Cancer and other serious conditions get missed and misdiagnosed all the time. No person nor test is infallible. However, if you advocate properly for yourself, you’ll ask your doctor what other possible conditions you might have, and how they arrived at their diagnosis.

Most doctors routinely tell you all this stuff, anyway but, if they don’t, that’s a red flag to me. If that conversation isn’t happening, you aren’t going to be prompted by their explanation to provide clarity or more useful information you hadn’t previously thought important.

True story: I was threatened w police intervention by my doctor’s nurse for trying to get a refill for hydrocodone the day before Thanksgiving.

I had pinched a nerve the previous week and was in substantial pain. I knew I’d run out of meds over the long weekend, so I called. They assumed I was already out of medication and accused me of abusing it. I went by the office w the partially-full bottle, to no avail. The nurse and another staffer (witness) pulled me into a room. They refused to listen or examine my med bottle. That’s when they threatened cops if I didn’t leave immediately. I left and went straight to urgent care. Prescription given.

I booked my next—and final—visit to my doctor to tell him how furious I was to be dismissed, threatened, and ostensibly left in pain for days. I told him I was never coming back and that they were damn lucky that’s all I intended to do. He claimed no knowledge of whole ugly situation. As if.

Well, where’s the fun in that?

Ta-da!