- "They found that 69 percent of patients with metastatic lung cancer and 81 percent of ¬patients with advanced colo-rectal cancer reported that their chemotherapy might be curative, despite the fact that the drugs were extremely unlikely to cure their cancer."
- Patients who thought their doctors were worse communicators were more likely to have a realistic view of the potential benefit of their treatment.
Do patients rate their doctors as better communicators because they provide a more optimistic message? So if the information is more in line with what the patient wants to hear is the doctor considered to be a better communicator? But if the doctor is more honest, the patient considers them a worse communicator because they are being told things they don't want to acknowledge?
A sugar coated doctor appointment isn't really a good thing. I want the truth. I have even been known to pull together every brave little molecule in my body and ask my oncologist what my prognosis is. Sometimes the truth isn't pretty but I think its needed.
I know not everyone is the same as me in wanting to hear the truth and doctors do not necessarily know the patients will react to news. I think they assume have to gauge what they say based on what the patient says. I make sure I ask the direct questions so I get the direct answers in return.
I do not want to have a rosy picture of life if it isn't going to be that way. I can't digest and cope with bad news if its sugar coated. I have to adapt to reality and then learn how to make lemonade with my latest life lemons.
