I may be veering off the topic a bit (actually I may be hijackingit!) but related to all this is the reality that different people look at illness and death in dramatically different ways. I’m American Indian and my families didn;t get bother by severe illness and death that much. It was a part of the life process and living process for them, as it tends to be for me. And back a few generations there was no chemo or Mri’s and other things. There may have been more of an acceptance of certain things. And not all that long ago doctors were no expected to know everything about everything because there was not all that much going on in the medical field. Now it’s totally different. And when a doctor spends 12 hours a day with nothing but medical issues and maybe a few more hours with review of lab reports, keeping up with latest research, new drugs etc. it is quite difficult. So now comes along the patient with questions. Ahh, that’s a novelty. And they often are not prepared for it. So the bottom line is that patients have the responsibility to see to it that they DO include the patient as part of the team and that they DO communicate in ways that the patients can understand. And another sad reality is that there really is not enough time for a doctor to spend an hour with each surgical or pre-surgical patient. there simply isn’t. as an example if a surgeon has 15 1 hour bladder surgeries to do a week consider the prep time he or she has to do. Review the labs, review the sonograms, MRI’s, etc. Pre-op prep time, post op time, dictation, etc. the it comes around to about 5 hour minimum per patient. Then the follow up office visit, then all the other patients he has to see, the on call emergencies, and when it’s all done, a surgeon may work over 90 hours a week. it’s a long week. And a lot of liability and problems when something goes wrong. Just a perspective of behind the scenes.
Kiowa
