Patrick went to the dermatologist today, and I tagged along. He wanted to get his moles checked because he never has before, and his cousin recently had a melanoma scare. Even though I try to avoid doctors for general sicknesses and ailments, I thought "Well, we don't know anything about skin and we certainly don't know anything about cancer, so why not?" He has a few moles that the doctor thought were cause for concern, and he scheduled to have four of them removed. We learned that moles should be nice and round or oval, not funny shapes, and they should be light brown or tan, not black. He's having the dark, funny shaped ones removed.
I'm not really very concerned. I don't often freak out when it comes to medical issues, since I think most of them are overblown and just scare us for no reason. Usually, its nothing. This is not even the point of this post. The point is that the doctor found me amusing because I had questions.
I asked many a question including "Why do we need to worry about moles?" "What about people who don't have moles?" "What about red moles?" and "What about the ones that stick out?" He would answer one question and say "What else?" He might have even giggled. He said that I "made his day". How did I make his day? By asking questions. This tells me that most people do not ask the doctor questions. Patrick didn't even have a single question and it was his body! Patrick told the doctor that I'm a research scientist, so I'm inquisitive, but so is he and he didn't ask a slew of questions. The point is, why doesn't anybody ask the doctor questions??
There is a commercial on recently that shows a woman asking a million questions about a particular type of food. (or is it clothes? I don't remember. For the sake of the analogy I'll say its food.) So she goes on and on "Does that come with dressing? What kind? Can I exchange the rice for broccoli? How much fat is in that? Can I get that grilled with no butter?" And then they show her sitting on an exam table and her doctor looks up and says "Ok, any questions?" and she sits there silently swinging her feet and says "Um.. nope."
Its time people start asking questions. It's hard to ask questions, I know, even if you have them. The doc comes bounding in the room pokes on you for maybe 30 seconds spits out some information you barely have time to process and then is out the door. You are left sitting there with your mouth agape wondering what just happened. So make a list ahead of time. Demand attention. And if you still can't get attention, don't go to that doctor anymore! Blind trust is NOT acceptable. The only person you should blindly trust is God, and I have yet to find a doctor who is God.
I am the same way! I also research symptoms. Although this could be taken overboard, I like to be prepared and educated when I get a response. I went to the GP today for my shoulder and asked several questions about what something would feel like if it was XXX and could YYY cause what's happening. Was there more than one course of treatment? Which was better in his opinion and why? Etc. I was expecting him to be annoyed, because he seemed pleased that I wasn't just blindly following his advice.
ReplyDeleteOne reason why I chose the ear surgeon is Nashville is because when I asked a question, he answered more of my questions in his response(s) and he took time to explain every detail, not just that's it, but this IS it, and how and why and what and when etc. I cannot stand doc's who walk in with ego's and get offended when I ask questions. And even still, I don't ask as many as the hubster! ;)
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