Ask your physician to pick up a qualified oncologist and place your life in their hands.
Every third American will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. It will strike virtually every family. Recovering from cancer is a matter of teamwork between a doctor and patient. It is vital that a patient select a physician with whom they feel compatible. All doctors are not created equal. Each patient is different with different problems and different needs.
Your sole goal is to recover and that must match your physician’s paramount interest. If it appears to be anything else, run quickly until you find a qualified doctor who has the same interest.
It has been clinically proven that a treatment given by an optimistic physician is far more effective than the identical treatment by a skeptical physician. A patient will tend to fulfill a negative physician’s prophecy. It is worth your time, it is worth your life to interview several qualified physicians to locate the one with whom you have the best rapport and with whom you feel most optimistic for a complete recovery.
Most physicians are qualified, caring and considerate. They explain all the facts to the patient, allowing the patient to make all decisions, and end up with the statement that they will be there for the patient at all times and work with them to try to recover. This physician more likely has the knowledge, self-confidence, and ability to heal. This physician’s ego is far less important than the quality and quantity of the patient’s life. This is the physician you are looking for, and it is worth the effort to find.
There are a few who constantly need to groom their ego. They are apparently taught to be negative about the prognosis of each new patient. This way they will always be a hero. Being negative, if the patient fails to recover, they were right. If the patient should actually respond successfully, they are a hero because they saved the patient from all odds.
Then there is the occasional physician interested in keeping up the payments on their Mercedes. They advise the patient not to worry about anything and leave everything in their hands and let them cure it. This physician might try some exotic sounding treatment and waste precious time that could have been used for something successful.
Lastly, is the efficient, curt individual building a giant practice, seeing innumerable patients each day without sufficient time for any single patient. As they walk out of the examining room with their back to the patient, they ask as the door closes, “Any other questions?” This is a dangerous physician for any patient because they are not available when the patient needs them and they do not have time to keep up on the advances in treatments.
The easiest approach is to ask your physician to pick up a qualified oncologist and place your life in their hands. But the easiest is absolutely not the best. You may be going to your diagnosing physician’s golfing buddy, partner or brother-in law. You are a consumer. You have rights. Doctors are not created equal. It is vital that you relate well to the individual who will save your life.
If you car were wrecked, you wouldn’t just take it to the nearest garage and say fix it. You would probably see two or three body shops and get bids. And that is for your car. Your life is certainly more precious than your car. Isn’t it worth as much effort?