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Bank Protests in Kansas City

Is Your Doctor Listening?

Denise Grady's recent column in the New York Times; about how patients report symptoms and how doctors and nurses filter and interpret that information is spot on. How do I know?

In 2006, when I broke my collarbone I told my doctors for months..months! that I thought that the pain was beyond what should be expected from a broken collarbone. My comments were continuously dismissed, until finally, out of most likely a desire to shut me up, a surgery was performed, (ostentatiously meant to lob off the offending 'non-healing' end of my collarbone with a predicted 75% chance of failure to address the pain...since they didn't really believe it existed anyway). The surgery revealed that the collarbone, in reality, had shattered and there were several bone chips embedded in the surrounding muscle. Afterward, the surgeon mentioned that usually an injury of this sort would entail an immediate surgery, (mine occurred nearly 6 mos. after the break). "Based on what?" I asked the surgeon. And his reply was, "Well...based on the level of pain the patient was experiencing."

I still have am awestruck at that response. And I rest my case.