doctors say the strangest things
Jul. 7th, 2006 08:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cellioA couple days ago, while changing the needle before giving Erik his fluids, I accidentally jabbed myself with the used needle. I called my vet to ask if the kind of hepatitis that Erik (likely) has can be transmitted to humans. She said she didn't think so but I should consult my doctor. (She said that he doesn't have the human strains, like B or C.)
So I called my doctor, and he said he didn't know but he would check. I gave him my vet's name and phone number so he could get anything he needed from Erik's medical records. I kind of figured that he and my vet would talk in medspeak not meaningful to ordinary humans, or something.
He called back the next day and said that he'd gone on the internet and he didn't think there would be a problem, but if I saw $symptoms I should give him a call. Err, ok, I could have done that -- and did, but found nothing conclusive. I think he was trying to be reassuring ("you can find anything on the internet"), whereas I see "going on the internet" as, at best, comparable to "going to the library". (It might also be "going to the local bar and trading gossip", of course.) If you went to the Johns Hopkins medical library, you probably got good information -- but you could have gone to the children's section of some backwater library for all I know, and been reassured that the Cat in the Hat would have said something if that were possible. I trust my doctor (if I didn't he wouldn't be my doctor), and I'm confident that he found reputable information, but his way of presenting that was not as helpful as he thought it would be. :-)
So I called my doctor, and he said he didn't know but he would check. I gave him my vet's name and phone number so he could get anything he needed from Erik's medical records. I kind of figured that he and my vet would talk in medspeak not meaningful to ordinary humans, or something.
He called back the next day and said that he'd gone on the internet and he didn't think there would be a problem, but if I saw $symptoms I should give him a call. Err, ok, I could have done that -- and did, but found nothing conclusive. I think he was trying to be reassuring ("you can find anything on the internet"), whereas I see "going on the internet" as, at best, comparable to "going to the library". (It might also be "going to the local bar and trading gossip", of course.) If you went to the Johns Hopkins medical library, you probably got good information -- but you could have gone to the children's section of some backwater library for all I know, and been reassured that the Cat in the Hat would have said something if that were possible. I trust my doctor (if I didn't he wouldn't be my doctor), and I'm confident that he found reputable information, but his way of presenting that was not as helpful as he thought it would be. :-)
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-07 01:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-07 09:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-07 02:07 pm (UTC)But still: Ow.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-07 09:58 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-07 02:17 pm (UTC)But yeah, "I'll try looking on wikipedia" is never a phrase I want to hear out of my doctor's mouth.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-07 10:00 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-07 03:42 pm (UTC)Fingers crossed.
PS, my exceptionally talented Dr. uses Internet searches of some famous medical library while I'm sitting in his office to answer questions he doesn't know the answer to. It's kind of kicky. I introduced him to using library searching in about 1995.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-07 10:01 pm (UTC)It's kind of kicky.
That does sound cool, yes.
(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-07 05:04 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2006-07-07 10:02 pm (UTC)Hepatitis
Date: 2006-07-07 08:03 pm (UTC)Re: Hepatitis
Date: 2006-07-07 10:07 pm (UTC)So far as I know, my immune system is normal.