Alexandra Sifferlin

And, you know, sometimes they find relief that way, but often you can end up, you know, trying treatments that, you know, at best don't work, at worst could be potentially damaging, but you're desperate.

You're looking for some kind of relief.

I would say, and I can't speak for everyone, obviously, but one thing that I noticed in my reporting was that people can be okay with uncertainty if it is sort of really communicated to them well from the physician or the medical team.

Often what people experience is actually something

Not the physician coming and saying, we just really don't know, but we're going to try.

Here's what else we're going to try.

let's keep trying to work on this together instead it's like okay i sent you out for some tests maybe you got a little email notification from your portal and it just says like negative for all these things and then no but there's no follow-up you don't really get this uncertainty communicated to you or you don't really feel like whoever you're seeing is comfortable and

in telling you that they don't quite know what to do.

And I think that if medicine can become more comfortable with uncertainty and with communicating it and sort of navigating it and figuring out, you know, I will have to tell this person I don't know what's going on, but let's make a game plan and let's, you know, keep trying.

I do think that can lead to sort of

a better patient experience, which is ultimately really important for someone who needs to kind of still be engaged with the medical system and not completely lose faith or lose trust in it.

Because perhaps there isn't an answer now, but there could be down the line and you want that person to remain engaged.

Absolutely.

I think many people go into medicine wanting to help people and wanting to heal people and wanting to provide relief.

And when you can't do that, I mean, I think you just feel bad.

It can also be sort of a shot to the ego.

It's just not a comfortable position to be in.

And it's really frustrating.

And I think what...

What I hope there is a bit more of, and I was actually encouraged to hear from physicians that I include in the book who sort of feel this way, is acknowledging that, is it just that the person in front of me, I don't know what they have, but maybe somebody else does, and I can sort of