Thanks, Alice.

I know doctors aren't perfect but it's the intent of those particular doctors of mine that was so reprehensible.

I saw my primary doctor yesterday. On the "drug and drug interaction" list that they print out and give to patients these days, it listed "not documented" under my medication reactions. It made me feel like they didn't believe me. They are covering their behinds in every aspect of doctoring these days, which I find truly sad. No more trust, no more faith. You have to document every little hiccup for them or they don't believe you. Which is one more reason to keep your medical records at home.

Because it has been "mandated" by our government, they are now also asking patients to sign a form that says it is okay for them to gather ALL of your medical records. And I mean ALL of them. I personally find a national database of my medical records to be against my civil rights. I did not okay them to get all my records.

I had a neuro say in 2005 that he thought I wanted to have MG in order to get social security. Character assassination of a patient isn't one of my favorite doctor traits. If I had wanted social security, I would've stopped doctoring in 2002 when it was granted to me - retroactively to 1998. But now that "opinion" of this one doctor who doesn't have a clue about my character has been "published" all over the place; as if it were a fact or true. Doctors don't often oppose the opinion of other doctors. So if there is that kind of statement in your records, all doctors in the country can read it and may think the worst of you.

Doctors often get away with those kind of statements about patients because they say they are "opinions," which do not meet the standard for libel or slander (defamation). However, since no one dares to challenge a doctor, they are considered a FACT and, in my opinion, are libelous.

You're right of course, Alice, there are a lot of reasons for keeping medical records. Like those x-rays. They recycle them because they contain silver and are expensive. I have gotten and kept those too. And biopsy slides are useful. There are so many reasons for getting your records.

I am very sad about this trend in medicine which makes patients "the enemy," as if doctors need protecting from us. I'm sad that so many mistreat patients. I'm sad that some cannot seem to do their job well. All that means is that we patients need to be even more proactive about our health. That's harder to do when you don't feel well. It really shouldn't take so much work on our parts to get good medical care but it's a reality these days.

And nurses, assistants and transcriptionists can make some amazing typos and mistakes in records too. I'm dumbfounded at the amount of mistakes I've found, even on the same page. Like incorrectly saying I had bacteremia in the right arm and then saying correctly a paragraph later that it was the left.

I'll say again, there are lots of really good doctors out there. But they aren't the ones you need to be wary of - most of the time.

Annie