Obviously, your health has been remarkably good.

Submitted by Stuart Teich (United States), Jun 19, 2008 at 16:45

Let's say you have an infection, not immediately life threatening. Your doctor may take a culture, and s/he may not. What your physician will NOT do is tell you to go home, drink lots of water, and think healthy thoughts. Either a guess will be made, and a specific antibiotic will be prescribed, or a broad spectrum drug will be given. Then a followup appointment, to check the progress of the infection, will be made.

A few days, not months, hence, it will be determined that the infection DOES seem to be on a path to resolution with current treatment, or that a higher dosage or different or additional drugs are needed. They will then be prescribed. A followup appointment will be made, results evaluated, and course of treatment verified for efficacy or adjusted.

A doctor does not in fact need to know exactly what bacterium is eating you alive to treat or even cure you. He does need to take reasonable, rational, disciplined action. A doctor who "stayed the course" with low doses of one drug while the patient's leg turned purple, swelled up, and required amputation would be sued for malpractice. Successfully.

Note: Opinions expressed in comments are those of the authors alone and not necessarily those of Daniel Pipes. Original writing only, please. Comments are screened and in some cases edited before posting. Reasoned disagreement is welcome but not comments that are scurrilous, off-topic, commercial, disparaging religions, or otherwise inappropriate. For complete regulations, see the "Guidelines for Reader Comments".