Doctors are just practicing. They know a lot. They went to school for four years after college. Then they were interns for another two years learning all about disease processes in the body. They specialized in something and learned even more about that particular body part or disease process. They are smart people.
But I live in this body 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. I know when something is wrong. I need you to listen and not just blow me off when I tell you something is wrong. I will not tell you I have a particular disease, but I will tell you that I’ve been really sick and need help. I will tell you that my body has changed the way it works and describe the change. I need you to be smart enough to pay attention, listen, and offer suggestions.
I don’t mind getting tests done. I don’t mind repeating tests to confirm the results. But I want a phone call or follow up call if something is amiss. I shouldn’t be calling you saying, hey these tests have never looked like this in the 1,000 other times I’ve had it done. Something has changed and we need to know why.
I know you want everyone to fit into a box and sometimes people fit into those boxes. But there are always the outliers. Those are the ones you really have to understand. Those are the ones that really need the help because nobody else will listen to them.
I also don’t want you to half way listen to me. I want you to listen to me as if I am the first patient you have seen all day. I want your absolute attention, enthusiasm, and scientific skills put to work for my benefit – that’s why I’m paying for your expertise.
I want this to be a partnership. If I can try something that won’t do harm – let me. If you can write me a prescription for an ongoing issue that might help that I read about online, let’s talk about it. Let’s talk about the pros and cons of the solution and work together as a team to find something that will work for me.
Don’t tell me not to use Dr. Google. Dr. Google allows me to look up things and answer questions you didn’t have the time to answer. While you may already have the answer, I didn’t study medicine so I need to figure it out. In return, I will use Dr. Google responsibly. I will use trusted, validated sites like WebMD or the Mayo Clinic’s site for my information. I will not discuss Dr. Wack-A-Doodle’s site with you unless there was a nugget of truth or I confirmed it on a legit site.
We are partners in this health journey. I am a leaf searching for the sunlight of knowledge and well being and you are the roots providing knowledge to make our partnership the beautiful flower of health. (Cheesy, yes, but I was on a roll there!) So, lets work together as a team to find the best solutions for my unique health situations.