How old were you when you heard a doctor's order that you obeyed, questioned or resisted?

It's a phrase which meant, for example, follow what is on a medication label. Chatting with someone last night who is now in his early 40's (?), who expressed resistance when I said that a certain doctor in the 1990's required- ordered- every patient to use two Fleet enemas an hour before his physical exam because he used a rigid sigmoidoscope during it, if you post the time period, your age, were there doctor's orders that you resisted, questioned?

I have written about trying to do jumping jacks with briefs at my knees, age 14, 1960's. Doctors in the period having gone through WWII (the pics of naked draftees), expected compliant patients, and I hadn't been told that I could pull my briefs back up.

I was in my 30's in the 90's when I used the enemas before my physical. But I didn't take everything off, same age, period, when told 'so I can see your skin' by a different doctor. And I did do so with doctors who didn't specify exactly how much I should take off.

How old were you and/or what year did you hear a doctor's order which you obeyed at the time, questioned later, or resisted, and why?

I am not sure the exact age, but I was in my 30s and married. I went into the doctor with a specific complaint - I think it was a problem with my foot - and I was asked to fill out a multi-page questionnaire (on paper) because I had not been there for a while. It had all sorts of questions about sexual partners, practices, safe sex, etc that I felt were intrusive for a married man with children who was there for a specific complaint. I left most of the questions blank. He did not like that when I got into the exam room and would not give me a logical answer to explain what my sexual health had to do with an inflamed joint in my foot.

I have also pushed back on my doctor's love of changing prescriptions. I was on one drug for years and just as it was coming off of its patent and going generic, he decided to prescribe a 'newer and better' drug that was much more expensive. I switched but then asked to go back to the old one because I thought it was both better and would be cheaper. He only relented when I told him I would either take the old pill, or none at all.

I have been more of an advocate over the last decade because I feel the doctor looks at his computer screen and just does what it tells him to do, without any reflection.

Not until I was in my early fifties did I ever question a doctor on anything they told me. And then it wasn't an order that I questioned but the numbers that he had written on the exam form for a DOT physical that I had done by him. I had seen him earlier in the year on my own for my annual physical and then had went back to him when it was time to renew my medical certification for my commercial driver's license because my previous doctor hadn't certified to do the DOT physicals after the rules had changed.

After he had finished the exam he started filling out the form. I was watching him write and reading what he was writing in the remarks column. I saw that he had written in that I was prediabetic. I said something about that I had passed the urinalysis that checked for that and he said that I had. So I asked why he was writing that in the remarks? He said because my numbers from my annual physical were slightly over, I told him this wasn't my annual physical this is my DOT physical and don't write anything in the remarks column that doesn't need to be in there, that it's a federal form and I don't need anything in it that doesn't need to be in it. He said something about the numbers and I said something about them not being correct, then I told him I could go get the rules and regulations book out of my pickup and show him the numbers and told him what the number was for prediabetes. That's when he lost his temper and started scolding me, he got up and walked out slamming the door of the exam room. I sat there for a few minutes not sure what to do and was just starting to get up to leave when he came back and scolded me some more and then handed me another form and my card, this form was without his extra information that he hadn't needed to provide in the first place. I thanked him and left. I have since been back to him for my annual physicals but never again for anything work related.

@Ccc, you posted reminded me of another disagreement with my PCP concerning my cholesterol. The total number was 198 - 115 for the LDL and 83 for the HDL. He stated I had 'borderline' high cholesterol. I asked what that range was and he said 'over 200.' We then played a math game that amounted to 198 = 200, and 'you should be on cholesterol medication.' He never showed me a chart but both my LDL and HDL were considered 'low risk' and even on the chart less than 200 is low risk. I was not even aware there was such a chart, and he did not share it with me. However, I did get a copy of my blood panels emailed to me before the exam and had printed it to take along.