"Blake...this is a big deal"

"Blake...this is a big deal!"  Words I can never erase from my consciousness!   That's what the trauma surgeon said after working my daughter up at Sacred Heart Hospital (no, not the one in "Scrubs") in Spokane, Washington, a week prior to Halloween, last year.  Silly me...I thought that she was being admitted for a simple arthroscopic procedure on her left hip.  As it turned out, the big deal (after CTs and MRIs, and X-rays, and a nuclear bone scan) came down to either Ewing's Sarcoma (bone cancer) or Osteomyelitis of the femur (infection in the thigh bone). 

I won't bore you with details of the next 16 days of trauma drama, but neither diagnosis is a picnic in the park and surely the Sarcoma thing (cancer) is a certain death sentence.  Oh, did I mention the excruciating pain associated with the diagnosis?   (One can't technically die of pain, but most men would have come close in comparison to my unbelievably courageous daughter, Michelle. By the way, she will be 16 years old on August 10th).

So...why all the melodrama? Because there is a point or two here I would like to make with the readers.  Remember I eluded to the importance of solid patient advocacy in my 1st ever blog? Okay Moms... please listen up! Never and I mean never let a physician talk you out of your "mother's intuition," when you know something isn't right with your child.  Better still, don't let your husband/father off the hook either.  Got it?  Take that mother's skill set further and start thinking like a doctor or should I say, STOP thinking like a  certain doctor that screwed up with my Michelle just prior to getting the "big deal news" previously mentioned.   

Tragically, the doctor made 3 critical errors. To this day,  this jack-ass (and I use the term in the most literal sense of a stubborn foolish animal) has no idea of the consequences of his actions. Oh sure, my wife informed him at a later date of his unprofessional performance, but his apology over the phone was driven more from the advice of his risk manager than from his heart.  

So, you ask what are these errors.  The first mistake is termed "search satisfaction" by some.   This doctor looked no further than the MRI in front of him.   He paid little attention to the pain my daughter was being subjected to during his examination.  I would have guessed the sweat left on the examination table might have clued him in.  He narrowly connected the pain with a 15 year "actor" looking for a narcotic fix.  Secondly, he committed what is called an "attribution error."  In short, if a doctor sees 8 drug-seeking patients in a row, then the number 9 must also be a drug seeker. Heaven forbid, if number 9 has legitimate pain.  Finally, he was "anchored" to his own ego.  Hey Mr. Doctor, "Weigh anchor, look a bit deeper, and diagnose your own 'big deal'!"  Instead, he became the deal breaker, and in a cruel twist of irony he later informed his colleague (who happened to be the on-call doctor that night) not to admit Michelle, because the pain "was all in this girls head."  Nice...

Well, thanks for letting me fill your prescription on patient advocacy tonight.  You might need a refill or two later on.  Please,  "take as directed"...Blake