Story time
My entire family has been seeing the same GP forever. We know him well and to be honest he's always been kind of an annoying chatter. You go there for whatever illness you have and end up on a 15 minutes discussion about him and life and his children and whatever. Every time I went to see him (note: I'm French, so I can go to a GP without having to secure a loan at my banker before), I knew I'd have to go through his annoying chatter but eh. He was friendly. No worries.
My father had a heart attack a couple of years ago. He's recovered well and is monitored by his GP ever since, specifically for heart health monitoring. Weekly/biweekly appointments to assess his health etc. All goes well. A couple of months ago he started having some pain in his shoulder, which the GP said was a simple tendinitis. No worries then. After that he started having pain in his hip and leg. GP said it was a muscular whatever and gave him some painkillers.
Now to continue. My dad is a pretty lone person and isn't the kind of person who'd complain to others about pain or whatever. He just lived with it, and the few times he raised it to his GP, he was given a couple more painkillers or whatever else, so he genuinely believed it was nothing bad. The pain in his hip increased and GP still said it was nothing worrying. Dad lost weight as well, but GP never raised it as an issue. He reassured himself thinking it was just a muscular pain and would eventually go away. I had to go in person see the GP to ask him to please for God's sake at least refer him to a specialist who can do extra tests. Doesn't cost a thing with French healthcare anyway. He finally decided to refer him to a... rheumatologist. Like really? Obviously nothing came out of this. He then went towards recommending other specialists, but just getting an appointment with them would take a good two months
My brother ended up calling a friend of his who works in a hospital and he was able to get my father checked quickly. That was on a Monday. Hospital decided to keep my father in because results were "worrying" - but nothing else was told because we had to wait for the final results.
My father passed away the following Sunday. It came that quickly. Less than a week. No one remotely expected that. We got the results shortly after. Final stage lung cancer. FINAL FUCKING STAGE. And the GP who sees him ON A WEEKLY BASIS and has known him forever properly failed to even raise a single worry when A CANCER WAS DEVELOPING.
I don't even know what to say, I'm kinda tearing up writing this. I never want to see that GP's face again. Fucking idiot that is. How can you see a guy on a weekly basis for more than 5 years and genuinely be unable to see something as big as a CANCER IN ITS FINAL STAGE. Holy shit
TL:DR: professionals can be absolutely shit as well. Take care of yourself and don't hesitate to see more than one professional if there's doubt <3