Fifteen years ago, I broke my
leg. After I recovered, the doctor ordered a bone scan that revealed
osteoporosis. That’s more frequent in women, but anyone skinny and elderly is
at risk.
I began taking a drug for
osteoporosis. Every year, I had another bone scan. Sometimes it showed a little
improvement, sometimes a little deterioration. After ten years of not much change
and a few different drugs, I grew discouraged.
“It looks like this isn’t
working,” I said.
The doctor could have been
honest (“these drugs usually help, but sometimes they don’t; we’re doing our
best”) but instead I heard –
“If you hadn’t taken them,
you’d be worse.”
That’s common sense. As I
write regularly, if you hear common sense from a doctor it means he doesn’t
understand what’s going on.
It’s no different from the
famous ad for a quack remedy: “Cures all but the incurable!”
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