Monday 6 May 2013

Those diagnoses...

When I returned home from the romantic north-east last weekend I read the blog of one of my Laughter Friends. It upset my heart and it came back to me big-time the number of times we trust the diagnoses we get from highly educated professionals who practice medicine... practice?

Not intentionally insulting anyone who has undergone this fantastic academic education and I'm sure the background for entering this trade is based in true compassion and passion for helping people.  However, sometimes it feels as if the compassion was left on the study bench and replaced by procedures and standards - in both response and treatment.

How come the messages that are being delivered to us mortals are still being expressed in such terms that we are left confused and with little more knowledge than before entering the whitecoat office?

No wonder we search endlessly on Google and Wiki for answers that are expresses in ways we can comprehend even if we know they may not contain the whole truth...

Professional health practitioners used to be respected and valued for their knowledge but they forgot time moves on and what is no longer needed is glossy latin terms of no meaning and instead we need empathy and layman terms that can be understood by people and not whitecoats.

Owing to my own study of holistic therapies which required me to also study anatomy and physiology I had a vague idea of which questions to ask, which changes to look for and what to question when I went in for the review of my brain scan in 2008 - but not everyone has the knowledge that enables them to ask the questions needed in order to get the answers that puts your worries to rest, and besides, my study is far from enough to make me an expert in any way. I am happy to say that growing up with a nurse-mum also has helped me get a sense of which questions to ask and when to question altogether - but not everyone has a mum- or dad-nurse or even a doctor in the family that speaks our language.

I truly hope that any diagnosis that seem as if spoken in alien tongue is not of the serious kind. One may ponder whether the reason these sentences are sometimes fabricates is to cover up the truth or whether it is in fact because the language is just used to raise the profile of the individual doctors and consultants - way above us English-speaking individuals.

Sarcasm? Not really, just a bit of frustration expressed in a frustrated way, and please also bear in mind that I am from Sarcasm Country.

May all your future diagnoses be understandable, gentle and healthy.

I come in peace!

1 comment:

Steve Wilson, Psychologist and Cheerman of the Bored said...

RE: May all your future diagnoses be understandable, gentle and healthy.
AND: May all of your ailments have known, successful, affordable treatments.
BOYGW: Blessings On Your Good Works, Lotte