Difficult Questions for your Physician

Dr Tartaglia and Dr Bohn advise an ongoing conversation with your physician regarding your disease state and stage. Physicians might be as unwilling to talk about these topics as you are to hear this information. Physicians have a responsibility to provide honest information to the patient. Caring for the patient is more than just ordering lab work, imaging tests, and writing scripts. Physicians must be cognizant to check their fears and hesitations so they do not lead patients unintentionllay to have false hope. Thus, most physicians will ask permission to provide information and if they are given the 'ok' by the patient, then they will proceed with the conversation. Let your physician know if you need a better explanation. The physician should have excellent command of the patients language or use a translator to assist to provide information in a manner that the patient can easily understand. Dialogue between the physician and the patient is important. While it may be true that the physician may have a lot of information and may do a lot of talking, the physician should also listen and hear the patients questions and concerns. Don't hold back; tell the physician if you need time to process or if you are overwhelmed. Don't hesitate to ask the physician several tough questions. Ask about side effects and outcomes. Ask what they would do. Ask about risks and benefits. Ask the 'what if' questions. Take a written list of questions with you. Take a family member or have one listen in on the phone. You need the information so you can consider what is important for you and what fits your preferred quality of life. Patients must have information so they can provide guidance to their family and their physician about the care they want. We want to see patients and physicians regain control of healthcare. It has become big buisness and the patient and physician relationship is getting lost in all the money the big companies are making.