[QUOTE=Waverly]
Of course! Because that’s what I do when I find myself disagreeing with a bunch of people on a tangential point that I’m not even interested in… I thank them all, and agree to spend time and money looking into whatever the hell it is they insist I look into.
It’s no imposition, really, and I think my insurance covers “well visits to ask questions the SDMB want me to.” I might even spring for a trip to the emergency room for something that important.
[/QUOTE]
Yeah, far be it from us to actually try to, you know, possibly correct some perceived misinformation being tossed out by a professional. I mean, if her doctor said “Cut down on your sodium intake, it can cause blindness” I am pretty sure that it wouldn’t harm her, either, because we all could probably stand to cut down on our sodium. But holy shit, the two (sodium and blindness) have nothing to do with each other, and the doc is (more obviously in my example) giving out bad advice.
Guess what, doctors aren’t perfect. They are humans just like everyone else, and have long days. Nobody in the thread told her (not even me, in this thread) told her “Holy shit, you should drive to your doctor right this second, pay the copay, and find out WTF is going on with this info!” Nope. Instead, it was suggested that the doc may have made a mistake and misspoken. I think it would be pretty easy for me to call the doctor’s office and say “You know, the doc told me to avoid drinks with some artificial sweetener in them, did he say Aspartame/nutrasweet, or did he say Sweet’n’low/sacharin…I can’t seem to remember”
I’d get a (no charge) call back with whatever the doc had said originally, and then I might have left it alone.
Alternately, she could have said “Thanks for the info, until I get the opportunity to check into it further, let’s continue to discuss where I can find soft drinks w/o aspartame, as per my doctor’s advice.” In other words, a modicum of politeness for well-meaning people who are attempting to answer questions she asked or implied in the OP.