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In reply to the discussion: I have a patient on my schedule today who is a heavy smoker. Complaint: "Lungs are hurting." [View all]Aristus
(66,438 posts)15. This is a patient I've been visiting with regularly for months.
She has Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease, caused by, and exacerbated by, smoking.
Sure, it's fun to pretend that these things don't matter, and that any ongoing, unresolved medical problem just has to be the provider's fault.
I could propose that she try whistling 'Dixie' every morning to try and cure the problem. But science-based treatment protocols suggest the efficacy of such a treatment would not be very encouraging. Quitting smoking is the evidence-based treatment protocol.
If a medical provider were to tell me that smoking is bad for me (I don't smoke), my first impulse would not be to accuse him of incompetence.
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I have a patient on my schedule today who is a heavy smoker. Complaint: "Lungs are hurting." [View all]
Aristus
Nov 2018
OP
I am of the view that people in medical services should refrain from value judgements
still_one
Nov 2018
#5
Illustrating cause and effect, that B is a direct consequence of A, is not a value judgement.
LanternWaste
Nov 2018
#14
"Couldn't you prescribe some cocaine and heroin to help me forget cigarettes?"
struggle4progress
Nov 2018
#19
Practically speaking, what can you do for lungs that hurt in someone who
Eliot Rosewater
Nov 2018
#51