Dec 4

“…Your Questions Are Far Too Informed…”

“I’m sorry, but your questions are far too informed. You are too knowledgeable. I can’t answer your questions for you… I will book you in with the head of anesthesia for you to talk to. May be they can answer some questions for you.” -OB to mother inquiring about pain medication options during her upcoming twin birth.

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There are 9 comments to this post.

Kate had this to say, Dec 4, 2009 @ 6:11 am (Quote)

That’s just mean and nasty.

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Kate Reply:
December 4th, 2009 at 10:48 am Kate(Quote)

Just read other people’s comments and realised I must have taken this the wrong way!! It took it to be very sarcastic from the OB…

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Heather Reply:
December 9th, 2009 at 10:02 am Heather(Quote)

I took it that way too.

A doctor can’t have patients that are too knowledgeable. I’m sure he/she likes his patients dumb and uninformed.

I too hope that this mother got the birth that she wanted.

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Genet had this to say, Dec 4, 2009 @ 8:03 am (Quote)

Yes, Doctor, my eight days of internet research made me more knowledgeable about my options–for something that 80-90% of your patients will use–than your eight years of medical school. Are you still excited about everything the medical cartel (a.k.a. AMA) has done for you today?

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Knitted in the Womb had this to say, Dec 4, 2009 @ 8:05 am (Quote)

Okay, so I’m glad the OB admitted the limit of his knowledge…but “way too informed?” What in the world is that supposed to mean?

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Heather had this to say, Dec 4, 2009 @ 9:20 am (Quote)

Is that the same as saying “I am not used to women doing research on something that I prefer to be an all-knowing diety about. I’m going to pawn you off on someone else…because I have no idea how to address your concerns in a manner that will make you bend to my wishes”.
Damn you women who read!! haha

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Kathy had this to say, Dec 4, 2009 @ 12:08 pm (Quote)

I actually like this one. It’s better than pretending to know all the answers or lying! And the doctor is not an anesthesiologist, so does not know all the ins and outs of all the anesthesia medications. Maybe the woman who submitted this will give more details; but I would suspect that she was asking specific things about the particular drugs that would be used, or the different options available to her. The doctor may not know the difference in side effects between the main drug(s) used in most epidurals; what the difference between an epidural and a spinal is; whether the anes. does a combined spinal-epidural; if it was a continuous thing, or could she have a top-off dose; or if she could have a shot of demerol, stadol, etc., instead.

Yes, it would have been much easier on the doctor to have had an ill-informed patient, who just said, “Whatever you think is best, doctor” or “whatever the anesthesiologist is wanting to do is fine with me.” Knowledge is power!

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