Ask An MD: 08/01/2008

Doctor D is a real Family Practice doctor who has been practicing for a while. He has practiced in clinics, hospitals, and emergency rooms. He has delivered babies and treated people over 100 years old. He has saved lives and he treated the dying. He has been some patients' favorite doctor and some people who have seen him hate his guts. He has done some brilliant care and he has made mistakes.

Doctor D knows his way around the healthcare system.

Most doctors could say this. What makes Doctor D unusual is that he never lost that sense he felt when he first visited a hospital. What a bizarre place it was! The weirdness of the healthcare system has never ceased to amaze Doctor D. Watching patients struggle through this labyrinth of doctors, diagnoses, tests, nurses, treatments, hospitals surrounded by doctors and nurses who act like all of this is normal and talk to them in medical pseudo-Latin would be funny if it wasn't so sad!

Doctor D's favorite part of his job has never been procedures, diagnosis, or treatments—it is educating his patients in how to take care of their bodies while navigating the healthcare system without losing their minds.

Doctor D started this blog to assist more people through the insane world of healthcare. You can use him as the relational counselor for your doctor-patient relationship.

Got a question? Ask the MD!

E-mail Doctor D

Doctor D's Disclaimer

If you read medical blogs then you know how this goes. Like most docs, Doctor D lives in mortal fear of lawyers so he claims no responsibility...

The information on this blog is for your enlightenment and enjoyment, but not for you to medically treat yourself or others. Talk to your own doctor before doing something crazy just because Doctor D mentioned it.

Doctor D is not a replacement for your own doctor. He loves answering your questions but he doesn't have a doctor-patient relationship with you. He will not diagnose or treat you. He cannot listen to your heart or check you for hernias over the internet.

If Doctor D mentions any person he has ever cared for then you can bet enough info has been changed that you'll never figure out who the patient is. He wouldn’t tell people’s business like that.

Doctor D's stories are a combination of half-truths, exaggerations, and total lies. He tells stories to make points. He doesn't tell what actually happened. So you cannot be a character in D's stories unless you are a figment of his imagination.

Doctor D doesn’t make any money from this blog. He does it because he likes you. If he wanted to make a lot of money he wouldn’t have gone into primary care.

The images on this blog were all taken from the Internet. Doctor D assumes they are in the public domain. If Doctor D used your image incorrectly please let him know and he will take it down and apologize profusely.

If this isn’t clear you can email me and I will doctor this disclaimer more.

How to E-Mail Doctor D

Do you have a question about your doctor or healthcare? Want a doctor to rant at? Want to say Hi? Want to tell Doctor D about your healthcare blog? Want to point out a typo in Doctor D's posts?

Send Doctor D an email! He will try to write back to everyone even if he can’t get your answer on the site.

Sorry, but Doctor D's email address has been removed.

Despite warnings, 95% messages were requests to be diagnosed via email.

The answers to most of the legit questions can be found with about 5 minutes in the blog archives.

If you want to talk to Doctor D now that this blog is hibernating you shall have to enter the wild world of Twitter and find him HERE.