When we start to know what we are talking about, it kinda freaks some of them out imo.YES!!! And I think that everyone deserves a clinician who is comfortable as a
partner, rather than as a godlike, patronizing Figure of Absolute Authority. Not all clinicians
are-- and far too few clinicians have the time and inclination to
really keep fully up to date on current practice parameters even within their own narrow specialties, nevermind some of the more esoteric or unusual (rare) things that we may present to them.
This places patients in an impossible position, actually. Do we:
a) keep ourselves informed to the best of our ability? this means keeping up with AAAAI meeting abstracts, patient-care guidelines as they are published, etc.
b) follow the (sometimes out of date) recommendations, well-meant, of our physicians without challenging their authority?
If you're an
informed patient, eventually that conundrum is going to present itself. A
good clinician is happy to keep learning-- and the really stellar ones are happy to learn even from patients! Heaven knows where they find time, truthfully, but they do keep current on research in the field because they love their work and the field. But a mediocre or just "competent" physician may not. That person may still be a pretty good doctor-- just not for the ends of the bell curve in the specialty.... which... they may not even
recognize since they've not kept current.
I've seen that with allergists. Ours
knows that DD isn't the run-of-the-mill patient. Not even in her cohort. A less stellar physician could, in contrast, assume that we
aren't really living what we are, and that we are just "not compliant" or "over-reactive."