Illness experience IV: Doctors are a different breed

I never realized how difficult it is for a patient to get a fuller picture about their condition and its required treatment. I get very frustrated with asking doctors questions. I simply cannot get the answers I want.

Why would doctors think that, because they know more, they can decide for others what has to be done? Ben, my brother, did all the information searches for me, and even prepared checklists and questions to ask, but when I was with the doctor, I could never get through those questions one by one. So I changed my strategy and thought of several broad categories in which I needed more information. I still wasn't very successful in getting answers.

The questions I don’t have answers to are about chemotherapy and hormonal therapy. Neither doctor seems really interested in talking about these aspects. Now that I reflect on it: Is it because they want only to address what is immediate, they don’t think that I am a good candidate for chemo, they don’t want increase their liability by talking too much or they don’t have time? I can’t fathom it. Is it just because they are doctors in Hong Kong? Is it the same everywhere?

I wonder how other people deal with the situation. Just let others make the decision? Put their lives into others’ hands? Now that I have experienced, from the perspective of a patient, the uniqueness of doctors as a different breed, I think of those who may not have a lot of education, may be less adept in problem solving or have limited access to information and communication technology. What about those people?

For Reflections on Nursing Leadership (RNL), published by the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau International.