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Those who suffer from troublesome, hard-to-define or rare illness know much of what is in this book, but this book would be invaluable to someone newly navigating a diagnosis. Groopman demystifies doctors – something long overdue. Guess what, they are just like us.

Doctors have preconceived notions borne of their own education and experience that sometimes interfere with proper diagnosis. Hoofbeats don’t always mean horses, sometimes there really are zebras, as the saying goes. Too often doctors stop testing.

Groopman opens the book with a tale of a woman who many in the allergy community can identify. She had been diagnosed as having psychological problems (anorexia among them) and IBS. Well, she was celiac. It took 10 years to get this diagnosis from a new doctor – everyone else figured her to be properly diagnosed. Everyone assumed that she was lying when she said she was eating and throwing up despite not wanting to. If you aren’t aware, a common effect of a food allergy is gastrointestinal distress. (That’s the nice way of saying it is coming from both ends. Think food poisoning except you are also having other histamine reactions – maybe hives, maybe swelling, maybe blood pressure drops.)

I felt for this woman. I recognized this woman. I admired this woman for continuing on when she knew that her doctors were wrong. Now, here is the thing. This woman was educated. Probably upper middle class and had access to the proper education and materials to know what to ask at the doctor’s office to get him to probe a little further. Or, as in her case, to try yet another specialist.

Some physicians call this diagnosis shopping, but I think that is rather wrongheaded. Diagnosis shopping is the continued visiting of physician after physician in hopes of getting a certain diagnosis. I don’t know anyone without hypochondria that would do that.

Here is the thing, if my doctor can’t help me and I know something is wrong, why wouldn’t I continue going to new people in search of answers? I would do that for gardening, cooking, books to read, etc. Why on earth should medicine be any different? Yes, doctors are the “experts” in medicine. But, in reality, they are really the monopoly holders on medical information. Their training is in interpreting symptoms for the purpose of diagnostics and treatment. If the treatment is not working, it is time to move on.

Since I live with a rare food allergy (corn) and difficult drug allergy (ingested alcohol), I’m used to having to deal with recalcitrant physicians who think they know better than I do. I can’t count the number of times I have had physicians tell me what happened to me was not possible – despite having a confirmed diagnosis from a well-respected allergist.

That is what makes Groopman’s book so refreshing. He doesn’t say to defer to the doctor. Rather, he says that you, as patient, are an equal partner in treatment and if a given doctor is not the right fit for you, move on. I know I have done this. Of course, my criteria for different types of doctors are different. I usually spend an inordinate amount of time training a new primary care physician.

Currently, I like my PCP, but I don’t think he fully understands the ramifications of the severity of my allergies – he was shocked that I take Claritin-D 24 hour every single day. And, ocassionally, I will take a Benadryl if things get really, really out of hand. (I always care an epi pen.) Of course, he is not an allergist, nor a radiologist (a.k.a. paranoid doctor), so I don’t expect him to have the heightened awareness.

Of course, I could have an unreasonable expectation because my previous PCP was very aware of the problems of allergy due to her son being highly allergic to the world. She often worked with the pharmacy to come up with the right drug. I would drive over an hour to see her. I was not a happy person when she retired.

So, though I know some physicians will take umbrage with what Groopman suggests in the role of patient as a partner in treatment – and even diagnostics – that is a correct statement in my mind.

The real problem with his hypothesis is that there is just too much information. No one person, not even a librarian, can keep up with all of the research in a single field.

Disclaimer: I am a trained librarian and I still find new studies on corn all the time. Some I should have seen years ago by their publication date. But there is just too much to keep up with.

I would recommend this book to all newly diagnosed patients – those of us entering the world of medical care recipients for whatever reason – and their families. Even for the seasoned and cynical veterans there are hidden gems, such as the doctor, himself, finding too many conflicting opinions. Or that the much vaunted academic expert is not as useful as the day-to-day practitioner.

If you can influence your library, make them add this to their collection. I believe it is that valuable.

The next book I’d like to see from this area of publishing? How to find medical information and research and how to present to my doctor. Hrm… that might make a good post.