I was with a doctor yesterday. He was putting me on antibiotics. Low grade antibiotics for a long duration. This was to cure an infection which is generally difficult to eradicate. He told me to take the tablet after dinner.
Now, the normal thing I would have done is to say thanks and walk out and take the drug every night for the next 6 weeks as advised.
What would have happened?
The infection would have had no chance in hell of getting cured.
Why? Read on.
I get dialysis for 7 hours each night. Dialysis removes toxins in the blood. The dialysis would have removed the antibiotic from the blood as well leaving close to nothing to deal with the infection.
What did I do?
I asked the doctor about this. He said "Yes, we need to check that." To his credit, he called his associated nephrologist to check on this. The neph confirmed this.
The doc changed the prescription so that I would take the medicine after breakfast instead.
I am not blaming the doc in question. After all I am probably the first nocturnal dialysis patient he is seeing.
The point is it is so important for people like me to be completely knowledgeable about their condition and to be proactive in their treatment. The word of the doctor is not the last one. We need to think through all aspects of the treatment.
Having a doctor such as the one I visited is very helpful. They have no egos and they like patients who are well informed and proactive.
Comments
Hats off to the doctor u saw. He admitted he did not know something. Doctors are normal people who are learning medicine everyday. A lot of what doctors learn medically is dependent on their teachers. Eventually, the patient becomes the teacher. All I have learnt is from my patients..books never taught me much.
Hope u r getting along ok
Rajat