Navigate through this Medical World
Every Tuesday in the Washington Post’s Health and Science section Sandra Boodman tells the story of a medical mystery. There’s a condition multiple doctors failed to diagnose and treat for years until one finally stumbles on the cause and solves the mystery. She’s been chronicling these cases for some 10 years and recently wrote a column titled “How not to become a medical mystery” in which she highlights five lessons learned from the cases she’s written about.
Lesson One: Get your records. Boodman explains: ”Medical records serve as a roadmap for diagnosis…And these records may contain important clues and vital undisclosed information.” This one really resonated with me, especially since my doctor started sending me my lab results, so I now see everything he sees after each visit. (Which I now upload to my ICMed account, although I still to my doctor to know what they all mean or portend for my health).
Two: Be persistent and follow up. Many patients she says “assume that a doctor will inform them of test results or return their calls.” Don’t be afraid of appearing to be a pest.
Three: Don’t go alone. “Some patients simply can’t absorb what the doctor is saying. Many are too rattled or distracted to remember crucial details,” she writes. That’s a lesson I learned when I was diagnosed with early stage prostate cancer a few years ago, and absolutely needed my wife with me as we met with surgeons and radiologists to discuss various courses of treatment. I could never have remembered it all by myself. If I had ICmed then, I wouldn’t have to. I could have recorded everything with the doctor sitting right in front of me and have this reference wherever I go. I caught my cancer early, by the way, thanks to regular PSA tests, and was able to successfully treat it with radiation.
Four: Come prepared, by which “being passive or uninformed – or both – can significantly prolong or entirely derail the diagnostic process.”
And Lesson Number Five: Trust your instincts. If your gut tells you something’s really wrong, don’t settle for guesses that don’t solve the problem.
Fortunately, no one I know has had to suffer the pain and frustrations of a medical mystery.