Is My Doctor Lying To Me?

“Are you sure this medication is okay for me to take?” 

My dermatologist reassured my concerns with an explanation that my hypotension will not be affected by the Spironolactone that she prescribed to help my inflamed skin. The doctors are always right,…. right?

After receiving conflicting opinions from nurses, pharmacists, and other healthcare professionals, I decided to consult my primary care doctor during an upcoming physical examination. 

As the bright lights of the cold waiting room poured over my shoulders, my mind was racing with questions. 

Who was giving the most holistic approach? Was my dermatologist simply looking for a quick fix to my skin condition? Who understands my health situation the best? Whose opinion can I trust? 

“Mia Avila?”

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of my name being called into the back of the doctor’s office. As I followed the footsteps of the nurse, I assessed every doctor that we passed by. He does not look trustworthy. She is definitely not credible. I would never take his advice. The nurse led me to the end of the hallway where she took my vitals before leaving me and my mind idle as I waited for the doctor. 

Questions were still pouring furiously in and out of my head as I sat on the examination table. I stared at my feet dangling off the edge as I recalled my last fainting episode caused by my hypotension. I never want that to happen ever again. 

A knock on the door broke the silence as my doctor entered the room. 

“What brings you in today?”

All I wanted was reassurance but, up until this point, it seemed as though every concrete answer I received was quickly canceled out by the words of someone else. I answered with hesitancy. 

“With my history of chronically low blood pressure and fainting episodes, do you think that the medication I was prescribed will affect my condition?”

She promptly expressed major concerns with me taking this medication knowing my medical history. So who do I trust now?

Every doctor's response was full of confidence and unwavering certainty which gave me comfort in the moment but once these responses started to misalign, my trust slowly cracked. 

Walking out of the doctor’s office, my mind was suffocating, trying to decide who to listen to and what decision was going to be best for my health. I started to weigh the opinions of each medical professional differently, trying to navigate myself toward the most trustworthy choice. 

As the contemplation drowned out all of my thoughts, a realization came to me. For a long time I held the false belief that there was an equation to a diagnosis and that every doctor was trained to solve problems the exact same way–every question would have the same answer because a doctor is a doctor. However, the human factor is crucial in this practice as every reading will vary and what’s best for the patient can fluctuate with the judgment of every different doctor. 

I now believe that, after consulting with a medical professional, the patient should ultimately have the last say in certain medical decisions because, at the end of the day, we know ourselves the best.