“Doctor, are you SURE?”

Hubris is a killer. Fight it with humility! In medicine, we often don't know why things happen as they do, and it can be hard to say "I don't know" when faced with certain questions.  Some patients view uncertainty very unfavorably and want total confidence by their doctor all the time. How do you feel when your doctor says "I don't know"?

Last year I wrote down six things that eventually changed my life…this is #5.

I made a list of six things that needed to happen if I was going to turn my life around. I was frustrated with my then-current work-life situation, and kept falling into the same bad patterns but couldn't figure out how to break the cycle. After constantly feeling like I didn't have time to exercise or eat right because I was too tired or spent, one day I literally looked in the mirror and had an epiphany...

When all the tests are normal

"The doctors all said my test results were normal. Are they missing something?" Don’t discount this common cause of gastrointestinal distress without some careful introspection first.