Are there any physicians here who can tell me the best way to approach a situation with my current physician? I’d go to a new physician, but I’m way out in the countryside and this guy is supposedly the best within a 2-hour drive.
His specialty is orthopedics and I’ve seen him about 3 times in the past 2 months about a shoulder condition I have. He’s been unable to uncover anything at all and doesn’t seem to have any new ideas on the problem. I’ve been researching steadily on the internet, and I think I found a possibility that he missed (damaged or compressed spinal accessory nerve).
What’s the most productive way to approach a physician with information like this when your options are limited?
"I’ve been researching steadily on the internet, and I think I found a possibility that he missed (damaged or compressed spinal accessory nerve).
What’s the most productive way to approach a physician with information like this when your options are limited?"
If I understand you correctly you want to convey the information in a manner which is risk-free since your doc is the only one available. Not knowing you or the doc there’s no way to know exactly what would satisfy both goals. No matter what you do the doc in question might not hear your information and might fire you. Chances are good that the doc is way ahead of you and what you’ve come up with has been considered.
You could try something like the following, but even this could get you fired, so you have to make the difficult call and assume the risk: “Doc, this is probably something you’ve already considered, but I read on the internet about (name of what you think could be the problem, no explanation, just the medical name). Just hearing that (name of disease, as if it were the the plague) bothers me a lot. Can you reassure me that (name of disease) isn’t the problem?”
A lot of docs would prefer a 100% straight-out approach, but with some you won’t get anywhere. Physicians generally want to come to an accurate and useful understanding of what the problem is and how to deal with it. Most of us have learned that the genie is out of bottle - our patients have access to the Information Age, too.
G27MD is giving you good advice. I suspect the orthopod has considered the diagnosis, but you should be direct and address your concerns in a diplomatic way, as suggested above.
Tell him, politely. Doctors aren’t gods, and as long as you don’t angrily denounce him as a bungling quack and he knows you’re not pulling the info out of your arse, he may well be grateful for the heads-up.
I had a similar situation with my GP: I was getting terrible headaches and a scary numbness on one side of my head and face - Keith {my trusty doc} was baffled, and was all set to refer me to a neurologist, when I did some hefty googling: turns out that Losec, the drug I was taking for a stomach upset, had been shown in some obscure studies to block B12 absorbtion. Further research revealed that one of the symptoms of B12 deficiency was hemifacial dysaesthesia {as it’s called}, I started taking vitamin supplements, and all the problems vanished, as did all thoughts of MRI scans and brain tumours.
Like I said, Keith was grateful for the information - he’s an extremely good doctor, and cheerfully admits that he’s not omniscient: he checked up on my research, and told me that now he recommends B12 supplements to everyone on Losec. A happy ending all round, and one that left me ever so slightly smug.