From: "Steve Harris" <sbharris@ix.RETICULATEDOBJECTcom.com>
Newsgroups: sci.med
Subject: Re: Sedation During Anesthesia, acompaniament after local surgery
Date: Fri, 16 May 2003 12:21:23 -0700
Message-ID: <ba3dni$7nq$1@slb6.atl.mindspring.net>

"CBI" <00doc@mindspring.com *must have "Re:" in subject*> wrote in message
news:ba1mi8$4ug$1@slb4.atl.mindspring.net...
> > Thank god you're not my MD (or dentist). You probably don't agree with
> > anesthesia for root canal.
>
> I think we need to come up with something analogous to Godwin's law for
> this one ("I'm glad you are not my doctor....).


YES!  CBI's Law.

> It seems to be the common way of announcing that one is out of arguments
> when debating a medical professional. I'm sure he is not mourning the
> loss of you as a potential patient.


Yes. I sometimes refer patients I don't like to doctors I
don't like. Sometimes they are very happy with each other,
since it was a personality-fit problem to begin with. (And
if not, that's okay too.)

Other docs do this too. I was once attending as internist a
patient with a tumor which was more or less incurable, and
which had a few months life expectancy. I suggested we try
some combo of previously known treatments that had never
been tried together, since we had nothing to lose. The
chairman of the Oncology Dept at the University we were
stuck with, and who was the first Onc guy we'd consulted,
freaked and wouldn't do it. But he didn't quite go so far as
"my way or the highway." Instead, he referred us to a
colleague who was a laid-back "I'll try anything reasonable
for fatal problems" sort, and a lover of wild ideas and
experimentation. I'm sure the staid chaiman thought we all
deserved each other.

BUT-- the new guy was exactly the ticket, we got the weird
protocol done for the first time anywhere with him signing
off, and everybody was happy (including the patient who
perhaps not coincidentally is alive and in complete
remission many years later).

If you the doc find yourself not able to do what the patient
wants, often the best thing to do is find the patient a doc
who will. Doctors I hate the worst are not merely arrogant
or close-minded. Far worse are those who are actively
obstructive. I've seen some of those.

SBH