Doctor Patient

What is it like for a lawyer to review a contract or an accountant to fill out his taxes or a doctor to be a patient? Perhaps we envy the professions with an intimate knowledge of things that are a black box to us. But the truth is, when doctors get sick, we are just as scared, worried, anxious, and affected as any patient. Whether a broken bone, an accidental needlestick from an HIV+ patient, or a parent whose child has a sky-high fever, going to the doctor is no fun for us either. And knowing too much can be a double-edged sword. We know what to look for, we have resources that we trust, we know people in every field, but we also know the worst-case scenario and we've all seen that patient whose sore throat was really cancer. Even though we see people who are sick every day, being sick feels no better for us than for someone else. And because medicine is so specialized, we don't always have the answers when it comes to a skin rash or an eye problem or a new vaccine. We know just enough to get ourselves in trouble.