A Good Doctor is Hard to Find
I’m grateful my doctor understands my health anxiety.
“[W]e are not just our illnesses. We are every plot twist leading up to them, whether chosen or imposed.” Deborah Copaken said this in her memoir, Ladyparts, just after discussing how, in modern medicine, it shouldn’t be enough to simply ask, “Where does it hurt?” A good doctor needs to consider their patient’s entire history and unique set of circumstances.
So many aspects of Copaken’s memoir have stuck with me but this part had me nodding along. (Actually, I found myself nodding along with most of her thoughts on the state of healthcare in the US — from the absurd cost of insurance to the ridiculous lack of knowledge on female bodies to the infuriating way women are treated by healthcare professionals.)
I am currently sitting with a tremendous amount of health anxiety. I have a lump on my neck near my throat.
It is not like it was when I found a lump near my collar bone which led to my diagnosis of Stage II Hodgkin Lymphoma in 2005. But, that doesn’t keep me from having flashbacks to that situation.
