I'm not talking about patient education, I'm just talking about general conversation. I hear people get things wrong medically all the time, but I rarely correct people. For example, a relative said the other day that she thought her mother just had a kidney infection but then "We found out it was E. Coli! :nailbiting:" I didn't have the heart to tell her we all have E. coli in our guts and most kidney infections are E. coli.
I have a patient who also goes to my church. He tells everyone he has bladder cancer. He really has prostate cancer with mets to the bladder. This happens a lot with "bone" and "liver" cancer as well. I hear people say "so and so" had breast cancer and now they have "bone" cancer. Well, they most likely have bone mets, not bone cancer.
Normally, unless the person is seeking information from me or I'm in the clinical setting, I just keep my mouth shut. I figure I don't want to be an obnoxious know-it-all and, since I don't know the whole situation, I don't have all the facts.
