doctors!&%@!#$!

Doctors have really started to disappoint me. I know that doctors are human, too, and that you cannot expect the world from them.

However...

Last year, it took 3 months of taking an ungodly amount of antibiotics, being laid up in my bed, missing and attempting to catch up on classes, feeling like shit nonstop, as well as undergoing all sorts of prodding, probing, painful tests for doctors to figure out I had an internal infection that then led to more post-infections. All that was needed to figure this out? A blood test.

My dad was once told by a doctor in NYC that he had 3 months to live and to basically go home and prepare for that. He is still here 6 years later after his triumphant battle.

Having been rediagnosed with non-Hodgkin's within the past month, he has been evaluating his treatment options. One plan was to go with an experimental treatment down at Yale. During his initial visit with this doctor, she told him if he made it through this treatment, she could guarantee him to be cancer-free the rest of his life. So, my dad, being the questioning lawyer that he is, asked what exactly that meant - 5 years, 10 years, etc. Her response: I'm not sure because the drug has only been in use for 2 1/2 years. What happened to a lifetime?

This same doctor also told my dad that several patients had been successfully involved in this clinical trial before. Just a couple of days ago, we found out that my dad would in fact be her first patient. In an extremely dangerous scenario, I do not understand how a doctor can feel right lying to a cancer-stricken man sitting right before her who is potentially considering treatment under her 'expert' guidance. My dad was so close to deciding to go with that treatment option and then received that blow to the gut. We can only hope that it's a gift that he didn't already sign on and begin treatment only to find this out.

The last I knew we are supposed to be able to trust doctors.