RE: Concerning Stats About Our Broken Medical System
My health care experiences have been mostly good although there's been an odd handful I wasn't happy with. For example, when I finally caved in and got my depression diagnosis, my doctor went straight to antidepressants as the cure and while I think they helped snap my brain out of it, they also caused me to gain weight like crazy and when I went back to her asking how to wean off of them (because I was feeling better, and now the negative side effects began outweighing the initial positive outcome) she insisted I should never stop taking them! Another doctor later agreed with me that I could get off them and switch over to St. John's Wort instead. It hasn't been 100% effective but is close enough.
I won't even started on the homebirth vs hospital birth thing...let's just say I was NOT happy with the hospital experience at all; in fact that's what sank me into PPD in the first place. Ugh.
Otherwise, it's been a good experience overall.
I think that's the most important lesson I've learned - keep going finding a new doctor until you get one that talks your same language. I could explain exactly what it FELT like was happening in my back, but all of the MRIs and x-rays came back negative. Until that one chiropractor looked at my MRI and said 'well this is what it is.' I started crying because he was explaining exactly what it FELT like - but the radiologists are looking for bulging or herniated discs or breaks or very severe stuff. I had a curve in my spine which was causing degenerative discs. Subtle enough they didn't see it, but big enough to cause me chronic pain. So yes - some docs are worth it, some aren't.
And I'm sorry to hear about your birth experience. I hear about too many women who have horrible hospital birth experiences. It's really a shame our modern medicine is so barbaric when it comes to childbirth. :(