I used to laugh along with everyone else who watches the popular TV series “House” whenever Dr. House's minions once again suggested lupus as the possible diagnosis for a patient’s varied and puzzling symptoms. I laughed because, in the show at least, lupus never turned out to be the underlying condition, but more importantly because few House fans, including myself, or few people for that matter, know enough about lupus to understand the devastating, lifelong impact that diagnosis can have on a person’s life. That is, until I began developing my own set of random and complex symptoms last year and witnessed firsthand the casual tone and frequency with which doctors suggest serious conditions such as lupus as possible explanations for a patient’s (in this case, my own) issues.
Last week during my latest hospital admission, one doctor from rheumatology came to see me after being consulted to aid in the diagnosis of my puzzling symptoms. Though I appreciated the time she took to read my complicated medical history before seeing me, she began to “think out loud,” tossing around serious autoimmune diseases, such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, as possible explanations for my symptoms and musing that although I didn’t fit some of the criteria, I fit others and it would be worth repeating certain tests and analysis to rule them out. Because I’ve heard this kind of thing so many times from so many doctors (every team/department seems determined to find a disease I have that fits within their area of expertise), her words didn’t affect me as much as they would have last year or even several months ago, but I still felt rather upset.
My advice to doctors in her situation is simple: if you don’t have anything helpful or conclusive to say to a patient, don’t say anything at all. Thinking out loud and mentioning serious, life-altering diseases without any concrete proof only serves to heighten a patient’s anxiety in an already unpleasant and challenging situation. Whether we’re discussing lupus or some other medical condition, my request to medical professionals is this: either rule out lupus or come to me with some cold, hard facts that point to it before you use that word again in my presence. I’m not bitter; I just believe that sometimes doctors need to take a step back from the technical side of their job and reacquaint themselves with their patients’ feelings and experience. Believe me, we can tell the difference between those who do and those who don’t.
Last week during my latest hospital admission, one doctor from rheumatology came to see me after being consulted to aid in the diagnosis of my puzzling symptoms. Though I appreciated the time she took to read my complicated medical history before seeing me, she began to “think out loud,” tossing around serious autoimmune diseases, such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, as possible explanations for my symptoms and musing that although I didn’t fit some of the criteria, I fit others and it would be worth repeating certain tests and analysis to rule them out. Because I’ve heard this kind of thing so many times from so many doctors (every team/department seems determined to find a disease I have that fits within their area of expertise), her words didn’t affect me as much as they would have last year or even several months ago, but I still felt rather upset.
My advice to doctors in her situation is simple: if you don’t have anything helpful or conclusive to say to a patient, don’t say anything at all. Thinking out loud and mentioning serious, life-altering diseases without any concrete proof only serves to heighten a patient’s anxiety in an already unpleasant and challenging situation. Whether we’re discussing lupus or some other medical condition, my request to medical professionals is this: either rule out lupus or come to me with some cold, hard facts that point to it before you use that word again in my presence. I’m not bitter; I just believe that sometimes doctors need to take a step back from the technical side of their job and reacquaint themselves with their patients’ feelings and experience. Believe me, we can tell the difference between those who do and those who don’t.
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