I think, no, I know M is the best informed patient ever. From his years in medical editing and publishing and through the years in the pharmaceutical industry he can write the damn medical texts himself and explain his condition probably as well as any of the doctors. If you have doubts, read his blog posts about the cath or his original posts on what the hell his condition is and how it all works. See?? Medical jargon far beyond the average lay person! It can make following the conversation during consults with the doctor(s) challenging because they sit there and talk 'medicalese' and I have the deer-in-headlights look. I don't know whether his impressive knowledge impresses the doctors or scares them because they've finally encountered someone who knows nearly what they do, without the years of extra study and fancy-pants degrees. He's either a great patient or a pain in the .. ahem. But it is fascinating.
Me, I'm the "medical moron" in this pairing and am still struggling with how the heart works and the bits and parts -- but I'm a good little librarian researcher so I can find info (thank you HowStuffWorks! But I get easily distracted, like by these bits). And thankfully the CC has patient literature out the whazoo (see, there's a medical term I know!) and lots of pretty pictures. Like the ones that the nice clinical research nurse gave us this morning.
And unlike the patient, I did find the video presentation we just sat through on 'being a heart patient' informative. Ok, really bad production and condescending, but informative.
Ok. About time for the Surgical God to come talk to us.
Peace.
J
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