Education
Posted on June 8, 2009
Thanks to the Internet it is easy to become knowledgeable about most anything. I often tell people that I think knowledge is power. With knowledge we can have very different conversations with our nurses and doctors (or friends and family members too). When you know their terminology it changes how they treat you. It changes the questions you ask. You become less intimidated by them.
The challenge of educating ourselves is to know what is true and what is not. For example, one of my friends is pregnant with twins after 8 years of infertility treatments. She has had some medical complications. She is also a nurse so she is comfortable with the terminology and isn’t afraid to ask questions. However, like the rest of us, she can find the most horrifying condition and speculate that is the one she has. My husband recently did the same thing — he thought he had liver disease when all it seems to have been was a virus.
My friend told me that since she was having some issues she decided to do some research herself. She then presented facts and some of her finding to her doctor. She told me that had she not brought up the possible outcomes of her medical condition the doctor might not have discussed any of the potential outcomes with her. If one of her diagnoses is correct, it could hamper the survival of one of her twins. A fact the doctor doesn’t seem to be too concerned with and a fact that scares her to death.
Doing our own research or learning more about the “what-ifs” can prepare us to ask our doctors the tough questions. What methods do you use to educate yourself about your infertility, your pregnancy, or your premature baby?
» Filed Under Infertility, Personal Growth, Premature Births, pregnancy
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2 Responses to “Education”
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I do agree that knowledge is power, and that educating yourself is key. However for me (with OCD) there are times where attempting to self-diagnose myself on say, web md, leaves me in a hypochondria-like-state. So I try to find the middle line.
Yaya
share this issue with us, thank you to my friends. Have very good information on this site.
good work