How to Think About Medical Risk Realistically 🩺⚕️
I created this handout to help patients advocate for themselves, and better and more accurately assess their true risk when it comes to medical procedures.
As a longtime sufferer from Iatrogenic(doctor-caused) Adhesive Arachnoiditis, after a botched, unnecessary epidural steroid injection when I was only 16 years old, I’m very passionate about advocating for better doctor patient transparency. I encourage patients to frequently and thoroughly question their doctors, to get second opinions when any doubt arises, and to make sure they aren’t just blindly trusting them like so many of us have been trained to do. Just remember that YOU CAN ALWAYS SAY NO, and if things just don’t feel right, or the doctor doesn’t seem confident in what they’re doing, its perfectly acceptable to stop any procedure, and opt to try again another time. It’s YOUR body, your life, your well-being, and YOUR CHOICE! A good doctor will respect your decision, a not so good one may guilt trip you about “wasting their time”, which would show you all you need to know anyways!!
I hope this helps someone out there not end up in the situation that I did. 🙏🩵 Trying to use all that I’ve learned the past almost 3 decades to help others navigate the medical system more effectively, finally gives me some much awaited purpose.