Quote:
Originally Posted by retiredguy123
I recently had a medical scare that turned out to be nothing. What did I learn from this?
1. The medical profession does a lousy job of dealing with the patient's anxiety regarding medical testing. They need to be more responsive to the patient's need to know when and how test results will be conveyed to the patient. They actually told me to wait a week to receive a test result that was available the same day. So, I had to get the results and interpret them myself. It would have been better if the doctor had called me as soon as the results were published.
2. Medical tests often reveal incidental problems that were not even tested for. Some tests, like CT scans, are extremely accurate, and often reveal potential issues that result in more testing and more anxiety for the patient.
3. In the future, I will be much more selective in agreeing to tests that a doctor wants to perform. I will not blindly accept a doctor's recommendation for testing. I want more information about the potential benefit of the test before I agree to it.
4. Nobody lives forever and I realize that I am not as afraid of dying as I used to be.
Has anyone else had a similar experience?
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Yep. After a routine blood test my doctor (who is an international expert) said I have Multiple myeloma. I had maybe 5 years left. I had two young children at home. I was so scared of this news I could not sleep, I could not eat, I could not go to work. Eventually I pulled myself together enough to get another opinion and went to the head of oncology at a very established hospital. This man was an incredibly compassionate man, he saw my degree of anxiety and took blood himself in his office and analyzed it. He made me wait in his office till we had the result. Then he said, “You don’t have MM, you are as healthy as I am.” Then I could actually breathe again. That was over 20 years ago.