I hate doctors

I have ever since I was young and they 'experimented' with me to see how they could best treat my hypoglycemia.

"Try this diet"
"That made it worse? Ok, try this one and add these supplements"

"Eat complex carbohydrates"
"Ohh, sorry you ended up in the hospital, try and avoid complex carbohydrates"

I felt like I was a ping pong ball that they had fun hitting around and measuring my blood sugar results.

So for years, I avoided doctors even when I've been sick I'll only go if I think I need an antibiotic. I try to lead a medicine free life so when I do need a medicine it works. Too many people these days take Advil every day and then complain when it stops killing their headaches. Doctors only build on this with their prescriptions and their increasing attitude of "take these pills you'll feel better, I know what I'm talking about" which annoys me to the core.

Six months ago I went to see an orthopedic doctor for problems with my knees. I was an athlete years ago until two major knee injuries stopped that. Now as I’ve gotten older my knees hurt every day in various degrees of severe pain. The last five years it has gotten progressively worse so finally my wife convinced me to go get it looked at.

The doctor had plenty of theories, did some manual tests, and had lots of ideas for how I could ‘help’ my problems. He ordered an MRI to see inside my knee and had hope that I would not live with this pain the rest of my life. The MRI came back and the same highly enthusiastic Doctor said, “Nothing looks overtly wrong or displaced, it is probably
Chondromalacia patellae.” He sounded disappointed. Chondromalacia patellae is where the cartilage directly behind the kneecap is damaged. It is also known as retropetellar arthritis.

This seemed accurate as the symptoms of pain behind the kneecap and difficulty with stairs and sitting for long periods of time fit me exactly. So I asked “What do we do about it.” To which he replied, “Not much we can do.” He told me to wear knee sleeves, those fabric meshes with the hole over the kneecap. Some help he was… I’d been wearing those things for years when I first got hurt and they did nothing then either. Doing web searches I got more ideas then this…

Now I have to go see a doctor soon for medical reasons relating to blood sugar and I'm not looking forward to it at all. I understand the necessity and I should not prejudge, but....Experience is the best teacher