Why do some people become doctors?

Met with radiologist on yesterday. I wanted to explore options with him. Started out positive. He said he had all the time I wanted to answer my questions (more on that later). He let me talk for about 10 minutes then started his spiel. He said that there was a tumor board at the center and they reviewed my treatments. They have treated CC patients in the past. A few other things that no one had taken the time to explain to me even though I had specifically asked about them. The long and short is that I was a poster child for CC chemo treatment and I owed my life to my onc. “You look great. No one looking at you would suspect you have terminal cancer. You have lasted a lot longer than most.” He continued by saying that doctors must first do no harm and that no doctor would perform any surgery on me because they would have to replace not only my liver, but both lungs. Resection was out of the question because both lobes of the liver were affected and the liver would never recover from complete removal of one lobe and massive resection of the other. These would be worse than chemo on my body – I probably would not survive. He referred to a non-existent web site that listed the standard order of treatments and surgery was at the bottom of the list. He referred at least twice to my visit to Dr. Alberts – I could tell from his body language he did not take getting a second opinion outside his group well.

But wait – it gets better – really. When I asked why no one had told be about what had been talked about behind the scenes and not discussed with me, he answered (roughly), “We believe that patients don’t need to know all that. It worries/confuses them so we just tell them what they need to know.” Don’t feel left out, he dissed this site too. “I don’t know where you are getting your information from, but they don’t know everything we know. Trust us.”

After about 30 minutes one of his assistants came in and reminded him of an appointment. He left for about 10 minutes saying something about “Can’t keep a patient waiting.” I was strongly tempted to leave while he was gone, telling his secretary that I didn’t want to take time away from his patients, but did not. After he returned, in a final attempt at lightness, he ended by shaking my hand and saying, “Make an appointment for a year from now and we will talk again.”

Duke