“Doc, I know my body.”

Have you ever said this to a doctor?

It’s another phrase that patients will commonly say to me that sometimes strikes me as peculiar.

I don’t want to over-analyze it, but it’s another statement much like the one I wrote about earlier: “I’ve tried everything, and nothing is working.”

I explained in that post that doctors often interpret this phrase as a request for the doctor to turn off their brain and simply write a prescription.

This phrase, “I know my body,” is interpreted in a similar way by doctors because it typically precedes the patient’s self-diagnosis.

“Doc, I know my body, and this is … .”

Again, I’m sometimes at a loss as to where to go from here.

Do I simply say, “Ok”?

But what do I document?

“Patient said they have …, so I believed them?”

How would that stand up against medical auditing? or in court? Honestly, it’s probably a good way to make sure that your medical visit doesn’t get covered by the insurance company.

Now, of course, a patient’s history and experience IS very important – and can be very helpful in honing in on a diagnosis. My point is that doctors can’t just take a patient’s word for it. We really have to keep asking questions, do the exams and tests in order to prove it to ourselves.

Again, the patient might be correct. He or she might really know what the illness is. Bladder infections, acne, eczema, etc, are all pretty easy to figure out.

But can you tell the difference between sinusitis caused by adenovirus vs moraxella catarrhalis?

How about acute suppurative otitis media vs otitis media with effusion?

Pharyngitis caused by strep vs mono?

What about appendicitis vs ovarian torsion vs endometriosis vs inguinal hernia vs ureterolithiasis?

How about gastroesophageal reflux vs a heart attack? That’s a really common one that presents to the ER. And sometimes it’s neither, it’s costochondritis or pleurisy.

All of these examples are completely different in their treatment, but can be very hard to distinguish by their symptoms.

So, even if you do know your body and the symptoms are extremely familiar to you, please humor us and allow us to ask our questions and do our exam.

We really do want to help you.