If the parents care about the kid
If the kid cares about his own disease
If the mother doesn't really want to talk to me and is secretly wondering where the real doctor is
If the dad doesn't give a damn
If the kid is sweet and raised well
If it's a happy and supportive environment...
Don't you think it's crazy? Surely someone shouldn't be able to see so much in so little time. Aren't there extenuating circumstances? That I don't know the struggles or the problems behind the scenes (oh, but don't I? from past notes and the list of psych meds?).
I've always wondered if I could transcribe a person into words, if I could be written down in black and white and a thousand little letters. I imagined, if anything, it would be a leather-bound book of stories and dreams and half-sensed allegories of the depths of each person. (If anything, I am a romantic at heart. Unfortunately.)
But, let me just say... a medical record is pretty darn telling if the kid has been sick a lot. Social history, family history, notes about how the mother has taken away privileges, birthdays, school notes. It might not all be there, but I can almost see how some medical students have made the mistake of thinking they knew the patient before they even laid eyes on the very person.
But oh, how much I think I know the patient!
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And then the perspective flip.
How much can the patient know of the physician? The few minutes where I think I already know so much about the patient... does the patient think the same?
If the physician is warm and inviting
If she is impersonal and cold
If he is smart and knowledgeable and concerned
If she cares about the patient at all?
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Is it all just first impressions?
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