How to know what your doctor really thinks of you
I was with my radiation oncologist a few months ago as he examined me.
“Oh,” he says as he flips through some papers. “You’re fine. You’re not like some other people.”
I thought to myself, “Egads, what other people, and what’s wrong with them?!”
And it occurred to me, too, that you don’t really want an oncologist who’s dismissive of you.
Or do you?
I call what happened with Dr. L an “intuitive slip.” I can tell when someone is letting information pass through them. It’s an offhand remark, a casual observation they didn’t know they even spoke aloud. One of my other doctors does it too, and she also doesn’t know she does it. Nor will I ever tell her. (She’d be horrified.)
But this is one of the biggest reasons why I chose them both: they’re in touch with their guidance. It doesn’t matter if they’re traditional medicine or alternative: each follows his or her hunches. I want people like that on my team.