultant, there to give proper advice.
When I go to the doctor, I have Googled the symptoms I'm experiencing before I go. Once I've been given a diagnosis by the doctor, I Google the diagnosis to verify that I have the symptoms one would expect from such a diagnosis.
Having had and heard too many experiences where Doctors got it wrong to huge detrimental effects, I want to double check what I've been told and not just blindly accept what one Doctor has judged in 30 seconds based on an initial perception of me without really knowing anything about me.
I think if I've correlated what I thought was a possibility along with what the Doctor has diagnosed and the expected symptoms of that diagnosis, at least I can be confident to a degree that I can trust the diagnosis, prognosis and the course of action provided.
If I am experiencing symptoms vastly different than I would expect from the diagnosis, I want to be asking questions as to how and why the doctor feels they are correct and I am incorrect. I realize I'm not a doctor, but in this day and age, for us all to have the world's information at our fingertips, to be blindly believing anyone whose advice could have catastrophic consequences on our health and lifespan is shortsighted at best and plane idiocy at worst.
That doesn't make someone a hypochondriac, that makes someone cautious about misdiagnosis. Unfortunately, there are many hypochondriacs out there.
I have the exact same views as you on this. I've also experienced many, many years of consistent medical malpractice, to deleterious, life-ruining effects, so I had no choice but to take my health into my own hands and make rigorous determinations as to whether the doctors I would see were right or wrong.
While most people may start off as hypochondriacs (who hasn't been spooked by the prospect of cancer after reading about it), the more research you do, the more accurate you become and in recent years I've finally managed to become effective at discerning good doctors vs bad ones.
I never tended towards hypochondria. I do however have trust issues given the malpractice that I've witnessed over the years. I thank my lucky stars that I've never been directly on the receiving end of it. I'm firmly of the belief that we should treat our medical professionals as consultants and advisors, but we should be fully cognizant of our own health requirements.
The machines are already doing everything they are safely capable of.
I can understand you being emotional about it, but you are overestimating the current value of machines in medicine by a huge margin. The medical system will have to change a lot before the clinical environment is machine-friendly enough. It will happen. But it is not doable as of today.
I've encountered many doctors who were bitter and insecure about patients who researched their symptoms online, and reacted with a knee jerk, passive aggressive "you're a hypochondriac" prejudice that pervaded the diagnostic process.
I am very happy that my doctor is the opposite of this. If I had a doctor like that, I'd ditch him/her and find somebody new.
