Are you a believer or a doubter, when it comes to modern medicine?
Imagine developing a viral illness with fever. A believer might grab some ibuprofen to take down the fever. A doubter might refrain, concerned about impairing the body's ability to fight infection.
Imagine developing pain and swelling in your knee after stepping in a hole. A believer might consult an orthopedic surgeon and proceed with an MRI. A doubter might refrain, wanting to first give the knee a month or two to heal on its own.
Imagine you have a strong family history of cancer. A believer might consult a genetic counselor and undergo recommended tests. A doubter might skip the consult and/or recommended screening tests, wanting to avoid radiation exposure and/or avoid false positives.
To be a Healthy Survivor, believers and doubters obtain sound knowledge about the risks (side effects, complications, aftereffects) and benefits of proceeding with recommended interventions, as well as the risks (progressive problems, loss of treatment options) and benefits of not proceeding. They consider how much regret they'd feel if things didn't turn out well after proceeding, and after not proceeding.
Healthy Survivors develop flexibility, believing when it's best to believe and doubting when skepticism helps.
We welcome YOUR comments!
SEE READERS' COMMENTS UNDER COMMENT BOX (below)
For email notifications of new posts, subscribe here
For archives of older posts, click here.