PIcked this thought up from another thread...
what do you do when those superficial kind of friends ( whom you were hoping to be your best buddy) starts asking for scripts ( no way Jose') or what I think of her kids' throats ( get away from me!), or hey what about this herbal supplement???

Irritating, annoying...I once had a person I just met in my neighborhood launch into details about her gynecologic problems as soon as she found out I was a doctor. I was polite on the outside, but inside I just cringed!

I think that this thread started from one of my comments. I hate when this happens. As a specialist I usually try to bow out politely and say that I don't remember that area from medical school. But it doesn't always work. I think people think you would be fascinated by their medical issues because you are a doctor " So, you had a yeast infection you say... " I wouldn't think of asking my interior designer neighbor to come over and just "design my house" without paying her or my lawyer neighbor to just "review my deposition" without compensation. Yet people think it is perfectly ok to put you on the spot with their symptoms and get free medical advise. As you can tell, it is one of my pet peeves.

Yes...people love to tell you about their vaginal discharge over lunch at the cafe'...
and extended family/friends must think I am an idiot ( which is OK) bc I usually keep saying " I don't know I don't know" until they got bored with asking me questions about knee pain over the Thanksgiving turkey. GLAD YOU GUYS do not think it is appropriate either. There was a thread a while back that made it seem like people thought it was cool to write scripts for Mom or give hubby advice etc.

my sis-in-law has on more than one occasion forgotten to call her doctor for her refill of OCP & of course it's usually on a long weekend holiday.

The first time I called in on RF to get her through.

But the second time, alos another long weekend, she left a message w/ my dh but said not an emergency-(I just knew what she wanted though) she never calls just to say hi

I didn't return her call for 3 days - busy w/ my life kinda stuff- well when I did call, she said-"oh I don't need you anymore, since you didn't call me back, I called the doc on call who gave her enough for the weekend" hmmmm what a concept.

Here's what I do in these situations:

Person asking for curbside consult: "You know I have this ache right here in my shoulder and blah blah blah.."

Me: (say it in a nice/pleading/joking-but-you-mean-it tone) "Oh no, you're not really going to make me practice medicine during my time off, are you? I'm exhausted and was just so happy to get out of the office today and now you're dragging me back in. Let's talk about something fun like the ball game (or whatever).."

It works! It gets the point across (subtly) that you, too, deserve time off.

Monica,
Great reply! I'm going to use this one. I get this all the time, too, and it really does irk me. It's also not fair because I don't get to get a good history or examine the person and they judge the response the same as if it came from their doctor they actually went to see about it. (Especially a problem if it's a family member.)

You're so right Lisa--they do judge the response the same as if they actually went to their regular doctor.
I really wish people would get a clue and realize that we don't want to spend 24/7 thinking/talking about medicine. Yes, I do think medicine is interesting but not so much so that I want to eat, drink and breathe it. We already did that in residency!
Oh well such is life.

LISAFP: and if you do concede and give some little piece of advice with only half-baked stories and no physical exam, you usually get it wrong and look silly in the end!