Understanding that your doctor will spend only 10 or 15 minutes with you, it's important to maximize your communications by managing your own expectations.

I’ve mentioned before a book by Dr. Jerome Groopman called How Doctors Think.  Doctor Groopman describes the many ways even an excellently trained and long experienced doctor can make errors during the diagnosis process – and the bottom line is that doctors are human beings – they can’t be 100 percent correct, 100 percent of the time – and we patients need to be aware of that.

Understanding, then, that diagnosticians won’t always be 100 percent accurate, it’s up to us patients to make sure they are accurate with us! According to Dr. Groopman, the best question to ask a doctor who has just given you a diagnosis is:

What else can it be?

And we’ve talked about that question in the past, so instead of exploring that question further, I'll use it as a springboard for the next question – one to use while you are exploring possible treatments.

Most of us, after being told we have some disease or condition, simply ask, "and how do we treat it?" The doctor will provide at least one answer, possibly more, and sometimes he’ll say "I think your best treatment option is such and such."

Here’s the problem. Any given diagnosis may have two, three, or a dozen treatment options. Some will treat symptoms, some will cure a disease or condition.

It is incumbent upon our doctors to tell us what all of them are – but – it is not at all unusual for one or more options to be left out of the conversation. There may be new options the doctor isn’t aware of, there may be a treatment the doctor just doesn’t think will work for you… some doctors will get comfortable that one treatment works better than another or one they believe will be most effective – and they may forget to tell you about others. Or sometimes they are just in a hurry.

One option that may be left out is having no treatment at all! and yes, that is always a choice even if neither you nor your doctor is willing to consider it.

A sharp patient wants to know all her options. So the question to remember today is,

Doctor, what are all my options?  What other options are there?

Let your doctor list them, hopefully with some pros and cons, and if there are more than two or three, write them down.

And don’t forget, unless you are in an emergency situation, you don’t have to commit to a treatment plan right then and there. In fact, it’s a good idea to take some time to consider your options.

Next we’ll talk about what to do once you are made aware of all the options. You’ve got some decision making to do – in order to manage your own expectations about outcomes.

Link here for a master list of tips in this series.

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Trisha Torrey is Every Patient’s Advocate^TM.
She offers no medical advice, but empowers those who
want to learn more about diagnosis and treatment options by
providing useful tools and resources.