Friday, August 21, 2015

Doctors need to LISTEN to their patients.

There are many types of blood cancer, the four common types of leukaemia are: Chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL): CLL affects lymphoid cells and usually grows slowly. It accounts for more than 15,000 new cases of leukaemia each year. Most often, people diagnosed with the disease are over age 55. It almost never affects children. Chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML): CML affects myeloid cells and usually grows slowly at first. It accounts for nearly 6,000 new cases of leukaemia each year. It mainly affects adults. Acute lymphocytic (lymphoblastic) leukaemia (ALL): ALL affects lymphoid cells and grows quickly. It accounts for more than 6,000 new cases of leukaemia each year. ALL is the most common type of leukaemia in young children. It also affects adults. Acute myeloid leukaemia (AML): AML affects myeloid cells and grows quickly. It accounts for more than 18,000 new cases of leukaemia each year. It occurs in both adults and children.

My one is Hairy Cell Leukaemia is a rare type of chronic leukaemia of the rarest leukaemia and in the USA the incidence is 3.2-3.3/million population/year. This occurs only in adults, there is no cure, but it can be managed in most cases. Living with a rare disease means that the patient becomes the expert and very, very few medical people will ever see it in their entire careers. Doctors need to LISTEN to their patients and not automatically assume that the patient knows less than they do. Doctors also only see what they have been taught and recognise what they know. Hence, if your disease falls outside of those parameters, the uninformed patient is in deep shit.