I was sent to this doctor by my generalist (nearby), as he couldn't identify a skin rash I had and…read morethought that I should see a specialist. I was fairly sure I knew what it was, because I had been exposed to a similar rash that a friend of mine had - a rash that had subsequently been successfully diagnosed and treated in the USA. Plus, I'm a University researcher, so I tend to inform myself about the specifics of recent medical research, and I had become rather convinced of what I had.
Enter Dr. Krüger. Nice old man. Hard of hearing (I'm not even sure he understood all of what I said). May not have the best eyesight. Old and old-fashioned. On the plus side, he took me as a walk-in.
I told my story to Dr. Krüger, and he proceded to explain to me why it could not be the rash I was claiming it was, and then prescribed some sort of steroid drug and an antibiotic - without making a diagnosis. "Hm, ok," I thought, "Maybe he's right. He is, after all, the specialist!" He told me to come back in a week if it didn't help.
Nope. He wasn't right. So I went back in a week. Except it turns out that he was on vacation for two weeks over the winter holidays, starting the day before he had told me to return! Whoops.
So I waited and then went back two weeks later. He had forgotten our last meeting, my story, his reaction, etc, and proceded to tell me EXACTLY what he had told me the last time! At one point, I told him that I had read the epidemiology of the sickness I thought I had, and that I would like him to reconsider. He got quite stuffy and told me that he had read it too.
I'm quite polite and don't tend to like conflicts with people, so I'm usually quite diplomatic, and I don't think I said anything that merited his getting upset! I could have said it much more bluntly -- in fact, I hadn't pointed out that he had said something false about the condition in his description of it, and that research from the last 10 years contradicted him. I don't think Dr. Krüger is the kind of doctor who likes patients to be interested in the science of medicine or understanding how their bodies act.
His administrative staff seemed anxious that the appointments should take as little time as possible, and came in during our second appointment after 10 minutes to say he should hurry up and that other patients were waiting.
I got the general impression that he's a nice old man, but really not my style of doctor. Plus, he's perhaps overly busy, and perhaps not up-to-date on recent medical developments.
After our second appointment, again without making a diagnosis, he told me it would go away on its own, and prescribed a different steroid cream.
Now I'm looking for another dermatologist.
