We, as patients, pass around these apocryphal stories around, but don't look at the opposite experience of doctors. Doctors constantly, and I mean multiple times per day, get patients in that tell them their symptoms are due to disease or condition or complex X. Time and again, the patient is completely wrong. No, you don't have cancer, your lymph node hurts because it is fighting off an infection, and besides if it was cancer, the node wouldn't hurt. No, you don't have lyme disease, you're sore because you started gardening again and you are 50. No, you don't have an ulcer, you're just eating too much ice cream before going to bed.
As humans, we forget about the times we were wrong, and also don't share those stories. "I went to the doctor thinking I was dying of cancer, but it turns out I'm allergic to mushrooms" is much less likely to be passed around as a story than, "No doctors would listen to me until one did and tested me and found out I have Lyme disease."
Hilarious you brought this up: "No, you don't have an ulcer, you're just eating too much ice cream before going to bed."
Reflux is a very common food allergy symptom and milk is one of the most common allergen, if not THE most common.
I've had 3 or 4 scopes that showed some mild inflammation, and GIs were simply lost. I've managed to locate a 90 year old allergist who probably began practicing before there was benadryl. After recounting the symptoms I was told "it's milk. it's always milk". I was taken aback, how can anyone be so sure? Literally 5 minutes later that was confirmed by a skin-prick test.
Most physicians are garbage. The allergist was quite thorough.
The billing rate to dismiss you in 30 seconds pays about the same as a 30 min appointment. The incentives just aren't there.
I agree with the systemic problem that our healthcare system doesn't want to get to the bottom of symptoms. It drives me crazy, especially the "most cancer is treatable if caught early, but no we won't give you a diagnostic test to actually catch cancer early". I have direct experience with this, pushing through multiple doctors that ended with my thyroid cancer diagnosis.
My doctor at the time was actually really good, not because he was good at diagnosing, but he had enough experience to recognize his inability to do so and would always send me to an expert. He literally was 100% wrong about all of my major diagnoses (my hurt knee actually was a torn ACL, my abdominal pain actually was a hernia, my throat nodule actually was cancer), but he always sent me to a specialist to be sure. And he knew really good specialists. "I don't think it is X, but lets have a specialist verify" was his common refrain.
As humans, we forget about the times we were wrong, and also don't share those stories. "I went to the doctor thinking I was dying of cancer, but it turns out I'm allergic to mushrooms" is much less likely to be passed around as a story than, "No doctors would listen to me until one did and tested me and found out I have Lyme disease."