A Costly Medical Truth

“I answered a medical question honestly… and I think it cost me a friendship.” Part 1

Over the past year, I became friends with my barber and we started hanging out outside of haircuts.

A few months ago, we went out for dinner and drinks, and because I’m a physician,

she asked me about something from her past. She said years ago she went to urgent

care with pelvic pain and was told she had a “pelvic infection.” They treated her

with a single shot and sent her home. From a medical standpoint, that’s not subtle at all.

A sexually active woman in her 20s, pelvic pain, one intramuscular antibiotic?

That’s basically a med-school exam question. So I told her honestly: It was almost certainly