Saturday, October 31, 2015

The rush to (over) treat

We all know the two groups of people:

The ones who get a booboo and say 'no big deal' and clean it later, even if just in the shower later on, vs. the ones who rush for the antibacterial soap, alcohol, bacitracin or neosporin, and bandaid. Well maybe they aren't two solid groups but there are two sides to the equation with scatterings in between. 

With breast, or any type of, cancer, there is often a rush to say 'get it out of me!' But that is starting to change, especially in view of concerns with overtreatment of DCIS, that some people say 'I'll wait'. I can see that.

I think the typical patient has lemming traits where they agree basically with what the doctors tell them, and if they do not agree, they find another doctor who they agree more with. How often do we stop and say, 'now that I know what it is, I can wait and make a decision'. I think we need to stop and think with a diagnosis and say 'what are my choices?' and 'can I wait?'  And not to skip 'what are the pros and con's of immediate treatment'.

Doctors are also starting to change their train of thought as well.

We have learned so much about the side effects of treatment that I think they need to be a big part of our medical decisions. And we should consider no treatment among the options. Its my body and my choice.

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