I think you are both right. This does seem to be the way of the future, and, yes!, you do have to advocate for yourself.

I spent months telling various "providers" and doctors that I had heartburn that seemed like the "mother-of-all-heartburn." I saw a physician's assistant, my own MD, another primary care MD, a specialist GI doctor, who did an upper barium-swallow study, and a speech therapist who was trying to teach me how to not swallow air with my food. My doctor told me to just keep taking Pepcid. Finally, I went twice to the psych clinic saying I was losing my mind at night with severe restlessness.

It was a psychiatrist who finally diagnosed me as being severely anemic. (Night-time restlessness is a sign of severe anemia, which I never knew.) As the psychiatrist advised me to do, I called my primary care clinic. They said they had no openings for quite awhile. So I said, "You mean to tell me I'm supposed to get treatment for severe anemia of unknown origin from a resident in psychiatry? Isn't there something wrong with this picture?" So I finally heard from my own doctor, who sent me for intravenous iron and for an upper endoscopy. That's where the found the bleeding ulcer.

I'm lucky I didn't collapse on the street somewhere. I had told them at my primary care clinic that it felt like I was being stabbed in the chest. "Yeah, just keep taking the Pepcid."

My doctor sits in front of a computer monitor, and he stares at that the whole time I'm trying to talk to him. As he was typing away, I was telling him that my "heartburn" is terribly severe. He said, "Yeah, it'll do that ." So I go home and continue bleeding internally for a couple more months.

Well, he's gone now. He did call and say, "I'm sorry I wasn't more available to you." I thought, "You could at least look in my direction when I'm in the office with you."

I swear: From now on I'm bringing a good magazine with me to all doctor appointments. If the doctor keeps staring at the computer monitor, while I'm answering his questions and reporting my problem, I'm going to shut up and start reading my magazine. Then when he notices I'm busy reading, I'll say, "Let me know when you're done reading the computer screen. Then we'll talk." And I won't look at him, till he/she looks at me. Maybe I'll even say, "Hang on a minute, doctor. Let me just finish this article I'm in the middle of. I'll be with you shortly."

I've read articles saying that this is a real trend - doctors spending most of the office visit interacting with the computer, rather than with the patient.

I guess I'm nuts, but it felt good to get that off my chest.