Doing some medical editing these days.
So let’s imagine you come to me, your caring doctor, with these problems:
~ Depression
~ Cirrhosis
~ Low back pain
~ Heart disease
All right. You’ve got a few issues, peaches. But that’s okay. Lots of people do. Again, I’m your caring doctor. I’m here to help.
Here are a few of my thoughts about you:
“Patient does sweat the small stuff. He has a lot on his mind. He feels like he is on a roller coaster. He is interested in writing, although he did not graduate from high school. The patient states that he has a gift for prose. He believes in a “Higher Power,” but does not believe in organized church.”
Wow. Yes, I am your caring doctor, but yamahama, am I condescending. Also, nosy in a decidedly non-medical way.
But I do want to help you. I do. Let’s face it, though. As a caring condescending doctor, it’s less about me helping you and more about feeling godlike about my healing powers.
So, are you ready? Here’s the plan I have for you:
“1. Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff video was recommended.
2. The patient was given a book by N.V. Peale and a forgiveness handout.
3. Should watch Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff video next time.
4. Follow up in 3 months.”
There you go!
Good luck with your back pain and cirrhosis and heart disease!
I mean, come ON. Don’t sweat the small stuff, peaches.
See you next time!
XOXO,
Your caring condescending doctor.
P.S.: Forgiveness cures cirrhosis, you know.
my first and only response…..”please tell me you’re just joking around.” but you’re not …. right ?
Ha! I had an MRI today (for lower back pain!) and after I was done the tech said, “You did a good job!”
I said, “Well, all I had to do was lie there.”
But what I Facebooked/Tweeted was: How condescending is it to be told you did a good job during an MRI? You just lie there.
The medical field is apparently full of condescension for people with back pain.
Ha Cullen, I was told the same thing when I got an x-ray on my back. I told her I lay down every night for six hours just to practice.
Didn’t they recently start using Botox injections for excessive sweating?
Seriously, though–I saw the notes from when I was very ill in college (because I needed a copy of my records to take home to my family doctor), and they made the doctor from the local practice sound like a completely unfeeling jerk. . . Come to think of it, she was.
cindy — I wish I was, but I’m NOT.
It’s just how utterly dismissive this doctor was about this patient. All your problems will be solved with some forgiveness and positive thinking. No drugs for you!
And another thing, Doc: You’re making him wait 3 MONTHS to experience the healing power of “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff”?
ANND another thing: Just how many books by Norman Vincent Peale do you have lying around your office? And pamphlets on forgiveness? Are you really a pastor POSING as a doctor?
Oh, this sounds like so many of the doctors I fired on my way to medical enlightenment.
Also, Cullen: you have to lie very still. It’s hard. Especially when the noise starts.
Yeah, it’s not my first dance with the donut. Still, being flat on my back isn’t hard. I guess if you’re claustrophobic or have to lie on your side or in an odd position it can be hard.
And I’m not trying be condescending to you Sarah 🙂
It had a lot to do with the way the tech said it, like she was surprised that I did well.
My problem is that I get cold in MRIs and really want to start warming myself with hand-on-arm friction. Really hard for me to keep still. And I was always getting MRIs of my brain, so any little twitch of the head was bad.