Wen I wrote the post yesterday I had forgotten that today was doctor’s day…the post came at absolutely right time on the eve of doctors day…..well first of all I wish all the doctors of the world a very happy doctors day.....most of us seem to be doing a good job and I wish good luck to all of medical fraternity to continue the good work they are doing….
Today I wish to write a message to all the non medical people…..please have faith in your doctor…if u don’t have faith in him….if he does not inspire faith in you abt him change your doctor but whenever u r taking treatment from a particular doctor don’t second guess him…..what I mean is YOU don’t question his line of treatment…if u want u can go to an equally qualified doctor for a second opinion…if u have a doctor in your family who is in some other city he can talk with your doctor what the problem is what treatment is being given to him, why it is being given to him and I am sure your doctor will not mind that for your mental satisfaction…..but U don’t go advising him and asking him unnecessary questions coz even if he wants he cant explain you in detail as u don’t have necessary background knowledge….
its like a fifth grader jus reading something in a 10th grader’s book and drawing conclusions according to what he understands and asking his parents questions….the parents tell him “BETA U LL KNOW IT WEN U GROW OLDER” isn’t it right….isnt it wat u have done wen your own children ask things they don’t understand….u explain them, true, but upto a limit right….u don’t go on humoring their curiosities wen u know they wont get it…..
people read these days stuff in newspapers ,internet ,magazines and then question their doctors line of treatment….
We don’t put in 5 to 10 years of our life into medical school for nothing..
And please don’t go putting all the blame for whatever new problem happens to you on your doctor or his previously given treatment for a different ailment…..most of the time there is no relation with what happening now to you with the previous treatment…and this lack of faith is so irritating….as if its doctors only who cause all your problems then why don’t you treat yourself….why come to a doctor at all….
today a patient whose extraction I had done on Saturday came with pain…..she claimed that the extraction site was hurting her badly…and that she was having unbearable pain etc etc….i was really concerned as the extraction was a simple one had gone out smoothly no apparent problem had happened…..then why was she complaining of pain????? i checked the wound it was nice and healing…no pus seen….i was really concerned and worried……I asked my sir to see the wound….he said that it was healing well…no problem there….but I told him she was having lot of pain….wen he again examined the area he saw that her other tooth was badly decayed and infected and the other tooth was causing pain not the extraction site…..and then I was relieved….i was told the patient one more tooth had to be removed….and the pain was not due to extraction site…..but I was so angry with her as she had made me doubt myself…raised a doubt in my mind about my ability…was I wrong in getting angry??????and this is not the first case….
So many times patients come and tell “ I had got filling done 2 yrs back which has come out and now the tooth is aching” I feel like yelling at them its not the filling that has come out that’s hurting you but the fact that there is a new cavity in the same tooth which has gone deep now due to YOUR IMPROPER EATING AND BRUSHING HABIT THAT’S CAUSING THE TOOTH TO HURT….or else “I had got root canal done couple of years back and now the tooth is hurting” on examination its not the root canaled tooth that’s painful but some tooth around it that has got decayed and its hurting….and I patiently explain to them that problem is not what u think but something else….
but internally its so so ANNOYING that there is not a iota of trust…patients feel the doc has messed up something somewhere which is giving rise to new problem for them…..arre if u have pain then tell the doc na “doc my this tooth on this side is hurting….or I feel that a back tooth is paining” but no the complain only starts with my filling is out or the root canal is not done properly so tooth is paining….always pointing a finger at previously done treatment…...give us a benefit of doubt at least.....dont we deserve that????
then always comes the question of the guarantee about the filling…..to this I jus tell well when you have spoiled the god given tooth that is designed to last for a lifetime how do u expect me to give guarantee for a artificial man made stuff….still if u maintain it well then it will last you for 5 -6 yrs….
The only person who can keep up a promise that big is god and I have not seen him hold a scalpel lately
-preston burke in grey’s anatomy
want to tell you all, patients always want doctors to give guarantee that there is no risk involved in any procedure….well that’s certainly not the case…there is a certain amount of risk involved in every procedure…..and no one, absolutely no doctor can give you a guarantee that the given procedure is a risk free procedure….and why only doctors, no one gives us a guarantee for anything.....there is risk involved in everything we do…when we sit in air plane does the company give guarantee that the plane is not gonna crash???? Do u give yourself guarantee that when u cross a road or when you are driving a car you wont meet with an accident???? NO…. but we all unknowingly take these risks…..what u can do is that you take necessary precautions to avoid an accident and let me assure you all which we as doctors do too….
I know I know that its difficult to be cool when you are a patient…when u r in pain….and wen your doc tells u of all possible things that cud go wrong, u start doubting the procedure…but what can we as doctors do…we have to save our skin too…we have to be medico legally safe….in the good old days docs wud not explain all the complications to the patient so as to save them from anxiety….but then now if we have not told the patients all complications and something happens patients sue doctors ,say arre we were not informed of it or we wud have thought over again…so we as doctors prefer to be on the safe side of the law…
I so very well remember when I was going to have LASIK surgery…and consent form was to be signed…loss of sight was mentioned as a possible complication….it happens very rarely but it can happen…verbally doc had said nothings gonna happen but he took mine and my parents’ sign on the form…I signed without reading in detail but my mom was sure a nervous wreck for those 30 min till I came out of the OR without having any problem…
So that’s that….what can we do too…..we understand you r in trouble, are tensed, in pain but believe me even one nasty incident with one doc makes all the docs in that area hundred times more cautious…after all we are gonna be treating patients all our life day in and out….we cant let our professional life give us additional stress than what we can take….
i just want to tell you guys that we doctors are human beings too….we are neither god nor robots….we too have feelings and a heart….and m not saying we are perfect....we try to be as close to perfection as we can get coz our imperfections can have serious consequences.... but we do make mistakes at times anyways.....and how many ever years of practice we have , we are still learning……that’s why each time we see a patient we call it EXAMINATION and our jobs are called PRACTICE :)
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