In 100 years, when people look back on health care today, I suspect they’ll think our dependence on symptoms was a bit…barbaric.
“So if something went wrong, they didn’t notice until it got bad enough to hurt? Really?! They just ignored it until then? But that’s so late! How crude. Thank God we don’t have to live like that now.”
Yes, we do blood panels and biomarkers and imaging and “wellness.” And yes, we have wearables and CGMs and other devices. Most are nowhere near medical grade, but they’re getting better, and more accessible.
Still, for lots of diseases, even critical ones like cancer, where catching them early can make all the difference, most of the time we’re still waiting until someone shows up in clinic, coughing up blood and complaining that their side hurts, or poking at a bump on their skin and saying, unconvincingly, “This isn’t a big deal, right? This is fine…right?”
I can’t imagine we’ll still be this symptom-driven in 2125. After all, even now, when you think about it, it seems pretty…barbaric.
@snarfed.org and as someone with multiple chronic conditions, it’s infuriating that when I do have a symptom and go to a doctor about it they just downplay it as being no big deal, until it becomes an emergency
honestly it feels like a joke.
I personally have a lot of troubles because I don’t communicate well and tend to underplay the symptoms because I try to be super accurate and not express my vibes, and be as objective as I can
But doctors instead seem to entirely rely on my vibes about what I feel 🫤