15. The technology is great. Without it we wouldn't have been able to put a man on the moon, explore the ocean's depths or eat microwave sausages. Computers have changed our lives and they have the power to educate and pass on knowledge. But sometimes this power can create more problems than it solves.
Every doctor has had to try their best to calm down patients who've come into their surgery waving an Internet print-out, convinced (确信) that they have some rare incurable (难以治愈的) disease, say, throat cancer. The truth is usually far more ordinary, though: they don't have throat cancer, and it's just that their throats are swollen (肿胀的). Being a graduate of the Internet "school" of medicine does not guarantee (保证) accurate self-health-checks.
One day Mrs. Almond came to my hospital after feeling faint at work. While I took her blood sample and tried to find out what was wrong, she said calmly, "I know what's wrong; I've got throat cancer. I know there's nothing you doctors can do about it and I've just got to wait until the day comes."
As a matter of routine I ordered a chest X-ray. I looked at it and the blood results an hour later. Something wasn't right. "Did your local doctor do an X-ray?" I asked. "Oh, I haven't been to the doctor for years," she replied. "I read about it on a website and the symptoms (症状) fitted, so I knew that's what I had."
However, some of her symptoms, like the severe cough and weight loss, didn't fit with it — but she'd just ignored this.
I looked at the X-ray again, and more tests confirmed (确认) it wasn't the cancer but tuberculosis (肺结核) — something that most certainly did need treating, and could be deadly. She was lucky we caught it when we did.
Mrs. Almond went pale when I explained she would have to be on treatment for the next six months to ensure that she was fully recovered. It was certainly a lesson for her. "I'm so embarrassed," she said, shaking her head, as I explained that all the people she had come into close contact with would have to be found out and tested. She listed up to about 20, and then I went to my office to type up my notes. Unexpectedly, the computer was not working, so I had to wait until someone from the IT department came to fix it typically. Maybe I should have a microwave sausage while I waited.