Nightmare: Arm Surgery Edition

Sometimes, reading other people's accounts of their medical ordeals makes me feel better about my own. Call it schadenfreude if you will, but it isn't like I want them to have a bad experience, rather, I fell like I am not alone in my own bad experiences.

My family has had its share of medical nightmares and terrible experiences with physicians. Sometimes, even under the best circumstances things go wrong. My brother was misdiagnosed when he had a torn knee ligament and wound up destroying his meniscus. He opted to have an experimental surgery to replace the meniscus using a donor one. To make a long story short, an internal staph infection took over and cost my brother more tissue and his knee is now worse off than it had been.

When I read this story in the Washington Post, I couldn't help but think of my brother's issues and his continuing journey. There have been many experiences that have taught me to be an informed patient and, much like this man, I read medical literature to learn as much as possible and stay current with what is happening. I want to have more understanding of my doctor so that we can work together on a treatment plan. This seems only reasonable to me. I think more patients would experience better outcomes if they became more invested in their care.

The author also puts forward some interesting statistics and some ideas for implementing changes in the field of patient safety. I wholeheartedly agree that it is absurd that one can get more information on a $30,000 car than they can on open heart surgery. It is wrong and definitely something I hope changes in my lifetime. What if doctors got outcomes ratings like the health department gives to restaurants. Would that C+ rating make the doctors work harder and make patients think twice? I don't know, but I can't help but think it would increase the accountability. Implementation would be a difficult proposition, though, and I can't say I know what would be best for the measures. I'm sure the AMA and other physicians boards can come up with something... I would really like to see that happen. A girl can dream...

Medical Dictionary

I really don't mind sharing knowledge with people. I don't at all. In fact, I am glad to share what I've learned with others.

What annoys me is when those same people won't take the time to do a simple google search before asking me to do it for them. I get that I'm good at googling and finding information. I am proud of that. If you expect me to help you, though, you have to show at least some initiative, or it gets to be overwhelming. I'm usually finding out things about my own diagnoses or symptoms or what have you. It's hard for me to take on research projects of your common cold. It's a cold. Take Mucinex. GAH!

I will jump in to facebook conversations about symptom remedies, though, because I really feel like people are in the dark about that stuff. The cold medicine aisle is confusing for me and I KNOW what I'm looking for. Specific brand guidance, etc, can be extremely helpful for people, and I realize that, so I try and do what I can. I also try to tell them active ingredients that will help certain symptoms. That leads to some interesting auto-corrects on my phone, as you can imagine.

I just don't want people to feel like I am a substitute for asking their doctor questions, I guess. I have walked a long road of confusion and questions to get here, and I think there's a lot of value in finding these things out for yourself and having a discourse with your medical professionals about what you find. Talk to your doctor. If you can't, find a new one. They're your partner.