Paging Dr Google

Here's a tip for anyone that goes to the doctor. Don't ever tell a healthcare professional that you looked online and you think you know what's going on. It's more annoying than you can imagine...and it's also insulting to us. Let me give you an example. I had a patient just yesterday that did this to me.

What the patient said: "So I looked it up online, and I pretty much know what's going on. I just wanted to make sure you agree."

What I hear: "By reading a couple of random things online, I know as much as you do, even though you have your doctorate and hold multiple medical licenses."

Here's the thing about the internet - anyone can write anything and post it for the world to read. For example, this blog. The thing that the internet can't do is syphon through your individual situation, history, current symptoms, and evaluate symptom patterns.

Here's another thing that comes to mind when someone says something like that to me - this person already thinks they are right and they don't completely think that they need me and my expertise - therefore, they probably aren't going to be completely compliant with what I want them to do because they think their way is better.

Another thought when looking up medical issues online. The stories that make it online are usually the horror stories, because it's not worth posting the thousands of cases where everything goes as planned. It's far more interesting to post the 1 case out of a million that went completely wrong.

As for websites that list symptoms of different conditions - they just list symptoms. They don't explain the symptoms. In any given week I can have trouble sleeping, have stomach pains, experience nausea, and be very tired. All of these are symptoms of cancer. Does this mean I have stomach cancer? No. Each of my symptoms can be explained. People without medical training don't rationalize these things though. They just read them and freak out.

Take home message: be careful what you read. It's not a bad thing to learn all that you can, but think about what you're saying when you go see a medical professional. If you're seeing them for their expertise, trust their expertise unless something really tells you otherwise. If you think you know better, then don't waste our time. Stay home and hope you're right.

So this is why I'm still going to school

I've hit a wonderful little point in my physical therapy curriculum called a "clinical". For those of you not in the medical field I will explain it as working a full time job without pay. I've completed one full year of classroom work at AT Still University in Mesa, in route to my Doctorate in Physical Therapy. At the end of this first year, we go on a mini 4 week clinical where we are reminded what physical therapy is and how all of this random knowledge in our heads might actually be applied - hoping we don't injure someone in the process. Every physical therapy office is run differently and have PT's that operate from different schools of thought. So every person in my class is receiving a slightly different experience. After the first week I've heard good stories from my classmates and I've heard bad ones. Thankfully I can report that I think I have had one of the best experiences so far.

I am spending my clinical at White Tank Physical Therapy in Goodyear. My brother plays in the praise band at Palm Valley with Pablo, who is the owner and head PT of the clinic. The other PT that I get to work under there is Cory. My brother and his wife suggested that I look into doing my clinical with Pablo because they felt from knowing him that he would be a great teacher. After week one, I know that I have fully been blessed to find this clinic. I don't think I could have chosen a better place. Like the night before starting most jobs, I didn't sleep well. I was nervous about how my supervising PT's would be, and of course, nervous about looking dumb in front of a patient or doing something wrong. My morning started with not being able to find the clinic for a little while. Thankfully I was about 30 minutes early and I had time to figure out my treasure map...no thanks to google maps. I would like to take this opportunity to say that google is not always right. Remember that. I digress. Back to the clinic. My day began with a tour of the office and an introduction to all who work there. First off, everyone that works there is Christian, and they live and work using their morals as their guide. This is a rare and amazing example to find in this world. The way that they practice and the way they act is exactly as I believe and this gives me a great example to follow for the rest of my life as I work as a health care professional.

I immediately started feeling at home and getting to know and help some great patients, and learning a lot along the way. Some things I'm learning are new. A lot of what I'm learning is figuring out how what I learned in the classroom comes together to treat a patient. There's a lot of random knowledge to put together. In the first episode ever of Scrubs, JD walks into the hospital for the first time and says that after all his years in medical school he knows one thing for certain, "I really don't know anything." I thought that was a funny statement at the time, but now I know exactly what that feels like. Repeating information on a test in the classroom is completely different than applying it in the clinic on patients. It feels like completely different knowledge than what I learned. It takes a little bit of time for everything to come together. Now after almost two weeks in the clinic, it's coming together more all the time. Continuing to think about Scrubs, I'm just glad this place doesn't have a janitor.