Below is an excerpt from a column by Dr. Kent A. Sepkowitz. He is vice chairman of medicine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

The New York Times

…”And yet often I dismiss their ideas with the same careless flick of the wrist I have come to expect from the latest in my long line of plumbers and dishwasher subspecialists. Like the plumber, I’ve heard that one before, whatever the complaint; I’ve previously spent time and wasted patient hope chasing the same false lead down a dead-end path. I hope I have learned from my missteps, gained in wisdom, tempered my own eagerness to order test after test. I am the one with more experience at this, right? Isn’t that the point?

“Many patients sense my reluctance to consider their theories. One recently asked me to evaluate him because of a sense of deepening fatigue without fever or weight loss; might it be an infection? I explained that I had tried many times through the years to diagnose infection in patients with his specific set of complaints but had never turned up an answer. In my judgment, the “million dollar work-up” was a waste of his time and money. After I finished, we stared at each other in awkward silence. I had broken his heart a little, and I too was demoralized. It is not enjoyable to trample hope….”

Source: The New York Times, April 25, 2010