@A MyEpilepsyTeam Member How old is your doctor that he/she does not know how to read a CR or MRI? My neurologist is at least in his late 60s but more likely in his 70s, but he knows how to read them.

He is just more old school in the medications that he uses with Tegretol being his favorite starter anticonvulsant. Some of the medications that my friends on here are on, I had not heard of before I met you all here.

@A MyEpilepsyTeam Member There is also another factor that goes with too many doctors as they get older: they tend to believe in only the good old ways. Thus, they are less likely to try new medications and innovations and read the reports of the most recent research.

A few years back my neurologist got upset with me and said that it was all my fault that I had not achieved the seizure-free state recently or more than a year in the time that he has been my neurologist. He will always defend the medications and (on paper) the combinations of them that he is giving me should make me seizure-free. I vented about it at the time, but I didn't hold it against him (he was having a bad day and returned to his old self by my next visit). He had warned me last year that the most recent increase (that he did then) was the safest increase that he could do on my second anticonvulsant and the first was already at that level. If it did not succeed, then he was going to have to schedule me to go to Boston to a seizure center/Neuroscience center in one of the large hospitals there.

Unfortunately, Massachusetts is not at a level of opening back up that he can do so yet for me. However, by just increasing the Clonazepam by half a pill in the morning a month+ ago, he has got me to a seizure-free state that is holding up in spite of the extra stress with all that is going on in the USA and the world. Maybe, by the time that he is able to schedule to go the the center, I will be able to tell him about how many months I had been seizure-free.

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Carol as I say the scan are only as good as the reader. Unless they know what they are focusing they have absolutely no idea. the Drs missed a tennis ball size tumour that a blind person would see they were only focusing on finding a brain Haemorrhage. My neurosurgeon has never looked at a report he only looks at scans. I told him if he had looked at a certain report from ed he had to go through all my notes to see if it was there . I pointed out what the dr had put about my tumour. It was totally wrong I wouldn't be on this earth by now. He got angry rolled his eyes and highlighted it . I would not like to hear what he would've told that Dr My surgeon has a reputation that staff hide.

John I do agree with you totally but I would think that a Dr with yrs of experience knows that as time goes by and there is always new info and studies and should be researching. I will give you an example i looked at one of my old text books and the information of how to look after a pt that had brain surgery was to turn bead around so the head is facing the middle of the room and every now and then talk to them to make sure they're not unconscious. The old way is more likely to kill someone. The way he spoke to you should never have happened. i would have been so offended Who cares if he was having a bad day . No one should ever bring their own problems into the room . its about the pt not whether he's forgotten to lock a door. he has to have full focus because it could get very dangerous. if he cant do that he needs toi take the day off. I rang the AMA Australian medical association. we have a different organisation and complained about a Dr that was looking after my husband. The receptionist put me straight onto the big boss and i told him my story, they must have already heard about this dr and they investigated immediately. 2 days later they call and he had done a runner to France. I also remember when the advice for seizures was to put something in your mouth or hold the tongue. Who knows if an older Dr still advises that. Its now time to go home from work 5pm talk to people tomorrow and thanks for everyone's info it helps so much x

why I asked that is the older they get the less they care and they are thinking about retirement not anymore pt issues. I also feel that if a person isn't going by the book they read then nothings wrong they bypass the problems. As you can see I'm not keen on older ones . not all of them there are good ones around as well. Give me a middle aged neuro any day