Blog #79--Doctors Need Both Facts And Intuition

Doctors, dentists, veterinarians and a wide range of other health specialists need many years of schooling to be proficient in their professions. And they must pass national and state exams to gain their licenses to practice. This requires memorization of tons of facts from a vast array of highly technical courses. But once out of school and practicing their professions, they must also have intuition, something that is difficult to teach in school.

When I attended veterinary school, I remember being told we would need to integrate everything we were learning into an overall understanding of animals and how to treat their imbalances. But as we went through four years of 8:00 am to 5:00 pm course work plus late night studying for frequent unannounced exams, it was easy to see each course as a separate subject. I often wondered how it would all fit together, but I never realized how important it was to unite all the details into one cohesive, functional level of understanding until I was in private practice.

Experts can write their textbooks on the symptoms of a disease, how it affects the various parts of the body and how to treat the condition. But these “facts” are not as absolute as would be ideal. They are based on averages developed over time from a large number of similar cases. In reality, there are many symptom variations that can confuse the practitioner because they don’t conform precisely to the textbooks. I will cite just two of many examples.

I was presented a small breed dog with symptoms that seemed to fit the definition of diabetes insipidus, a rare disease dissimilar to the more common diabetes mellitus. There is a specific test that can help diagnosis diabetes insipidus, and its results seemed to confirm that diagnosis for this particular dog. I began treating it for this condition, but it didn’t improve. Over the next couple weeks, it went downhill quickly and died.

I sent tissue samples to a veterinary laboratory to help explain the cause of death. I was told the dog was suffering from two different chronic kidney conditions that, when combined, mimicked diabetes insipidus. It was highly unlikely either condition could have been treated successfully. The fact the dog was old added to its poor prognosis. But I still felt badly for the owners, to whom I had given false hope by my confident diagnosis.

As an inexperienced veterinarian, I had made an assumption based on facts that seemed clear cut without accepting the reality I might never see a case of diabetes insipidus in my entire career. I needed something beyond facts if I had any hope of helping this dog and its owners. Even if I couldn’t prolong the dog’s life, I needed to prepare its owners better for the dog’s likely demise.

As another example, I had to share emergency calls with three other veterinarians my first year in practice. It was hard getting any sleep during these times. Even without any late night calls, the possibility of one caused me to keep one ear listening for the phone. And if I did receive a call, it was hard going back to sleep even if I didn’t have to see the animal at that time.

People would call at all hours for non-emergency situations. I remember one call at 3:00 am where a person was trimming his dog’s toenails and caused some bleeding. Styptic powder or a little flour on the tip of the claw would have stopped the bleeding, but I lost several hours of sleep because of it.

With that background, one night I got a call about a dog that was having vomiting and diarrhea. The way the owner talked, it didn’t seem like an emergency situation. Dogs often eat things that cause stomach upset, so the common response over the phone was for the owner to take away all food and water. That way, the dog wouldn’t aggravate its stomach further until it could be brought to our clinic the next morning. Unfortunately, the dog died of acute pancreatitis within a couple hours of the phone call.

I don’t know if I could have helped this dog, but I still regret not meeting the client when he first called. I wish I had sensed a true emergency, but my instincts failed me. I also wish the client had provided more detail over the phone to make the decision easier. After all, diagnosis is always more difficult if the right questions aren’t asked, or if the client fails to notice precise details prior to the emergency call.

The more cases I experienced in practice, the more I noticed an intuition developing within me. As I look back on it, I believe I was subconsciously tuning into an animal’s energy and getting a feel for what was bothering it. Sometimes, the diagnosis was simple and the treatment successful. But at other times, I needed that intuition to distinguish one possible diagnosis from another.

Most health professionals likely develop a similar instinct as they gain experience. But some rely so completely on their logical, rational minds, they block their ability to feel and sense intuitively. It isn’t always easy for patients to recognize which doctors combine knowledge with intuition, but they are most likely to see the overall picture and maximize their success rates.

And as I discussed at great length in my book “It’s a Secret, So Pass It On: a Toolbox For Life,” the balanced synthesis of logic and intuition gives us access to our higher selves, which are one with our creator and everything in the universe. That is the source of inspiration and, in the case of medical practitioners, accurate diagnoses.

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