Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Does the doctor know best: how is a patient to know?

Last week, I had sciatic nerve surgery. I am a physician, and the process that I went through was extremely confusing for me despite my medical background.

Last week, I had sciatic nerve surgery.  I am a physician, and the process that I went through was extremely confusing for me despite my medical background.

I wound up getting opinions from three surgeons before the operation.  The first surgeon took the operation very casually.  The second surgeon relied on findings on imaging studies rather than examining me.  The third surgeon did a very thorough history and physical examination, took functional studies of my back, and advised the most conservative approach to surgery with the greatest benefit to risk ratio.  His recommendation was to perform the least amount of surgery possible with the fastest recovery period.  Naturally, I chose the third surgeon.

As a patient, despite my medical training, the decision making process was anxiety producing.  With three different opinions, how could I know if I was making the correct choice?  I imagine that for folks without any medical training, this whole episode would be even more difficult.

As patients, we are taught to trust our physicians.  However, when we are given widely differing opinions about the proper course of action, what are we to do?  Whom should we trust?

This becomes even more difficult as doctors spend less and less time talking to their patients, a pre-operative evaluation is done over the telephone by a nurse, and you are introduced to your anesthesiologist as you are being wheeled into the operating room.

What are people with complicated (more even than mine) medical conditions and decisions supposed to do?  Some are advised to have medical advocates come with them, but they're usually lay people, who can take only notes for the patient and ask a bunch of questions.

There's no real answer, you see, and health care reform doesn't have anything to do with this.  How do we do a better job?

-----

Have a health care question or frustration? Share your story »