Has your doctor ever told you, "I don't know"?
A recent discussion on Twitter made me think more about this question. Several of the doctors I follow lamented the fact that they didn't know answers for some patients, and marveled at the fact that their patients were surprised they didn't know those answers.
There are any number of reasons a doctor may not know an answer we patients need. Maybe we have unusual symptoms that require further study, or perhaps the explanation for our diagnosis is "idiopathic" -- a fancy word for "we don't know where it came from." Maybe we have a rare disease the doctor doesn't know much about. Or maybe a drug we ask about is just too new and the doctor hasn't had a chance to learn about it yet. Many reasons.
|
I jumped into the conversation (which is what Twitter is for) and suggested that doctors might best follow up any declaration of "I don't know" with "So let's work together to figure out the answer." All but one of the doctors disappeared from the conversation. (Didn't mean to be such a killjoy!) The other one, in a direct message to me which others could not read, told me that's what he always tells his patients. (Good!) |
I don't know why the others didn't respond. Maybe they got busy and they simply didn't see my declaration. Or perhaps they never thought about such a collegial reply. My intent through these kinds of posts is to show those doctors that we patients want to collaborate with them. Some of them are beginning to get the message, but as we patients know, that doesn't happen nearly often enough.
There are extremes. There are doctors who don't want us to realize they don't know an answer, so they try to cover it up with arrogance. There are others who give us bogus answers which allow them to treat symptoms instead of getting to the heart of our real problem. There are still others who pretend they know, but have no clue.
The good ones, the best ones, embrace our willingness to partner with them, to work on this diagnosis and treatment challenge TOGETHER.
Do you expect your doctors to know all the answers? Don't do that to them, or even more importantly, to yourself. Take any interface with your doctor as an opportunity to collaborate with each other, and not as a reason to put them on some pedestal of expectation that most don't want and few deserve.
[PS - If you want to participate in these conversations, too, why not follow me on Twitter? Not sure how to use Twitter? Learn more about using Twitter to find healthcare information.]
| For the latest news and advice on navigating your healthcare, sign up for my free newsletter. Have ideas to share? Or need some help? Visit the patient empowerment forum. |
..............................................
Photo © Microsoft Image Gallery
I had an oncologist who (I think) overdosed me with chemo, and could never admit that, and could never understand why I got the worst case of thrombocytopenia he had ever seen. That landed me in hospital for a 3-pt transfusion and put me out of work for a month. He NEVER said that he didn’t know what caused it!! I just fired him.
I love when a doctor is honest enough to tell me they “don’t know”. It means they are more interested in making sure they get the diagnosis right rather than needing to have all of the answers. To me, it is a sign of good medicine when a doctor knows when something needs to be taken to the level of a specialist.
I’ll take a doc who will admit he doesn’t have the answers ANY DAY over a doc who makes up the answer.