XPost: alt.usage.english, rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.books   
   From: throopw@sheol.org   
      
   :: John F.  Eldredge   
   :: [...]   
   :: I have coronary artery disease, and so have been in the hospital a   
   :: number of times.  On one such visit, a doctor said, "You are an   
   :: engineer, aren't you?".  I said, "No, I am a programmer/analyst." He   
   :: said, "I figured it was something like that." I was calmly discussing   
   :: the upcoming procedure, seeking to learn more about it, rather than   
   :: going into panic mode.   
      
   I've had similar experiences after having several visits with the   
   doctor, who asked after my profession early on before the interaction   
   I'm talking about.  So by the time I was asking (or maybe just being   
   told) about treatment options later, he gave me what I concluded were   
   much more througugh explanations (though still quite simplified, since I   
   didn't know the jargon).  There were then some cases where he put several   
   options on the table, and said "you choose" (based on quality-of-living   
   impact and such), and similarly with drugs, as in "well, you've been   
   taking that drug for years now, so you know its side effects *on* *you*   
   better than I do, etc.  Not that he was a wimp; a drug I'd had good luck   
   with and no/low side effects, and wanted to continue, he chopped me off,   
   saying "it's been withdrawn, and while I *can* still prescribe it for a   
   little while in a transition period, I've read the studies that got it   
   withdrawn, and you don't want to be taking it".   
      
   Basically, if you demonstrate that you can hear and understand what they're   
   saying, doctors seem much more likely to take you seriously and interact   
   with you almost as if you were a person.  It's actually quite refreshing   
   when that sort of thing happens.   
      
   Another related phenomenon is a veterinarian we used for some time.   
   He would give lots of information unasked as a matter of course, and if   
   you asked for more, he'd do that, too.  Somebody else mentioned "he always   
   gets out a bit of paper and draws some bit of anatomy, almost every visit".   
   I like that in a vet.   
      
       "Do you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth?"   
                                --- Detective James Carter   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)