We did not need that information

About a year ago, my husband and I were in Philadelphia, PA visiting a few friends who live in the city and slightly beyond. One of them is a pediatrician, who was earning a PhD in public health at a prestigious US university.

Smart guy.

Out at dinner one night, over octopus at a local Chinese restaurant, four of us - the doctor, my husband, myself and one of my closest friends- got into a bit of an argument largely spurred by my ignorance of various topics.

One of them was breast self exams and how this at-home test for cancer was causing more harm than personal and public good by forcing doctors to perform expensive, invasive, anxiety-inducing testing over every tiny lump a would-be patient comes across after only a few seconds of feeling around.

My hotheaded position: all information is good, the more the better. And if excessive testing can find that tiny risk factor, or possibly save a life, then it's all for the best - even if 99 per cent of the time the testing is useless and proves nothing was wrong in the first place. 

The doctor's astute position: forget all the testing. 99 per cent of the time it only amounts to patient stress, not useful information.

Now, one year and one frightening ordeal later, I see his point.

When my husband and I walked out of our second ultrasound we were handed a report as per hospital protocol. We were expected to deliver it to my Ob/Gyn to save the administrative hassle, I believe, for the hospital. If something was wrong, a doctor would have stopped us on our way home that day to talk to us about it. Nobody did.

But while doctors weren't concerned by what the report contained, my husband and I became terribly upset by what we read.

We are two panicky parents-to-be with little understanding of medical concepts (despite being well educated and having lots of doctors in the immediate family), but that tiny piece of information, like finding a lump under my arm, was enough to make us absolutely nuts for several days.

We scoured the Internet for information. Sought countless professional opinions. Agonized over what we later found out was truly nothing. And still we worry. A lot.

We didn't need to know what was on that sheet. That information lead us down an awful, needless path.

So why was did the hospital give it to us??

Comments

[DianaBanana]

I'd like to start off by saying that I'm very, very happy that it turned out to be nothing. A healthy baby is something everyone hopes for and yours sounds, thankfully, right on track.

In your post you say you ripped the report open. I could very well be wrong but that choice of words implies that it was either sealed or shut in some manner. No doubt they gave it to you on the assumption that you wouldn't open and read it.

Now, plenty of people read their charts. I ask to be allowed to read my chart (with my doctor just to avoid anxiety and not knowing), but I think your error was two fold. First, not asking to go over it with your tech, who probably wouldn't have wanted to but that's where insistence comes in and you sound like you could have worn them down. Part 2 would be searching the internet for clues after you read it.
There was a recent article, I believe in the Star, about how internet search results come up with fatal/worse case situations more then they come up with more common and highly more likely (if less deadly) results by almost double, which often leads to what was termed cyberchondria. Google 'Bad Headaches' and the FIRST result is about brain tumors (there's a 'I don't feel so lucky' I Feel Lucky).

[TorontoMom2Be]

Don't worry so much, and enjoy your pregnancy! Seriously. Too many of my current preg-friends are all of a sudden medical "experts" and all of a sudden lose sight of the fact they are having a wonderful, normal and healthy pregnancy. Embrace it, since it goes so fast!

P.S. They handed us the week 19 ultrasound results too, and instructed us to "walk it over" to the Dr. Of course I read it, scanned it, and if I had any questions - I would have asked her. I love reading my chart, but if there is anything - I ask her specifically. The internet is so dangerous for mixed advice!