4th TBR: The Sick Doctor

Everyone gets sick. "No one is exempted!" Even your doctor gets sick. But he is one of the most difficult patients to treat. Why? Because as a doctor, he cannot imagine a life as a patient. He is sometimes in a state of constant denial. He can sometimes have this silly notion that just as he can heal others, so can he heal himself, too. Therefore, he does not need any outside help to take care of his own sickness. That might be true sometimes, but certainly not all the time.

Some other revelations:

1. Like most patients, some doctors are also scared of needles. They abhor injections and blood extractions.


2. Most doctors, when sick, deny they are sick.


3. Some doctors think that they have this "unconscious pact" with God that because they care for the sick, God will guarantee them good health as long as they live.
   


4. "Only unrelenting pain, great weight loss, or catastrophic bleeding confirmed by the evidence of radiography or endoscopy awaken them to the reality that they have become patients." [AIM, 15 Jan 1998 | Vol 128 Iss 2 | Pp152-154]


5. "Sick doctors are lonely patients, isolated but on watch, vigilant against error" [AIM, 15 Jan 1998 | Vol 128 Iss 2 | Pp152-154]

Check out the 4th Philippine Blog Rounds brought to you this week by An Eye Doctor in a Third World Country.