Doctor D Crossed The Line!

Doctor D has been blogging about the Doctor-Patient relationship for a while now. It’s sort of the thing I’m known for. I’ve usually been on the doctor side of this equation. Most of my blogging, however, is to help patients figure out the weird world of medicine.

Well, guess what? Doctor D recently found himself on the patient side of a nasty injury!

Even as Doctor D looked down and realized his leg wasn’t supposed to be that shape he said to himself, “Self, take mental notes! The readers of Doctor D’s Clinic of Doctor-Patient Relational Awesomeness will want to know about this."

Here is what Doctor D discovered when he became Patient D:

1) Doctor D Is Mostly Right

Any reader of this knows that Dr. D’s insight is typically brilliant and totally useful. I found myself actually looking up posts I had written for the solid and useful advice.

But even D has a lot to learn, so from here on I shall delve into the dark secrets I could only discover when crossing the line to the patient side!

2) Being The Patient Is The Hardest Job In Medicine

We doctors think we have difficult work. We have to slave our asses off for years in school. We are expected to be perfect and heroic while working with huge uncertainty. We try to protect your health, comfort, and life, while you patients just lay back and get taken care of!

Lying here isn't as relaxing as overworked docs think it is.

Just a few days as a hospital patient cleared my mind of any misconceptions. Abject helplessness combined with severe pain trumps everything. And helplessness is far worse than pain. Dr. D had never done anything as a doctor that caused more stress than allowing myself to be put to sleep for a major operation with a surgeon I had only spoken to for 30 seconds.

3) There Is Much More To Pain Than A Number

Doctor D has written a lot on pain scoring, so I attempted to rate my own pain as a matter of curiosity. I have a good imagination for what 10 out of 10 pain would feel like, so I gave the feeling of multiple shattered bones crunching whenever my leg moved a 7, which made it the most intense pain I’ve ever felt, but I could totally handle the excruciating acute pain.

The real surprise was realizing that duration of pain was far worse than intensity. I had a throbbing pain during my recovery that I could rate as a 4 if I’m generous, but it lasted for weeks and nearly drove me insane. Low-intensity pain that won't leave can make a person much more miserable than 10 out of 10.

4) Narcotics suck

I’ve seen a lot of nice people get addicted to opiate pain medicines. So Doctor D was the dude in the ER with a bone sticking out of his leg begging not to be given morphine. When they finally convinced me to take the narcotics I was please to discover I didn’t get any high. But what I did discover is that they made me miserable in other ways. I was groggy, nauseated, itchy, constipated, and mushy-brained whenever I had to use them.

Their efficacy varies drastically from person to person. I can say with certainty that a 400 mg Ibuprofen was significantly better for pain for me than a 10 mg Percocet, but since my Ortho wouldn’t let me use ibuprofen I was stuck with narcotics. So I then had to deal with the suspicious look when I told the doc I needed more because I had run out.

I am so happy to be off those things! As a physician, it was a bit eye opening to experience how inconsistent and imperfect our best pain medicines are. Managing the pain of a fellow human being is about as frustrating a situation as an MD can experience. I doubt my prescribing patterns will change much, but I do have a deeper appreciation for how hard it is to correctly wield the double-edged sword of pain medicines.

5) Being Disabled Can Really Crush An Ego

Regular visitors to The Clinic of Doctor-Patient Relational Awesomeness are likely aware that Doctor D has a very healthy self-esteem. 3 weeks of lying on my back absolutely helpless and unable to do anything had me at the lowest place I’ve every been. One night I—a generally tough dude—cried myself to sleep. I’m up and moving better now, but I will likely have a limp the rest of my life. My whole life I’ve been able to do everything physical I wanted to do. Now I’m one of the broken people. It’s going to take some getting used to.

I know as physician I often see people with broken and damaged bodies. It kind of annoyed me when people whined about it. “Look, we can’t fix everything, so be a grown up, get over yourself, and quit complaining!” It’s easy to feel this way when you aren’t the one with the disability. I’ve given myself that same pep talk a lot in the last two months—It doesn't work as well when I’m the one with the gimp leg. A lot of my patients have far worse problems than my leg ever was. I’m manning up to fact that my leg’s gonna hurt for decades, but I think I’ll be much more patient towards patients with severe disabilities in the future.

You can't say you wouldn't complain about it if you've never been there—it's a good thing for docs to keep in mind.

6) There Isn’t A "Sort Of Person" These Things Happen To.

Okay, I have to admit something a bit embarrassing here: We doctors sometimes think of our patients as a completely alien form of human life. It isn’t intentional. We wouldn’t even admit it out loud. It’s a weird psychological quirk that happens like a reflex.

Doctor’s see so much suffering and misery on a daily basis, and we just can’t spend all our time worrying if it will happen to us too. So we develop this mental trick: "These things won’t happen to me, because I’m not that sort of person." What sort of person? Well, the sort of person who ends up the patient with a painful or horrible condition, of course!

Unfortunately, psychological defense mechanisms are useless when the cold, harsh laws of physics apply pressure to human bones. This shit happens to everybody—even doctors. No one is the sort of person that has a debilitating injury, until it happens.

7) Some Doctors Just Can’t Be Helped

Doctor D has spent a lot of time educating you on how to deal with difficult doctors. One of the worse maladies plaguing the medical field is piss-poor communication, and Dr. D’s orthopedist has about the communication skills of a mentally-retarded clam.

There's a lot that patients can do to improve their communication with difficult doctors. I had a lot of questions, and I found myself going and reading my own posts for advice on how to get answers out of a doc with weak bedside manner.

In the end I just gave up. This dude just couldn’t communicate like a normal human being with a patient (even a patient who had an MD). I hear he’s an excellent surgeon and the fact that my leg got put back together is proof of this, but his ability to converse was just dismal.

"I'm sorry, but I don't consider speaking with you to be part of my job description."

When faced with a doctor who simply will not or cannot communicate a patient has two options: Leave or trust blindly.

Dr. D had a FUBAR leg, there was only one Orthopedist available at 1:00 am, and the ER doc said this dude was a good surgeon. So I trusted him even though he seemed mentally incapable of explaining the operation he was going to do. The gamble paid off and the leg is improving, but generally I would have to advise that you hit the road when paired with doctors incapable of communicating—especially if your doctor will need to manage your problem longer than a 2 hour surgery.

Okay, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it!

Doctor D is back to limping around the exam room with patients, and so Doctor D’s Internet Clinic of Doctor-Patient Relational Awesomeness is back too. Send in those questions and I shall keep dropping knowledge on you!

What do you think?

Any of you medical folks have similar experiences and want to add some points?

Any of you with more experience as patients wish Dr. D had picked up more from his time on your side? If so, what did I miss?

Doctor D always loves to hear your thoughts in the comments!

My Favorite Patient Died Today

I just got a call from one of his relatives who found my number in his wallet:

“The Dude” was one of Doctor D’s first patients. He was assigned me when I was a new doc starting out in residency.

The Dude was one of those people that we all go into medicine to “help.” He was poor, and on disability, and had never gone any further than high school. The Dude also weighed about 400 pounds and smoked 4 packs a day, and he hated taking medicine ...and it was new Doctor D’s job to “take care of him.”

Medically speaking, I never was much good for The Dude. He kept doing all the things that eventually lead to his demise. In the end though, it was he that did me immeasurable good.

He actually preferred residents to our better-trained teachers, “I love these new Baby Docs when they come each year!” he exclaimed when he met Doctor D. From then on Dr. D and the Dude were always together. The Dude had a lot of office visits and hospitalizations. He was the epitome of the “difficult patient” and D spent his first year as a doctor stressing about how to save The Dude from impending death.

But it was The Dude who won out. His infectious kindness and joy in the face of pain and illness inoculated Doctor D against the harsh medical world around us.

One day D visited The Dude in the ICU and muttered, “How am I going to save you, Dude?”

The Dude let out a gravelly, smokey chuckle, “You don’t need to save me Doctor D! You’re just nice to me and I appreciate that.”

The Dude is laid to rest

Our doctor-patient relationship evolved over our years together. I did less telling him what to do and more sitting at the feet of one of the wisest human beings I have ever known. The Dude lacked any book smarts, but I know he was brilliant. He understood how a joyful attitude can keep you alive when every textbook says you should have died years ago.

The Dude had about the most unhealthy body and physical habits you can imagine, but he had the healthiest soul of any person I have ever met. He taught Doctor D that there is so much more to life than diagnoses and treatments.

The Dude promised he would try to stay alive long enough to see me graduate from my residency. He ended up outliving his promise by years. I moved to another state after graduation, but we stayed in touch. I was no longer his doctor, but we remained friends.

I took my son Little D on a road trip when he was just a baby to meet my sage friend. It was well worth exposing the kid to a little second-hand smoke. It was like taking your child to be blessed by a living saint.

The Dude and I would write or talk on the phone every couple of months. I started this blog with The Dude in mind. I wanted to answer questions for real folks like him that didn’t give a damn about medical stuff, but found themselves stuck in doctors offices and hospitals anyway. He's the only patient I ever cared for in real life who knew about my secret identity as Doctor D. He read regularly.

We last spoke about 6 months ago. I had “Call The Dude” on my long list of things to do last month, but I never got around to it. I sure wish I’d called my jolly, smokey old friend!

It came as a shock that he's dead—which is strange considering I expected him to die at any moment for the first few years I knew him, but once you really love someone you kind of expect them to live on forever.

Now The Dude is in a place where he has no need for doctors or medicines.

Enjoy heaven, my friend! I wish I'd told you that you were the best teacher Doctor D ever had!

Saved With A Dodge

Part 4 of Straight Answers From Doctors

Doctor D has dodged some questions in his career, but he has also been on the receiving end of some non-answers and can attest to their usefulness on the patient's side of things.

How the $#@% can a doctor dodging a question help the patient?

Let me tell you a story:

Doctor D’s son Little D was born with a very rare genetic condition which required he see an expert at a big university. As a parent I can tell you that this sucks. Lady D and I did a lot of worrying about our baby.

"Daddy, I don't feel good!"

Medical people are often the worst patients. We know just enough to be really difficult. Or we just know too much, and it gets in the way of our common sense.

Doctor D had never even heard of his son's super rare disease so he read everything he could find. Unfortunately the mutation was so rare that research was almost non-existent. Doctor D read every published study on the disease an found more questions than answers.

The poor Expertologist got way too many questions from Doctor D. Some he answered. Others he totally dodged. Near the end of the appointment Doctor D asked a very specific question about a potential complication.

The Expertologist smiled and said, “Oh, I think he’ll grow up and play sports and have kids of his own some day.”

Doctor D was totally frustrated. “I’m a f*#@ing MD! Of course, I know that this mutation doesn’t affect the reproductive system or the muscles. You didn’t answer my specific question!” Yeah, I considered yelling that, but instead I smiled and left the office.

I still don’t know why the Expertologist gave me a non-answer. Maybe no one knew the answer? Maybe a full answer would have taken a long discussion of probabilities and complex research he didn’t have time for? Maybe he was just sick of this non-expert doctor who asked so many questions?

Doctor D was pissed. But on the way home Doctor D looked in the rearview mirror at his sleeping baby and realized that vague answer had been just what he needed to hear: “Chill out, Doctor D. Your kid is doing fine. He’ll be okay.”

And you know what? Little D is doing just fine.Little D:
Growing perfectly as long as his parents can refrain from killing him during his Terrible 2's

Sometimes patients don’t need factual answers. Doctor D had hundreds of questions tumbling around in his over-educated head. Expertologist could have taken all day answering every question, but the real question was “Is my kid alright?”

This brilliant Expertologist totally dodged even trying to answer my question and told me what I needed to hear, “You kid is okay.”

What do you think?

Have you ever been glad an MD dodged your question?

Do you think there is any place for this in medicine?

Doctor D always loves hearing your thoughts in the comments!

I Hate Medicine!

Last week Ella the Med Student wrote brilliant and thoughtful advice on how to be happy in medical school: You need to love medicine.

Now Doctor D has a confession to make:

I hate medicine! Medical school was the worst 4 years of my life.

There, I said it! It felt good to let it out.

But before all of Dr. D’s medstudent fans rush to unfriend him on facebook they should know this: Doctor D not just a good doctor. He is a frickin’ amazing doctor!

How is this possible?

They look so pleased just to be in a hospital!
Doctor D isn't in any photos like this.

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Hate Medicine:

Ella classified medical students based on their love for medicine with the “miserablites” at the bottom. They are the ones in medicine with ulterior motives. Therefore they hate school from the first cut on the cadaver. They don’t fit in with other medical folks. They don’t like studying diseases or treatments. They can’t wait for medical school to be over.

Yup, that pretty much describes D in medical school!

Young D took one of those aptitude tests administered by the college career counselor. It said that his personality was an awful fit for doctoring. He was warned.

So why did he do it?

Medical School With Ulterior Motives

Doctor D’s ulterior motive for studying medicine was that pesky humanitarian impulse. D loves people. As a student young D worked in homeless shelters and volunteered in 3rd World countries—not to pad a resume for med school, but because he actually liked doing those things. Young D asked himself, “Self, what work should you choose that allows you to help suffering people?” Since D had the book smarts everybody suggested medicine.

On day one of medical school D realized he wasn’t in Kansas anymore. He was surrounded by highly driven people who absolutely loved spending 18 hours a day studying pathophysiology and pharmacokinetics. Ella enjoys kicking back with Robbins Pathology while sipping her coffee in the morning. God bless her crazy ass! Doctor D’s trudge through Robbins was about as enjoyable as the Bataan Death March.

D’s secret fantasy in medical school was that one day he’d go in and give everyone the middle finger and drop out. This thought was the only real pleasure he had for most of med school. It kept him going when times got rough. Every miserable day D told himself, “I’ll quit tomorrow.” He came close to doing this about a hundred times, but never pulled the trigger.

Doctoring with Love and Hate

So D became Doctor D, and lo and behold he was right: All this dull medical science he forced himself to learn is useful—it helps sick people get well, and D really enjoys his job!

The actual practice of medicine allows for amazing connection with other human beings. A caring doctor during the worst and most painful day of your life is really useful. Doctor D always gets along well with patients. One reason Dr. D connects so well with patients is that he never really did connect with other medical folks.

Some doctors love studying diseases and reading the latest medical trials—quite a few retired docs do this years after they’ve seen their last patient. That’s cool and all, but it ain’t me. If Doctor D lost his medical license tomorrow you can bet he wouldn’t read another sentence of medical literature again!

"Yeah, I don't like school either, but some things are worth the misery."

But Doctor D does keep up with all the info on the escalating arms race between diseases and medicine and he'll treat you with just as much skill as the next doctor. In some ways D sees himself as the purest form of doctor:

Some doctors battle illness because they are fascinated with the weapons or with the battle strategy. Doctor D fights because he believes in the cause.

So take courage you med school miserablites—you sad souls who don’t like biochemistry or fit in with your anal classmates—here is hope for you yet! You may yet become a fine MD who loves this crazy job in a way those medical types could never imagine.

PS: If any of you med students do decide to go out in a blaze of glory by telling "the man" to stick it up his rectum and burning your student ID please email Dr. D your story because he would love to live that moment vicariously!

An informal AskAnMD poll:

How many of you medical people actually like medicine vs. those who use medicine for ulterior motives like Dr. D?

How many of you patients would care if you doctor wasn’t actually fascinated with your disease and your medicines?

What's Up With Doctor D?

What happened to Friday Links? Is everything okay, Doctor D?

Okay, I must confess since Lent have not been the blogger I was before. Perhaps I should explain...

A couple months ago Lady D got a call from "The Man" offering he admission to his law school. She accepted and now the D family is in the midst of an epic move from a medium-sized town to a giant megalopolis. In addition to full-time doctoring D is spending most of his free time packing up boxes, which has cut down on the blogging time. The D family will start a new life in the bustling big city and D will start a new job. It is a bit of a shock for a doctor that did his training in rural medicine.

Wait, aren't doctors and lawyers mortal enemies? How could you let your beloved wife become one of those bloodsuckers?

Excellent point: doctors still live in dread of lawyers. Even more reason to have my own spy right in the enemy camp!

Doctor D is staying faithful to write one answer post each week, but beyond that his game has slipped a bit. He doesn't even get time to read his favorite medblogs. Even Dr. Grumpy sometimes goes unread. Dr. D will occasionally throw up a cool medblog link on twitter, but otherwise he's too busy to go find a brilliant post every week.

But never fear! After the boxes are packed, then loaded in a truck, then unpacked again D shall bring back the Links, along with new Big D Awards and some other cool stuff D has in mind. We might even try to host Grand Rounds here one of these days if Doctor D survives gridlock and the company of lawyers.

Until then keep sending in those questions and every week D will keep providing you with brilliant and entertaining answers every week (even if he isn't hitting that Monday deadline as well as he used to)! I might even take to that odd habit a lot of medbloggers have of filling you in on little details of my personal life.

Wish me luck on my move!

Happy Doctors Day, Fools!

Yes Doctor D is back, making an early emergence from his peaceful Lent respite:

Happy Fools Day! Which also happens to be Doctor's Day.

Actually the official Doctor's Day is on March 30th, but such an obscure holiday usually gets forgotten, so it's about April 1st by the time the nurses or hospital administrators get around to handing me a card.

"Um, yeah so it's like Doctor's Day so here's a card and stuff," they say as Doctor D suspiciously takes the generic thank-you card expecting to be ridiculed for some sort of foolishness momentarily.

The ironic serendipity of Doctor's being honored on April Fools Day is just the sort of thing that makes me miss this blog, where I may freely ridicule the health profession.

A day for doctors, seriously? That makes about as much sense as National Goat Cheese Month! Apparently the date was chosen based on the first date an MD knocked a patient unconscious. If that isn't a day to celebrate, what is?

While doctors love thankful patients and adoring nurses, we would rather not celebrate doctor's day. We seriously don't need a holiday. A day off maybe, but not a holiday.

Of course, a holiday can serve to increase awareness—in case anybody is unaware of doctors.

I pity the fool who is unaware that Doctor D is back!

I shall return on Monday with an answer to an interesting question!

Until then discuss amongst yourselves: What is the best way to celebrate National Goat Cheese Month?

40 Days and 40 Nights

As he mentioned last week, Doctor D is going to unplug from the internet for the 40 days of Lent.

Lent is an ancient Christian tradition when believers give up enjoyable distractions to focus on the more important things and prepare the soul for Easter.

Doctor D frickin' loves blogging!

It is lots of fun answering people's questions about the medical system and giving my odd perspectives on the doctor-patient relationship. Doctor D has met some very inspiring and cool doctors, patients, nurses, and med students through this blog.

Unfortunately, D has also spends most of his free time in front of the computer reading blogs, writing posts, and twittering.

So for the season of Lent D is going to escape from the internet:

On day one Doctor D will get some work done around the house.

But on day two he might get a little nervous and jittery.

On day three D's hands will be shaking and he'll ask to go check his Google Reader "just this once."

By day four Doctor D might just be howling obscenities and have to be tied down to keep from reading his favorite medblogs.

But... by day five D shall be totally Zen with a mind clear of all electronic distraction.

He will write and read on paper instead of blogs, he will learn to enjoy silence, he will take long walks in nature, and he will spend more time with his toddler, Little D.

After he has a purified mind and soul Doctor D will triumphantly return to answering your questions on April 5th!

How will you survive a long abstinence from all this Doctor D goodness?

• Turn your attention to the blog roll: Doctor D links to some awesome blogs that will give you your medblogging fix till April.

• Explore the Archives: There's some cool stuff back there to help you through the dark night of the soul Doctor D's absence is sure to bring on.

• Subscribe: Instead of marking April 5th on your calender and counting the days in despair you can just plug AskAnMD into your reader and the new Doctor D shall magically appear on your computer after he has returned from his silent contemplation!

• Send in Questions: Does reading this blog inspire you to ask a question? Email it to Doctor D and he'll add it to the list of interesting questions awaiting his sage answers.

Yes, despite all his blogless peace and harmony Doctor D will still check his email from time to time, so feel free to drop him a note.

Peace out! Doctor D is unplugging now.

See you in April!

The Medical Life (Friday Links)

The blogs of health workers can be a fascinating peak into the minds and motivations of those of us in medical life. I enjoy the funny or amazing true stories on blogs as much as the next guy, but what's really interesting to me are the lives of people who choose to work with sickness and suffering every day.

Judging by the number of TV shows on us it appears that the public at large is fascinated with medical students, nurses, and doctors too. Truth be told, we aren't as good looking, dramatic, or perfect as our TV counterparts. We are normal people, but personally I prefer real people over stock characters with stethoscopes.

One of my favorite nurse bloggers, Maha, used the turn of the decade to tell the fascinating and personal story of her life over the last 10 years. Her personal growth during her journey to become an ER nurse is very interesting reading. Behind the sharp wit and toughness there is a humanity and sensitivity that makes her blog one of the best out there.

I found another glimpse into the personal motivations for a medical life over at Asystole Is The Most Stable Rhythm. Besides having the coolest blog name ever AlbinoBlackBear has some great stories. Her encounter with a dying child years ago as a nurse left her wondering if healthcare was a good choice for her. The answer was yes and now she is in medical school. Asystole is a wonderful med student blog and I can't believe it took me this long to find it.

So what leads people to choose a medical life?

Ella the med student and Old Girl both followed Maha's lead and posted their own biographies of 2000 to 2010. Doctor D shall follow in the footsteps of these great bloggers and give you a brief picture of how he has transformed over the last decade:

At the dawn of 2000 young D was a college senior applying for medical school. He was a bold, iconoclastic idealist who was certain he would save the world. Young D wore a long beard with long hair and was certain that human suffering was a puzzle that could be fixed if people just cared enough to help others. He figured that medicine was the highest and purest calling a person could choose for their life.

Then came reality: years of medical school, followed by years of residency, followed by the ultimate goal—being a "real doctor."

After a decade of ceaseless work I no longer think I am going to save the world. I have saved a few lives, but it was by doing my job not through any heroism. Jesus may save the world, but doctors and nurses certainly won't. We simply do our jobs day in and day out.

In the end, the medical life is a life like any other. It isn't always fun or sexy. We are not so brilliant or so heroic. We are humans who take care of humans, so our work is fraught all those troublesome human complications. Some days we love our vocation and some days we want to quit, but we do our best because we care about our patients.

In 2010 Doctor D is more tired and less idealistic. These days D is more more proud to be Ms. D's husband and Little D's dad than he is about that MD he spent so many years dreaming about.

What do you think? Did you imagine doctor's lives to be more heroic and dramatic? Do you work in healthcare and have a story about your own medical life to share? Doctor D always enjoys the perspectives and stories you tell in the comments.

Work Excuse

Doctor D's blogging excuse note:

Sorry to readers for the lack of posts this week. Between weening myself off of coffee and catching a virus from my son, Little D, my free-time productivity has drastically dropped. I'll get a post up answering one of your questions soon. Right now I'm taking another Tylenol.

Doctor D's Disappearing Act

Just to let you know, I am out of town on vacation and I probably won't be answering posting any answers to reader questions for the next week. Doctor D still loves you, but he is really enjoying his family and his rest right now.

But you can still email Doctor D because he loves getting questions from readers and he'll be back to answering questions a soon as he returns. If you want to get the word about Doctor D's return when it happens you can sign on to the Ask An MD Feed or you can follow Doctor D on Twitter. (I will probably Twitter daily even when on vacation.)

I'll still be able to give you some Friday Links tomorrow.

Who is Doctor D?

Doctor D is a real Family Practice doctor who has been practicing for a while. He has practiced in clinics, hospitals, and emergency rooms. He has delivered babies and treated people over 100 years old. He has saved lives and he treated the dying. He has been some patients' favorite doctor and some people who have seen him hate his guts. He has done some brilliant care and he has made mistakes.

Doctor D knows his way around the healthcare system.

Most doctors could say this. What makes Doctor D unusual is that he never lost that sense he felt when he first visited a hospital. What a bizarre place it was! The weirdness of the healthcare system has never ceased to amaze Doctor D. Watching patients struggle through this labyrinth of doctors, diagnoses, tests, nurses, treatments, hospitals surrounded by doctors and nurses who act like all of this is normal and talk to them in medical pseudo-Latin would be funny if it wasn't so sad!

Doctor D's favorite part of his job has never been procedures, diagnosis, or treatments—it is educating his patients in how to take care of their bodies while navigating the healthcare system without losing their minds.

Doctor D started this blog to assist more people through the insane world of healthcare. You can use him as the relational counselor for your doctor-patient relationship.

Got a question? Ask the MD!

E-mail Doctor D

Doctor D's Disclaimer

If you read medical blogs then you know how this goes. Like most docs, Doctor D lives in mortal fear of lawyers so he claims no responsibility...

• The information on this blog is for your enlightenment and enjoyment, but not for you to medically treat yourself or others. Talk to your own doctor before doing something crazy just because Doctor D mentioned it.

• Doctor D is not a replacement for your own doctor. He loves answering your questions but he doesn't have a doctor-patient relationship with you. He will not diagnose or treat you. He cannot listen to your heart or check you for hernias over the internet.
  

• If Doctor D mentions any person he has ever cared for then you can bet enough info has been changed that you'll never figure out who the patient is. He wouldn’t tell people’s business like that.

• Doctor D's stories are a combination of half-truths, exaggerations, and total lies. He tells stories to make points. He doesn't tell what actually happened. So you cannot be a character in D's stories unless you are a figment of his imagination.

• Doctor D doesn’t make any money from this blog. He does it because he likes you. If he wanted to make a lot of money he wouldn’t have gone into primary care.

• The images on this blog were all taken from the Internet. Doctor D assumes they are in the public domain. If Doctor D used your image incorrectly please let him know and he will take it down and apologize profusely.
  

If this isn’t clear you can email me and I will doctor this disclaimer more.

The Best of The Clinic Of Doctor-Patient Relational Awesomeness!

Doctor D's best answers to your questions about doctors and healthcare:

• Why Are Doctors Such Jerks?

• Why Are Americans So Fat?

• How Do I Overcome My Fear Of Doctors?

• How Do Doctors Feel About Their Mistakes?

• Why Is It So Hard To Live Healthy?

• Why Should I Never Say My Pain Is Level 10?

• What Kind Of Doctor is D?

• What Are My Chances, Doc?

• Are You Saying My Symptoms Are Just In My Head?

• Why Are There So Many Incompetent Doctors?

• Why Are MDs So Up-Tight About Pain Medicines?

• Why Can't Anyone Figure Out What's Wrong With Me?

• What is the Medical Mafia?

• What is a Doctor-Junkie?

• Will I Get Laid If I Become A Doctor?

• Why Won't You Answer My Diagnosis Questions Online?

• Are Doctors Rich?

• Why Is My Doctor Dodging My Questions?

• Does Dr. D Hate Medicine?

• Why Do Nice People Get The Worst Diseases?

(Click Here To Read Doctor D's Informative Series Answers)