November 2, 2008

• A or B?

  Apparently I need to have surgery.    Thankfully it’s not life-or-death surgery but it’s nonetheless surgery and could greatly affect my future quality of life.  After talking with our insurance company about what my options are there’s basically only two people in this area that accept our insurance.  So I’ve already begun the process of determining which doctor to choose.  Unfortunately, they’re vastly different and choosing between the two has been a dilemma for us.  To describe the two would be as such:

  Doctor A has actually only been a doctor for a few years.  He does seem to be intelligent but his actual practical experience is somewhat lacking.  There are many potential risks during the surgery that he may not know how to deal with; which could decrease the likelihood of a successful surgery.  However, I do have to say that he is extremely polite and tells us exactly what we would want to hear as a potential patient.  He does make me feel at ease which points to a good bedside manner.

  Doctor B is almost the opposite of Doctor A.  Doctor B has been in the field for an extremely long time and also is well versed in various other medical fields which with all the possible risks in the surgery I would expect him to be better suited to handle any unexpected issues.  The bad side is that he really has no bedside manner.  He tells me exactly what I don’t want hear such as what the risks are and if things go wrong how that will effect the rest of my life.

  Knowing there is risk involved in this surgery which would you choose?  The one with experience and is basically blunt or the one who is a smoother talker but lacks the experience to potentially handle all the risks involved.

  How does everyone else choose their doctors? 
  Is it the same way they choose who they elect for public office?

  • 5:41 pm
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