Hi Helen:
I understand what you mean. This is what I do all the time-when I have a problem (any kind, not just medical) I read as much as I can on it to get a general overview. But I also know that some people don't do this because they can't do this. The way they are programmed they do not turn to the written word for knowledge and understanding. Some people have no idea how to do research. To someone like this, the article you referred to is frightening. To have to be in complete charge , with possibly dire consequences if you are not, would cause them great anxiety.This does not mean that you go to a doctor and say yes doctor, no doctor. The questions she suggested asking are excellent. I just think she goes too far. As far as the internet goes, it is very hard for the average person to evaluate the credentials of the person providing the information. Anyone can get on the internet and give their two cents on a subject. Unless you go back to the original, *primary* source of the information you are just getting someone else's opinion. In some cases, this someone else might have the credentials to evaluate medical research, in other cases he/she might not. So then the person has to research the author's credentials. To search the Internet is fine for a general overview of the problem, to give you hope, to ask the doctor you are dealing with his/her *professional* opinion. If this is what you are suggesting, that is fine. I don't think that this is what this woman is suggesting.
I guess doctors in Maine are very special because I have not experienced anything like she is describing. I have yet to hear "learn to live with this" or "Swallow the pain pill and buckle up". My only complaint about my current problem is that perhaps the doctors were too slow to act. However, I'm sure this was based on the experience obtained from working with many patients. It took my gyn 9 months to do a laparoscopy. (well, at least he can't be accuse of being knife happy) However, NOW it is looking like maybe he had a valid reason to wait that long. Right at the very beginning he suggested my back as a source of the pain I was experiencing. I *insisted* that it was not my back. (based on the fact that I had no back pain and no knowledge of the fact that sometimes abdominal pain is the primary symptom. Despite many hours of research on the Internet I have still found no research that would help me realize this. Instead, my realization has come from talking to many doctors, whose opinions are based on both knowledge and the *experience* that comes from working with many patients ) Back to my gyn and the start of my problem. He listened to me when I insisted it was in the right side of my pelvis. (even when he told me that most disorders in the pelvis refer pain to the right side) Now it is looking like it *could* be my back, as much as it could be any other problem, including adhesions. As far as the hysterectomy at an early age -a doctor's professional opinion may just be, despite what the woman thinks, that a hysterectomy at age 23 is NOT in the woman's best interests in this case, all things considered. Because you can be sure if it turns out that it wasn't in her best interests (like she returns with endo problems or adhesions from the surgery) she will be back at HIM/HER with "what now?" It wasn't too long ago (and maybe is still the case) that doctors were being lambasted about their high rate of hysterectomy done to women.
I'm sorry this is so long. As I said, I understand what you are saying about getting as much knowlege about a problem as you can but I get the impression that Jennifer is suggesting a lot more than that. In fact, her article scares me and I consider myself having a good grasp of medical matters.
Chris S.