Poll - are you honest with your doctor?

I believe everyone SHOULD be honest with their doctors.  Funny story... last night hubby took me out to Longhorn for a Last dinner.  (No liquid diet by my surgeon) My Primary Care doc comes in right behind me.  It kind of made me nervous.  But I have been working hard at losing weight pre-op and even though it was a last meal out I was still determined to eat healthy.  Has a 6 oz. sirloin, asapagus w/ very little lemon butter and a salad. One slice of the wheat bread. NO desert and only water to drink after the meal.  I was more than satisfied and happy that I stayed on track. Hubby had a huge meal of shrimp, steak, and chicken so as we were leaving we stopped at their table to say hello and goofy him says we were here for our last big meal out for while since surgery is Weds.  I knew what he meant by "big meal" but I felt compelled to tell my doc that I stayed on track!  and that he had the big meal! LOL...
I agree with you also regarding our docs and us should have a partnership.  But I also take it one step further... I feel I need to be my best advocate regarding my healthcare.  I don't want someone to just tell me I am ok or my test are all normal... I want to see the numbers and know exactly what those mean to me personally. 

Yes I am honest with my doctor. He helped me regain my life back that my weight was taking over so of course I am honest with him.

If I'm not honest with my doctor I'm only hurting myself. So what fear? Isn't it my responsibility to be accountable for my own health and well-being? Why do the surgery in the first place if I'm going to sabotage? Sure it's hard- so what? A doctor can only go by what you tell him or her in addition to labs and scale results- why not ask for and work the coaching and the partnership? I don't have to like it or even agree with it. But self-sabotage- isn't that what I was actively doing before? Why not try a different, perhaps more workable relationship now? Perhaps it's not fear of judgement- it's fear of being held accountable.

Maybe it is a fear of being held accountable.  Maybe that's why I do not normally have trouble being honest with my doctors - I believe I am accountable for what I choose to do with regard to my health.  I don't say, or think, things like "my doctor insists that I do whatever" or "my doctor doesn't allow something" or "I have to follow my doctor's orders."  For me, it's more like "my doctor recommends" or "my doctor advises" or "my doctor suggests."

Yes I am honest with my doctors.  It is not always the most comfortable of times depending on what you have to tell them but I feel it is important. 

It's a partnership.  I don't see how it could be any other way.  He/She can't do it on their own.  They need you to work with them.  If they think they don't it's probably time to get another doctor. 

Oh, I just thought of another time I was not honest with my doctor, a more recent time.  Let's see, how can I say this without giving way too much info about personal stuff?

This was probably five or six years ago.  I was having trouble with high blood pressure, probably a side effect of a medication I was on for depression.  I did not have a PCP at that time.  My psychiatrist recommended a PCP that he knew that would take Medicaid, which was my insurance at the time.  I didn't see her that many times, and I never felt real comfortable with her.  One problem was a language barrier - her English was very hard to understand and I wasn't always sure she understood me.

Well, she was listening to my back and then my chest with a stethoscope, and I had a bruise in a, um, private place.  It would be a kind of weird place to get a bruise accidentally.  The bruise was a result of some, uh, consensual activity.  She commented on it and I was afraid she would think I was in an abusive relationship or something so I acted like I didn't know what caused the bruise.  She let me shrug it off, which probably isn't so good because what about women that are in abusive relationships?  But anyway, I wasn't honest about that.

On that note, my OB once tried to refer me to their social worker because I had bruises all up and down my ribcage and arm from falling down the stairs when I was five months pregnant. Apparently 'falling down the stairs' is synonymous with domestic violence in their business.

Well, this is sad, but I bet they see more victims of domestic violence in their practice than people that fell down the stairs.  About one in four women is assaulted at some point in her life by an intimate partner.  I don't have any stats on how many women fall down the stairs but I bet it's less than one in four.

Hope it was fun! Tee hee!!!

As I am one of the people to whom this is aimed, I will give you my opinion.

I worked in the medical field as a midwife, with my own practice,  for several years.   I have seen more doctors mess up than you would ever want to know about (and cover their asses) so I have always taken it upon myself to be responsible for my own health and well being in conjunction with my doctors.   I don't take what they say as absolute and assess the information I am given and make as an informed decision as I am able to do.  All my doctors know my expectations and thankfully I have never been disappointed!

I think this may be considered by some, who feel that medicine and particularly WLW is an absolute, as rebellious and I think that the advice that I gave the person on that thread was in this vein.  Yes, it was different to your "live by the rules and consult your surgeon" edict but what can I say?   I do roll my eyes at people that post "call your surgeon" for every little hiccup they experience and then people wonder why their surgeon won't return their phone calls!!!   Most of the symptoms that we experience post WLS can be solved with a little bit of common sense, and some research into what we have had done to our bodies.  

I'm happy for you that you feel you have a relationship with your doctor and that you are comfortable with the opinion that you gave - but to categorise someone who doesn't think it necessary to call their surgeon for every chicken breast they eat as somehow deceptive or worse still, unintelligent, is a bit of a stretch!   Yes, it is important to be honest about something that may affect your health, such as drugs, alcohol etc - but I think anyone with an IQ in triple digits should be able to decide what is necessary information to OFFER in terms of making a specific phone call to a surgeon to CONFESS and what is not.