5 ms·

For a lot of these things, the steps to finding something that works should start with seeing someone who is a specialist of some sort, and, if at all possible,

For a lot of these things, the steps to finding something that works should start with seeing someone who is a specialist of some sort, and, if at all possible, getting them to actually look at whatever you need help for. For skincare, see a dermatologist. Anyone with skincare issues or concerns, PLEASE just see a dermatologist. They might not tell you what you want to hear, but they can usually give you a good baseline description and diagnosis of what to work on. That's 99% of the battle. For lawn care, try to talk to a lawn care specialist, hopefully someone who is not trying to sell you something. Golf courses usually have 1 or 2 people that know a lot about grass. Even someone that you think has a really good lawn, ask them to come over and take a look at yours. Getting advice off the internet is helpful, but I've usually found it to not beat getting someone in person who can actually look at what ever the thing is you're looking for advice for.

aspaceman 5y ago
This is funny because when I saw a dermatologist they just prescribed retinol cream (the textbook solution), didn't look at my skin, and didn't much care for my thoughts or concerns about how to better care for it. "Just take the cream damnit" - a couple years later I found that the cream was just adjusting the texture of my skin, and likely overly sensitizing it. The doc didn't care and was happy to continue prescribing it. When doctors abscond their responsibility to know what they're talking about, folks have no choice but to seek it out. Many people have this experience with physicians of all stripes.
- leesalminen 5y ago
  I just had a doctor completely mis-prescribe Azithromycin to me. They prescribed 5x the correct dose. I even asked them three times about it before leaving the appointment and they looked at me like I was crazy. Luckily my parents worked for Pfizer for a combined 80 years and confirmed my suspicions before I started taking it.
  - aidenn0 5y ago
    I had hallucinations and a manic episode due to a doctor prescribing the wrong amount of Adderall.
    - SkittyDog 5y ago
      While terrifying, some kids would also recognize that as a terrific financial windfall if you're crooked enough to sell the excess.
  - ericbarrett 5y ago
    I had this happen too, with a topical steroid. Went to another dermo a few years later and they gasped out loud when I showed them my old prescription. Overdose of topical steroids can cause permanent damage to the skin.
  - istorical 5y ago
    I had doctors give teenage me antibiotics for acne. Later on prednisone I believe. Jesus christ dermatologists are fucking awful. Never told me I needed to start washing my towels, bedsheets, pillowcases more often or suggested using a moisturizer.
    - VRay 5y ago
      Haha, yeah, doctors are pretty terrible. I had neck and jaw pain, and my Chinese-born dentist said “Well, I know how much you Americans like drugs and surgery, and there are some of those that will help, but really you’ll probably be fine if you just get neck and shoulder massages occasionally” Sure enough, it worked. I was just hurting my neck by using my PDA too much with my neck craned downward, and getting massages/exercise or just not using a mobile device fixed the problem completely I really lucked out with that guy
      - thaumasiotes 5y ago
        > I had neck and jaw pain, and my Chinese-born dentist said “Well, I know how much you Americans like drugs and surgery, and there are some of those that will help, but really you’ll probably be fine if you just get neck and shoulder massages occasionally” To be totally fair, I did recently seek help for recurring pain in the back of my head (also the top of the neck, but I described it as the head) and the urgent care nurse did some simple nerve damage tests, asked me about my sleeping posture, and told me the problem was likely that I was sleeping wrong and I should take a different position. He was right. Of course, he wasn't a doctor either. :/ If you want to turn the tables on your Chinese-born dentist, ask him about the Chinese habit of stopping by the hospital for intravenous saline solution whenever you're feeling like you might have a cold.
colechristensen 5y ago
I have had a hard time getting any doctor to take a complex issue seriously. If it can't be "solved" with the standard antidepressant, antibiotic, skin cream, or "diet and exercise"; good luck getting anybody to even try to solve an issue that isn't obvious. (your leg is broken, you have a tumor, etc.) Medical expertise has a problem with only doing one dimensional solutions for one dimensional issues.
- throaway46546 5y ago
  I have had similar experiences. I end up having to do my own research if I want a problem actually solved. Another thing that bothers me is that they never seem to do any sort of testing. They just throw solutions at the problem until one of them works. It is 2021 we have had the technology to grow something in a culture for over 160 years now, but no just take these antibiotics and if they don't work come back and I'll take another random shot in the dark.
  - selfsimilar 5y ago
    While nominally true for many bacteria, there’s still overwhelmingly many we can’t culture, and those we can take many different media to cultivate. “Bacterial culture is frequently more difficult and often requires more training than molecular techniques”[1] There’s a good chance that many doctors are stuck in a mindset that culturing is too difficult, costly, and time consuming to be effective for all but the most resistant infections, but I’m not sure they’re wrong. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4284306/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4284306/
- lobocinza 5y ago
  I think that apply to most professions/professionals unfortunately.
- thaumasiotes 5y ago
  That matches my experience. If you see a doctor, they'll try doing whatever their flowchart says to do, and if it doesn't work, they tell you to go away. You'd get results at least as good from just looking at the flowchart yourself. I did see a dermatologist when the skin on one of my fingertips started peeling uncontrollably. He told me 'We call this "desquamation", which just means "it's peeling". We don't know why it happens or what might make it stop.' It was a less than ringing endorsement of the idea that if you have a skin problem, you should see a dermatologist.
Broken_Hippo 5y ago
For skincare, see a dermatologist. Anyone with skincare issues or concerns, PLEASE just see a dermatologist. They might not tell you what you want to hear, but they can usually give you a good baseline description and diagnosis of what to work on. That's 99% of the battle. Realistically, this isn't good advice - you probably just want to see your regular doctor. The waiting list for a dermatologist can be long, but that GP will probably get you in quickly. They will recognize worrysome skin patches that might be cancer, and can generally do basic things to help common skin conditions (athletes foot, cysts, poison ivy and other common rashes, and so on). Besides, a lot of folks can't just see a dermatologist - not without a referral, anyway.

aspaceman 5y ago

This is funny because when I saw a dermatologist they just prescribed retinol cream (the textbook solution), didn't look at my skin, and didn't much care for my thoughts or concerns about how to better care for it. "Just take the cream damnit" - a couple years later I found that the cream was just adjusting the texture of my skin, and likely overly sensitizing it. The doc didn't care and was happy to continue prescribing it. When doctors abscond their responsibility to know what they're talking about, folks have no choice but to seek it out. Many people have this experience with physicians of all stripes.

leesalminen 5y ago
I just had a doctor completely mis-prescribe Azithromycin to me. They prescribed 5x the correct dose. I even asked them three times about it before leaving the appointment and they looked at me like I was crazy. Luckily my parents worked for Pfizer for a combined 80 years and confirmed my suspicions before I started taking it.
- aidenn0 5y ago
  I had hallucinations and a manic episode due to a doctor prescribing the wrong amount of Adderall.
  - SkittyDog 5y ago
    While terrifying, some kids would also recognize that as a terrific financial windfall if you're crooked enough to sell the excess.
- ericbarrett 5y ago
  I had this happen too, with a topical steroid. Went to another dermo a few years later and they gasped out loud when I showed them my old prescription. Overdose of topical steroids can cause permanent damage to the skin.
- istorical 5y ago
  I had doctors give teenage me antibiotics for acne. Later on prednisone I believe. Jesus christ dermatologists are fucking awful. Never told me I needed to start washing my towels, bedsheets, pillowcases more often or suggested using a moisturizer.
  - VRay 5y ago
    Haha, yeah, doctors are pretty terrible. I had neck and jaw pain, and my Chinese-born dentist said “Well, I know how much you Americans like drugs and surgery, and there are some of those that will help, but really you’ll probably be fine if you just get neck and shoulder massages occasionally” Sure enough, it worked. I was just hurting my neck by using my PDA too much with my neck craned downward, and getting massages/exercise or just not using a mobile device fixed the problem completely I really lucked out with that guy
    - thaumasiotes 5y ago
      > I had neck and jaw pain, and my Chinese-born dentist said “Well, I know how much you Americans like drugs and surgery, and there are some of those that will help, but really you’ll probably be fine if you just get neck and shoulder massages occasionally” To be totally fair, I did recently seek help for recurring pain in the back of my head (also the top of the neck, but I described it as the head) and the urgent care nurse did some simple nerve damage tests, asked me about my sleeping posture, and told me the problem was likely that I was sleeping wrong and I should take a different position. He was right. Of course, he wasn't a doctor either. :/ If you want to turn the tables on your Chinese-born dentist, ask him about the Chinese habit of stopping by the hospital for intravenous saline solution whenever you're feeling like you might have a cold.

colechristensen 5y ago

I have had a hard time getting any doctor to take a complex issue seriously. If it can't be "solved" with the standard antidepressant, antibiotic, skin cream, or "diet and exercise"; good luck getting anybody to even try to solve an issue that isn't obvious. (your leg is broken, you have a tumor, etc.) Medical expertise has a problem with only doing one dimensional solutions for one dimensional issues.

throaway46546 5y ago
I have had similar experiences. I end up having to do my own research if I want a problem actually solved. Another thing that bothers me is that they never seem to do any sort of testing. They just throw solutions at the problem until one of them works. It is 2021 we have had the technology to grow something in a culture for over 160 years now, but no just take these antibiotics and if they don't work come back and I'll take another random shot in the dark.
- selfsimilar 5y ago
  While nominally true for many bacteria, there’s still overwhelmingly many we can’t culture, and those we can take many different media to cultivate. “Bacterial culture is frequently more difficult and often requires more training than molecular techniques”[1] There’s a good chance that many doctors are stuck in a mindset that culturing is too difficult, costly, and time consuming to be effective for all but the most resistant infections, but I’m not sure they’re wrong. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4284306/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4284306/
lobocinza 5y ago
I think that apply to most professions/professionals unfortunately.
thaumasiotes 5y ago
That matches my experience. If you see a doctor, they'll try doing whatever their flowchart says to do, and if it doesn't work, they tell you to go away. You'd get results at least as good from just looking at the flowchart yourself. I did see a dermatologist when the skin on one of my fingertips started peeling uncontrollably. He told me 'We call this "desquamation", which just means "it's peeling". We don't know why it happens or what might make it stop.' It was a less than ringing endorsement of the idea that if you have a skin problem, you should see a dermatologist.

Broken_Hippo 5y ago

For skincare, see a dermatologist. Anyone with skincare issues or concerns, PLEASE just see a dermatologist. They might not tell you what you want to hear, but they can usually give you a good baseline description and diagnosis of what to work on. That's 99% of the battle. Realistically, this isn't good advice - you probably just want to see your regular doctor. The waiting list for a dermatologist can be long, but that GP will probably get you in quickly. They will recognize worrysome skin patches that might be cancer, and can generally do basic things to help common skin conditions (athletes foot, cysts, poison ivy and other common rashes, and so on). Besides, a lot of folks can't just see a dermatologist - not without a referral, anyway.