Your professor is wise, I would've taken that advice if I were you.
Unfortunately, because we common folk lack medical education all we can do is trust, and put our faith in our doctor's advice/suggestions; only for another medical professional to tell us that it was the wrong diagnosis or the treatment plan. Sometimes it's too late, the damage is irreversible. When you go for a second or a third opinion and every doctor has a different treatment plan who do you trust?
So let me walk you through the usual process of doctor patient interaction
You meet your doctor and tell him your complaint.
Please don't Google your symptoms and tell him your diagnosis and treatment plan.
If this is for a second opinion tell him upfront and not use your earlier consultations that you were unhappy with as a test for the next guy. Your earlier investigations will help him reach an earlier diagnosis and save you money
Let's say you have a painful swollen big toe on your right foot
Correct and true history helps in reaching the correct diagnosis
So prior to that he will have a multiple choice in his head, is called differential diagnosis
It's the history and tests that eliminates other diagnosis
So if your uric acid levels are high he may suspect gout and treat with meds, but if the tests come back negative you will accuse him of taking cuts for unnecessary tests
If it's after a bad nail infection or ingrown nail, you may need surgery, but if you don't believe him you will go around hobbling calling him a crook wanting to operate without necessity
If it's an abscess after an injury, it may be drained and bandaged, but repeated dressings may mean that you will accuse him of padding the bill while he is checking for healing and no gangrene
If you are diabetic and it turns black it may be gangrene and needs amputation, but some neighbour may tell you it's fungal infection like how he had and give you his half used ointment tube. When you lose half your foot you forget what the doctor first told you
If something heavy fell on it there many be a bone fracture, but since you are still able to walk you refuse the xray and you get lifetime pain due to fibrous healing but blame the doc anyway
If there are bite marks on the toe and you lie to the doctor that a dog bit you, you will get antibiotics, ointment, tetanus and rabies shots, with a warning to see if the dog dies. when actually someone with a foot fetish got frisky with you and you are too embarrassed to say so. At which point a wrong diagnosis and treatment is given. So true history with appropriate tests is most important
Modern medicine is pretty straightforward and a process of elimination
Physical examination accompanied by tests helps to eliminate most common problems
When a patient says that they are unhappy with a series of doctors, diagnosis and treatment then we call them window shoppers who keep seeking the diagnosis and treatment that they are fixated on. Such patients never stop till they finally get the doctor they deserve.
I was once referred a patient where the son did not want to operate on his father's knees, they went to 5 different surgeons pretending to be fresh new patients everytime.
They did every test and xray and scan at every clinic and were given the same diagnosis that knees are too far gone, surgery is the only option.
They left every clinic calling the surgeon a crook who only wants to operate
There's no cure for that
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