My youngest has been under the weather for most of the last week. I looked over at him playing Duplo this afternoon and I commented that he looked better. He stops, feels his chest, and says that his heart is still stopped. “It stopped, like, 3 days ago!”
Now, I actively avoid discounting patient lived experience. Even when it sounds a bit odd, I usually assume there is a reason for what patients tell me and, when we get to the bottom of things, it will all have made sense.
I’ll be honest – in this case, I was pretty quick to reassure him that his heart had, indeed, not stopped.
He gave me his best skeptical look. Oh, that look. I know this look.
This is the look that someone has zero interest in what I say next because my science doesn’t match their experience (or, in some cases, Google search).
I usually get this look from patients when I say things like “I know everyone told you to check your thyroid but if we check bloods, we should also consider some other reasons for your symptoms as well.” or “We will look for other causes but I’m concerned that we might not fix your tired-all-the-time if you have poor sleep.”
There is a balance to be found, not always easy. It is necessary to always believe patient’s lived experience, but it is also necessary to bring the science and make sense of it – or I’m not doing my job. And while I should trust my patients’ experience, they may have no reason to trust my explanations or suggestions, especially if I can’t show or explain how the science works.
If you’re wondering how this ended, I gave him my stethoscope to listen to his heart. “lub dub” and the matter is settled. If only it were always so simple.
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