# Physicians' assistant?

Category: Health and Wellness

## Post 1 by wonderwoman (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Wednesday, 02-Feb-2005 0:20:16

Hi all,
what is it with these physicians assistants doctors are trying to force on us? Mom tried to make an appointment with a doctor about her diverticulitis, and she was told he couldn't see her until March, then she told mom she could see his physicians assistant. Mom told her she didn't want to see a physicians assistant, she wanted a real doctor. A physicians assistant only has to study 2 years to a doctors' 8 years, and they can prescribe medicine. I had a cist on the right side of my face a few years ago, and a doctor removed it. The next morning after the doctor stiched the place where he he had removed the cist, my right eye was swollen, so mom took me to emergency. We were taken to a waiting room, and a receptionist told us Linda would be with us in a minute. Something felt fishy to me, I mean doctors are usually called doctor smith, jones, whatever, but not by their first name. When she came and looked at it, she said it wasn't uncommon for the area to become swollen after sergury. She seemed to be guessing, and not knowing particularly what she was talking about, so I asked if she was a doctor. She told us no, she was a physicians assistant. Mom told her we were paying good money, and she wanted a doctor. I think it made the assistant mad, but we were taken to a doctor. If I hadn't picked up on it, we would've never known or been the wiser. What's up with all these physicians assistants?
wonderwoman

## Post 2 by Goblin (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Wednesday, 02-Feb-2005 10:31:51

aw diddums...

## Post 3 by Freya (This site is so "educational") on Wednesday, 02-Feb-2005 11:02:23

well at least it wasn't the magician's assistant...

## Post 4 by wildebrew (We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?) on Wednesday, 02-Feb-2005 14:07:42

Hmm, depends. I think it's good that physicians have assistants if they get the right jobs.
I mean, the new doctors need training and they can't become good without learning on their own. Yes, this means they have to treat a patient, but that's how life is. I'm sure the doctors give them the easy jobs, the ones that seem straight forward, to start with, this is also good because the doctors can concentrate on the more difficult and important jobs, the assistants do follow ups etc. Two of my friends are in med school and this is the type of stuff they are assigned to and this is how they learn. They try their best to be good at this so often they might treat you with more care than a doctor.
That's how it is really, there are not enough doctors to treat every little thing .. if there were we'd pay such high insurances and so much money we could never afford health services at all.
The assistants do those jobs almost for free, keeping the costs down for us.
cheers
-B

## Post 5 by medical queen (This site is so "educational") on Wednesday, 02-Feb-2005 17:04:38

Oh I don't like when that happens. Often times, these physician assistants think they know every think when they really don't. I'm with you Wonder woman, I too would choose a doctor rather than an assistant. I know I had an ear infection and I had to go to the emergency room about 2 or 3 times. One time my ear was bleeding, and I went to the emergency room, sat in there for hours, the blood had already dried up in my ear but I still wanted to see someone to determine the cause of bleeding. So after hours of waiting, this one physician's assistant, resident, whatever he was, saw me and was like there's nothing wrong with my ear. So I asked him what's the cause of bleeding and he couldn't tell me but told me that the bleeding has stopped. So I told him that if he doesn't get me a doctor, I wasn't leaving the hospital. So finally a female doctor came in and took a close look at my ear and said... You have a bad infection! I said, uh huh, I knew what I was talking about! That stupid jerk said there was nothing wrong! So finally they decided to put me on a med and sent me on my way. Another infection I had was this past summer on the same ear. I kept having sharp needle-like pains that would come and go. So I went to the emergency room and like the first time, had to wait for almost 6 hours to be seen. To make a long story short, this resident comes in and looks at me, said there was nothing wrong. I said it's impossible to not find anything wrong, there has to be something wrong. So he blamed it on my mouth, claiming it was my teeth that were bad instead of my ear, but I refused to accept that. So I got another doctor in to look, it turned out that I did indeed have another infection. So they put me on these drops, I had to take for weeks at a time but the infection finally decided to clear up.

## Post 6 by medical queen (This site is so "educational") on Wednesday, 02-Feb-2005 17:07:39

Yeah that was odd with them calling your doctor by her name. I mean I know my doctor's first name but I would never ever call her by her name. Some doctors just don't like that.

## Post 7 by wonderwoman (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Wednesday, 02-Feb-2005 21:07:52

Hi Michelle,
Yeah often doctors disagree too on what's wrong with a person, and that can be bad, because you don't know which one to believe and trust in. Actually, it was the physicians' assistant they called by her first name, not the doctor. No, when a person becomes a doctor, they want that word doctor in front of their name as often as possible.
wonderwoman

## Post 8 by shea (number one pulse checking chicky) on Wednesday, 02-Feb-2005 22:21:20

yeah, but the question we want to know, is when you saw the regular dr. did they have the same diagnosis as the assistant? When I first went blind and had a bllod clot and was in the hospital for three months. I saw many assistants. They were actually a lot more help than the regular dr. As wildabrew said, they have the time to explain everything to you. They take the time to actually check out the situation, instead of like many dr's do, just compare your situation to other cases. many of the assistants said they wanted to look into it before they told me what was going on. If a dr. didn't explain something to me the way I would understand it, that is! lol! they would sit with me and explain it in plain English! I found they wer more to do the tests than dr's owuld say it's nothing and later find it was! Smile-angel

## Post 9 by wonderwoman (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Wednesday, 02-Feb-2005 23:04:59

Hi Angel, well to be honest, the doctor said to her it looked like I had punched myself in the eye while I slept. That has never happened before, and it's never happened since. We told her I never punched myself in the eyes while I slept. when I wake up, I've never even foundmy hands anywhere near my eyes. We explained to her that it hadn't ever swelled up like that before surgery, and she said, well that's what it looks like to me. The swelling in my eye went down in a few days, and even the doctor who removed the cist and stitched me up said he may have hit a nerve. The way my mom over reacted, you would've thought I was at deaths' door. I wasn't really all that worried about it, I wasn't in any pain. I would just be afraid to let a physicians' assistantprescribe medicine for me. I mean if they can prescribe medicine, sounds like they can do almost everything a regular doctor would do, except perform surgery, and I'd be afraid they'd give me the wrong prescription.
wonderwoman

## Post 10 by shea (number one pulse checking chicky) on Wednesday, 02-Feb-2005 23:48:39

hey ww, as i can see where you would be a little nervous. You can get the same thing from a dr. that has been practice for thirty years. I told you I had a blood clot on my brain. Well it cut off the oxygen to my optic nerve. I had perfect vision before this. I went to three different doctors and they all went on what the first doctor said I had a pinched nerve in my kneck. well two days later when i was already completely blind, they decided to do something about it. This is even after going to the emergency three times as my vision was getting more and more blurry. This among many other symptoms. Anyway, my point is yu can get this with any dr. weather they be learning or what they think a pro. Maybe if we give theese new ones a chance they will help improve the medical field. This coming from someone that was a certified nurses assistant, and worked around many doctors and assistants. smile-angel

## Post 11 by Caitlin (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Thursday, 03-Feb-2005 0:52:17

Hmmm I've never heard of these assistant people. Sounds kind of weird though. Only two years and they could perscribe antibiotics? Isn't that kinda dangerous or something? What if they made a mistake? Caitlin

## Post 12 by Goblin (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Thursday, 03-Feb-2005 14:12:53

I would rather have a knowledgable assistant see to me if something went really wrong, than a trainee Doctor.These people are as highly trained, as the Doctors, who are shadowing them and WW..because you have had 1 negative experience, its completely wrong and unfair of you to tar every PA. with the same brush.

## Post 13 by wildebrew (We promised the world we'd tame it, what were we hoping for?) on Thursday, 03-Feb-2005 14:37:09

I believe these assistants (and I might be wrong here) are medical students on their 5th year in med school, when they start taking actual hospital shifts for about $30000 a year and consult with doctors and learn from them. So they've ha 4 years of med school if I am correct, two friends and my sister's ex husband were in this program and I'm pretty sure we're talking the same thing.

## Post 14 by wonderwoman (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Thursday, 03-Feb-2005 23:11:55

well Goblin old chap, if I'm ever forced to deal with a physicians assistant again, and he/she ends up killing me, before I go to my reward, I will come back and haunt the boards long enough to let everyone know what happened to me, lol.
wonderwoman

## Post 15 by Goblin (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Friday, 04-Feb-2005 9:26:31

Am I now talking to LL your hardly in his league dear ...and no doubt you will regail us with the whole sorry tale, however we will have you exorcised the minute you log on.

## Post 16 by Goblin (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Friday, 04-Feb-2005 9:28:45

Am I now talking to LL your hardly in his league dear ...and no doubt you will regail us with the whole sorry tale, however we will have you exorcised the minute you log on.

## Post 17 by wonderwoman (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Friday, 04-Feb-2005 19:16:04

well you aren't in l l's league either, lol. I'm not in anybody's league but my own.
wonderwoman

## Post 18 by Goblin (I have proven to myself and the world that I need mental help) on Saturday, 05-Feb-2005 9:11:14

arent we incredibly arrogant if only your confidence was as high as you would like us to believe.

## Post 19 by Caitlin (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Saturday, 05-Feb-2005 13:48:11

Hi WW, Lol that was so funy when ya called Goblin old chap...I was like wit is this LL? Ahahah lol!...

## Post 20 by wonderwoman (I've now got the silver prolific poster award! wahoo!) on Saturday, 05-Feb-2005 20:00:36

Well Caitlin, lol, I guess if you hear an expression long enough, you just pick it upautomatically, it's like we aquire a bit of that person. Although cool is typically a younger persons expression, and I don't remember using it when I was younger, since I've been on the net, and have met more younger people, I've found myself using it sometimes. I don't mind beingcompared to ll, although he will never be in my corner, he does have his own style. I've just heard old chap and old boy so much, that I just find myself using them without thinking about it, lol.
wonderwoman