Today, I had to speak the words no medical provider wants to have to say:

[Aristus]

"This? No problem. You'll be fine."



With the popularity of medical TV shows that highlight strange, rare, arcane, and obscure diseases, it's easy to lose sight of the fact that most of the things that happen to the human body resolve on their own with no medical treatment.

For patients dreading, but preparing for, the worst-case scenario, I don't know if it is a relief to know that the problem one is being evaluated for is nothing to worry about, or if the worry is increased by the suspicion that one's medical provider isn't doing enough to evaluate the problem.

I'm a firm believer in treating the little problem before it becomes a big problem. But sometimes, a little problem is all that it is. I just provide reassurance and advice to follow-up if it gets worse instead of better.

[Walleye]

1. When the doctor tells me it's nothing to worry about, I don't worry about it

[unblock]

2. Don't you know you have a fiduciary responsibility to your shareholders to maximize profit??

Now go schedule a followup, order some unnecessary tests, prescribe some antibiotics and addictive painkillers and/or anxiolytics and get that patient a ct scan to rule out a toomah!

[Aristus]

3. We're a not-for-profit, (supposedly), so we don't have share-holders

But the admins make bank, so yeah, got to make sure they keep their million-dollar salaries.

[3catwoman3]

4. When I know parents well enough to be sure they have...

...a decent sense of humor, and their child has something that is not serious and should resolve without intervention, I tell them that I recommend “benign neglect.” This universally available free modality works very well as long as you are patient enough to use it long enough.

[DFW]

5. Five years ago, my wife what looked like a little problem.

But her gynecologist said that with her medical history—breast cancer and cancer in the family—it should biopsied. Just three tiny dots. Two were nothing, and one was an always fatal cancer called “the murderer.” She had a drastic operation and got 84 biopsies taken. Treatment to be determined by which ones showed cancer. But ALL 84 were negative. The surgeon said he’d never seen The Murderer caught this early, and for the first time ever recommended no chemo. He said he thought they really got it all. So far, he has been right, but it wasn’t “nothing.” If it hadn’t been discovered and operated on right away, she would have already been dead for three years by now.

[Hekate]

6. That's what experience does for a doctor: knowing a patient and their history, and weighing...

...the odds (if that’s an okay way to put it). Both Aristus and your wife’s doc did that. God bless ‘em both. I am so happy for you and your wife, DFW.

[DFW]

9. So are we!!

Without her, I would be a useless wreck. I'd hate being a hermit, but any woman trying to take her place would have one hell of an uphill (and unfair) battle. So, as long as I have her, pretty much any other adversity is surmountable.

Weighing the odds is a very good way to put it. The surgeon told us exactly that in our last consult after the operation. He said it was a gamble, opting for no chemo. We asked him if he would recommend it if it were his wife, and he said in this case, yes. It was a risk, but one he would take, as he had never seen a case of "the murderer" detected so early that no metastasizing whatsoever had taken place.

[In_The_Wind]

7. You've always been honest with your patients.

They shouldn't continue to worry after you've reassured them.

[Aristus]

8. Aw, thanks!