[Anonymous]

#1056540

Hi! I thought I’d get in on this one for a while. My thought is that you can’t leave things entirely up to the doctors. I think we all need to be very informed consumers and learn as much as we possibly can from all sources. This way we can be active participants with regard to what happens to us. I saw a segment on NBC two weeks ago regarding a woman who was dying of breast cancer and had 6 months to live. Her cancer was misdiagnosed in 1992 or so and the real problem occurred when the original mammogram was lost. She began legal proceedings and found that the films were “lost” either by the doctor or her first lawyer (I can’t remember). She had put her faith in the fact that she was told there was not a problem. After her ordeal and now that she is dying she feels that we arenot active enough in the decisions that are made about our bodies and that we must know what is going on, not just rely on modern medicine. I think I have this case mostly accurate. If anyone else saw it, please correct me if I’m misleading. I agree with this philosophy and you seem to have a similar case. When I first went to my endo and he gave me my options I asked what the side effects were. He told me “there are none except for what happens to the thyroid”. Being an educated person and knowing that there are side effects to almost anything I didn’t believe him right off the bat. Then I did some research; I spoke to the ENT specialist that found this in the first place, I spoke to my OBGYN, I spoke to those family members with thyroid problems, I called the society for information, all of my family was searching for info. When I went back to make the decision on treatment I was better able to ask the questions and get the answers I needed. I needed to know the terminology relative to this problem, I needed to know what went along with it etc. I am a certified health education teacher and I feel pretty informed and knowledgeable, but even with this background I don’t know enough. My suggestion is to be informed. As with anything, you can’t rely on the car salesman to give you the best deal if you don’t know what to ask for. If you are comfortable with your GP and have known her for a long time maybe it would pay to voice your concerns about how this could have turned out. I hope it works out. E

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