Kylie Minogue is a huge star in England and Australia, and
while she's popular here as well, she has had trouble breaking through into the
ranks of mega-uber-American stardom. I
think I've figured out why: she's too smart.
During an appearance on the Ellen DeGeneres Show,
the 39-year-old singer and cancer survivor said that when she visited her
doctor in 2005, she was told that everything was fine and that she should go
back out on tour. A few weeks later, she found a lump in her breast during a
self-examination, and then spent a year in treatment. Although Kylie is fine
now, she might not be if she hadn't taken charge of her own health care. Ellen
said that she too found a lump in her breast recently and had it removed -- two
weeks after getting a mammogram and being told there was nothing there.
Minogue stressed that she didn't want to "frighten
people," but did want people to realize that just because "someone is
in a white coat and using big medical instruments doesn't necessarily mean
they're right." She said that she knows of four other women who had
similar experiences. In a recent appearance on the Howard Stern Show,
Senator Arlen Specter discussed the time a doctor informed him that he had 3-6
weeks to live because of a malignant brain tumor; when the doctor then said he
should go on a scheduled vacation, he decided to get a second opinion since
that advice was a bit, shall we say, odd.
Specter was also wrongly told that he had Lou Gehrig's disease (methinks
the senator should switch doctors), and has since survived a bout with
Hodgkin's disease, which he chronicles in his new book Never Give In: Battling
Cancer in the Senate.
On a personal note, I had emergency surgery to remove my
gall bladder several years ago; I found out later that I had been sick for at
least six months, and despite worsening symptoms, my doctor didn't do x-rays
until it was clear that I was in real trouble. Another time I was put through a
battery of tests for stomach issues and it turned out I was lactose intolerant
and just needed to stop eating dairy. Everything worked out fine, but there are
numerous cases with more serious medical problems that don't end as happily.
Even though it can be difficult to question doctors, they
don't know everything, and some of them are even lousy at their jobs. This
doesn't mean that you should charge into every appointment armed with your own
copy of the PDR and
a massive chip on your shoulder, but it does mean that you shouldn't be afraid
to ask questions and if something doesn't feel right, seek a second opinion.
Finding that balance can be even more difficult when it comes to your kids and
their health care, but it's no less important. If you don't want your child to
get 6 vaccines at the same time, you have to find a way to tell your doctor.
Kylie has since backed off her statement slightly,
saying that she has "great respect for the medical profession."
Someone must have pressured her to say that, since it seems to me that it was
pretty clear in her initial comments that she didn't think ALL doctors were
ninnies.
On a less serious note, Kylie's song "Your Disco Needs
You" is really much better than it should be with a title like that. Check
out the video here.
image: Kylie.com
