Is your Health Care Practitioner Reading Your Blog?

A couple of years ago, I got a huge shock when I went in for some routine blood work in the big, fancy CLL center, and noticed my nurse was acting kind of funny. She mentioned something that I had posted on-line in one of the CLL lists. I had complained about something, and she was defensive about it. I realized that she, or someone else, had been reading my posts about my clinical trial!

For some dumb reason, I thought the only people who would read CLL group messages would be other patients. To be honest, I thought that oncologists and nurses were way too busy to even think about searching on the terms of a trial to see what patients in that trial were saying.

I've known for a long time that financial creeps troll the patient groups, looking for any information they can use to make financial decisions. Although less than honorable, I guess it's something that wouldn't surprise me too much.

But to have my health care practitioner looking for posts on a clinical trial floored me.

I am much more careful now. If I have anything at all even remotely critical to say, I say something like, 'a famous CLL doctor', or a nurse at one of the top CLL centers.' I'll use it every time I didn't want a particular doctor to read what I said about him.

After all, there is no reason at all to get your doctor or nurse mad at you.

The web is a huge party line. (Older folks are at least a bit familiar with the concept of the telephone party line. We used to have one. It was cool, but inconvenient at times.) Be careful what you say!!!