“Deceive not thy physician, confessor or lawyer.”– George Herbert (1593-1632) British poet.
What kind of human being walks into a Doctor’s office with a serious health problem, sits down calmly and then proceeds to tell a bunch of lies? A nut-job, you’ll probably answer. Yet it has been my experience that most patients tell lies in at least one session with their doctor. And who is the worse for it? When they are eventually found out, having undergone a series of tests and are confronted with the results, they undergo a kind of transformation as if recovering from a severe case of amnesia. “Oh, ah, em…Yes, that was what I meant to say” they stutter, and then stare at you boldly, silently daring you to contradict them.
A young lady walked into my office the other day and complained of terrible lower abdominal pains. She brandished in her hand a lab result from one of these private establishments we have around declaring that she had typhoid fever. I asked her a gamut of questions, one of which included when she saw her last menstrual period. She promptly replied “two weeks ago”. The symptoms and signs all pointed to her having had an abortion recently but she kept on insisting I treat the typhoid fever. Eventually I had to ask her bluntly if she had terminated a pregnancy recently. She looked me stoically in the eyes and answered no, she saw her period two weeks ago, wasn’t I listening??? I apologized and sent her to do a scan nonetheless. Lo and behold the scan came back revealing a poorly evacuated abortion.
I confronted her with the results and watched as a dramatic change fit for any home movie came over her. She started sweating, fumbled with her hair, then her fingers, looked at me briefly for a moment then looked away again. She sighed and then finally confessed. She had committed an abortion two weeks ago and was ashamed to tell anyone out it.
Please don’t lie to your doctor. It’s silly because we are going to find out anyway. Also a lot of resources and time goes into getting the truth out of you via laboratory tests and X-rays which you wouldn’t have had to do if you told the truth in the first place. And finally, it is about your health, not ours. Lying about your health is like attempting suicide. One day it might cost you more than you think.
