I’m not trying to make you paranoid, but when you go to the doctor, are you being stereotyped? Categorized as an “older person” with all the concomitant assumptions about your health? I read this article by Dr. Mark Lachs, and he says it better than I can. We’re not all alike, as people or as patients, and this doesn’t become LESS true as we age.
When I was 40, I was misdiagnosed with “Irritable Bowel Syndrome” – a common ailment in my demographic – and told to eat more fiber, drink more water, and exercise more (I was already doing all that.) I suffered for about 18 months. Finally I ended up in the ER and they removed 9 inches of my intestine, which had been closing off due to scar tissue from an earlier surgery.
No wonder it was irritated.
Not wanting to get political and all that, but I fear this situation is only going to get worse. My mom received a note from one of her doctors advising his patients they’d be cutting back services to Medicare recipients until they knew what kind of medical climate they’d be facing in the coming months. Scary thought. I do agree they tend to pigeonhole patients based on age, etc. when they should be looking at lifestyle choices as well.
I try not to go to the doctor very often. I do go to my OBgyn once a year for my test and feel out of place because all the literature is for young parents. I have once been badly treated because of my French accent. During the Iraq war I went to a doctor to get a shot in my injured knee. When he found out I was French he started in a long political discussion against the French and placed the short in the wrong place. I had to go to another doctor and when he asked about my accent I told him I was Swiss!