How Collapsing Social Infrastructure Led to Everyone Becoming an Internet Medical Expert

[daredtowork]

2. lol, I guess the Internet didn't invent the Active Patient

But the Internet did make it much easier to be one, and it expands the depth of the patient's knowledge with access to the same medical journal articles the doctor might be reading - though the patient might not have the same skill in culling and interpreting those articles.

But I think you are underscoring my point: you have reasons that you don't completely trust your doctor meet your needs. This caused you to fill in the gaps with your own "research". The fact you did your own research built up your own knowledge until you felt like an authority on certain matters yourself, and you knew better than your doctor about whether you needed the shingles and the sleep apnea test.

If you take personal recs, though - don't mess around with shingles. I've had that, and it's nothing to shrug off. I had it on my back where I couldn't even get to the lesions when they itched and/or burned. It lasted for over a month. Recently I had tingling around the same place, and it freaked me out so much I practically ran to urgent care to get it checked out. Don't get shingles if you can avoid it.