We as patients have more information at our disposal than ever before. Sifting through that chaff to find some wheat is, however, sometimes the most daunting task before us. We ALL get to be patients, unless, of course, we die in the deer stand, soon after falling asleep so we’re not discovered until rigor mortis is upon us, or in a (hopefully) sudden single-vehicle accident where no one else is hurt. Physicians who fail to remember this are out of touch with their charges and human frailty but almost always receive a clinical comeuppance when it’s THEIR ass hanging out of the hospital gown. I know of a surgeon who had his own procedure done out of town so his operating room staff would not see that his own anatomy was, in fact, well…. inadequate .
That reminds me of something our local docs often say, dealing with the Amish community, who will refuse to see a doctor up until the point that an illness has gotten so bad it is nearly terminal and then be pissed that the doctor can't magically fix the tumor in a breast that has burst from the skin.
At 10 I contracted spinal meningitis an was rushed to the hospital. The pediatrician missed it in the office visit 5 days before. He hovered over me more than any doctor before or since. At 22 I was the oldest and last patient he saw before he retired. The man was like a second father.
At 54 EMS was called as I was having extreme pain that had all the symptoms of a cardiac problem. 2 MRI's and 3 CAT scans (1 with coloration?) the attending team could not answer one simple question -- 'What's wrong?' After two weeks of this I asked in less than pleasant tone -- "If you cannot define the problem then get someone who can!". Bad attitude on my part? Well consider, 3 days later a vascular specialist showed up, she took one look at me, my leg and the chart and ordered Warfrin. I could tell by the facial expressions on two of the attending out in the hall that she was reading the riot act. I had DVT.
The point of these two tales is this -- It is OK to tell a patient you don't know the answer. Even better to tell a patient based on what is available what it is NOT. But to offer nothing is the worst non answer of all. But the non answer seems to be the default doctor-patient dialogue these days and it ought to stop. This maybe one man's opinion but if someone in the medical community was to take a poll of patients the observation is very common indeed.
Shortage of physicians? Duh. It was you doctors who turned the profession into a carefully guarded monopoly. Fewer doctors, bigger fees. And like true totalitarians, you wiped out all other schools of thought and practice and shut down their medical schools. Take some responsibility for what is happening! This chickens have been coming home to roost for a very long time.
My doctor just fired me as a patient. I wouldn't take a medicine he prescribed. It's advertised on TV and they listed one of the side effects as "potentially serious genital infections". I told him I wouldn't take any medicine that included death by crotch rot as a potential side effect. His nurse called me a couple of hours later and said I should find a new doctor.
That reminds me of something our local docs often say, dealing with the Amish community, who will refuse to see a doctor up until the point that an illness has gotten so bad it is nearly terminal and then be pissed that the doctor can't magically fix the tumor in a breast that has burst from the skin.
Emotions and attitude run both ways.
At 10 I contracted spinal meningitis an was rushed to the hospital. The pediatrician missed it in the office visit 5 days before. He hovered over me more than any doctor before or since. At 22 I was the oldest and last patient he saw before he retired. The man was like a second father.
At 54 EMS was called as I was having extreme pain that had all the symptoms of a cardiac problem. 2 MRI's and 3 CAT scans (1 with coloration?) the attending team could not answer one simple question -- 'What's wrong?' After two weeks of this I asked in less than pleasant tone -- "If you cannot define the problem then get someone who can!". Bad attitude on my part? Well consider, 3 days later a vascular specialist showed up, she took one look at me, my leg and the chart and ordered Warfrin. I could tell by the facial expressions on two of the attending out in the hall that she was reading the riot act. I had DVT.
The point of these two tales is this -- It is OK to tell a patient you don't know the answer. Even better to tell a patient based on what is available what it is NOT. But to offer nothing is the worst non answer of all. But the non answer seems to be the default doctor-patient dialogue these days and it ought to stop. This maybe one man's opinion but if someone in the medical community was to take a poll of patients the observation is very common indeed.
Shortage of physicians? Duh. It was you doctors who turned the profession into a carefully guarded monopoly. Fewer doctors, bigger fees. And like true totalitarians, you wiped out all other schools of thought and practice and shut down their medical schools. Take some responsibility for what is happening! This chickens have been coming home to roost for a very long time.
My doctor just fired me as a patient. I wouldn't take a medicine he prescribed. It's advertised on TV and they listed one of the side effects as "potentially serious genital infections". I told him I wouldn't take any medicine that included death by crotch rot as a potential side effect. His nurse called me a couple of hours later and said I should find a new doctor.