With its in-depth explanations, guidance, and direction, Surviving Your Doctors will be the basic training manual patients need to work their way through the health care maze. It serves as a map of the medical minefield, told from the perspective of a doctor yet designed to reveal the faults in the system and the things that can and do go wrong during the course of both routine and special procedures and office visits. Filled with real stories of medical mishaps, anecdotes, and checklists, this book will walk readers through major areas of the medical world.

Introduction Part I: Everday Medical and Health Concerns Chapter 1. Taking Control of Your Healthcare: Or, the Wisdom of Second and Third Opinions Chapter 2. Insurance Companies: Organized Crime or Just Bad Policies? Chapter 3. An Apple A Day: And Other Things to Protect Your Health When Visiting the Doctor's Office Chapter 4. Does Your Kid Really Need That Shot?: Protecting Your Children in the System Chapter 5. The Pharmacy and Prescription Drugs: Or Beware, the Spoonful of Sugar That Helps the 'Bad Medicine' Go Down Chapter 6. Visiting the ER without Feeling Like a Bit Player on a TV Drama Part II: Major Diseases and Long-Term Issues Chapter 7. A Real Heart-to-Heart about Cardiac Care Chapter 8. How to Handle the Big C from A to Z Chapter 9. Baby Boom or Bust: How to Stroll through Maternity, Neonatal, and Fertiltiy Issues Chapter 10. You Give Me Fever: Infection and Communicable Diseases Chapter 11. How to Maintain Some Sanity in the Mental Health System Part III: The Hospital and Major Procedures Chapter 12. Hospital Out-Patient Visits and How to Make Sure that You Actually Get Out Chapter 13. Hosptial Stays: As Dangerous as a War Zone? Chapter 14. Medical Test and How to Avodi Becomding a Lab Rat Chapter 15. Major Surgeries: Or, How to Make Sure You Still Have a Leg to Stand on Afterward Part IV: The Future of Medicine Chapter 16. A Cure for the Medical System