We're not talking about hiding information, we're talking about not looking for it in the first place. Information that is costly to acquire but not actionable once acquired.
in some cases the knowledge itself is a curse. These commenters mostly have no clue what they’re talking about and it shows.
My spouse found out they had a benign brain tumor, an accidental discovery while doing a brain scan for some other reason. She now has to get annual scans done to make sure the size doesn’t change. Guess what? It hasn’t changed in 5 years.
You might say “better safe than sorry!” To that i say - bullshit. It’s caused her lots of unnecessary stress and anxiety. EVERY year she goes back to the testing center and stresses out about if it’s changed in the last year. She sleeps poorly sometimes because of the anxiety, etc. Knowing every microscopic issue within your body is not always a net benefit! Quality of life matters too, not just longevity.
I think it really depends on the type of cancer. Actionable information is the most useful information.
So my wife has gone through all this extra stress to MAYBE catch a cancerous tumor (28%). That’s assuming it grows large enough to impact her before she dies naturally. And I see that the survival rate of some brain tumors, even if found very early, is very poor (5-10% for some tumors, like glioblastoma).
Lots of “what if’s” here. And for what? All i’m arguing is, knowledge is not always actionable, and what’s not actionable can keep you up at night.
The point i’m making is, we should not be trying to pursue a life of 0 risk and perfect decisions. Life is filled with risk (and good and bad luck). That’s just life.
It depends on your personality or worldview. Some people would be much more comfortable lowering their chances of “what ifs” than leaving it all to fate.
i agree with you. If a patient expresses that sentiment to their doctor, they should act accordingly and order the extra screening. At the end of the day it should be a conversation with your provider.
There should definitely be an honest discussion about pros and cons. And not just the physical, but the mental aspect as well.
Just like the opinion would be different if the size didn't change but she embarked in a risky treatment that left her permenantly disabled or dead.
Hindsight is twenty-twenty. If you take the wrong course of action of course you are going to be upset. But that goes for both possible choices. Its not like the choice is ignore vs take some safe but possibly unnessary action. Both choices could kill you.
On the other hand, the placebo effect works even when the placebo is clearly labelled "placebo". So I guess there's potential to tell people needlessly disconcerting facts and then take the edge off with reassuring bluster and functionless comforts.
