You get diagnosed with an ailment, you follow (blindly or not) your doctor's recommendations. You make your decisions and you undergo treatment. Your doctor is following the guidelines and you do your research and make your decision based on their recommendations and the current guidelines.
But what if, the guidelines have changed recently and you need to rethink your decision. What would you do with the old guidelines or what would you do with the new guidelines?
I found this story interesting of a local journalist confronted with a DCIS diagnosis and changed guidelines. DCIS is often over treated - or so the current guidelines believe. But which cases will go on to become something bad or not. What treatment options should be followed? Its a case of mastectomy vs. lumpectomy vs. no surgery.
As patients spend more time educating themselves on treatment options and guidelines, their decisions are more complicated. They want to be the educated consumer. But it can be very confusing to try to learn about statistics in medical care in treatment options.
Damn those pesky guidelines.
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