I agree. I think as you get older you begin to realize that book knowledge is good, but life experience is better.
I've met a few "Doogie Howser" docs who think they know it all because they just graduated with medical degrees and believe themselves to have the most current info. Many of them tout themselves as top-rated doctors (BTW... you know those "Top Docs" commentaries that come out in the paper - I learned those commentaries are often paid for by the Docs themselves. Unfortunately, I learned that after we went to a pediatric cardiologist who was one of Seattle's "Top Docs". How shall I word this... they guy was young, completely contradicted three well-respected cardiologists I've seen before, and thought quite a bit of himself. It would have been humorous, if my son had not been his patient).
I can give another doozy of a Doogie Howser example. My daughter, when she was small, had very bad eczema all over her legs. We didn't know what it was. We had never seen eczema before we had her. Our elderly, well-respected doctor, who also, at the time, sat on the board of American Academy of Pediatrics, was out on a sabbatical. We ended up having to be seen by a young doctor. He saw her and instantly said, without a doubt, that she was infected with a very bad mite. He said she had to have this expensive cream rubbed all over her, then her whole body wrapped in plastic wrap - and, in addition, our whole family had to do the same thing because the mite was extremely contagious. If I recall correctly, each tube of medication was about $200 per person.
I questioned him - and told him she had that rash for months, and no one else in the family had ever gotten anything like it. He insisted we were lucky and still prescribed the med for the whole family.
We went home, did what he said, got rid of every stuffed animal, disinfected every piece of bedding, etc., etc. We all treated ourselves. Yet, her rash never went away. Finally, after a few weeks, our regular doctor came back and we took her back in. When he saw her and saw what our family had been put through he was not happy (to put it mildly). He said this was no mite - it was eczema. None of our family members should have ever used that drug. Then he informed us the reason the drug we had been prescribed was so expensive is because it was extremely dangerous and was a very bad carcinogen, and the drug company has to charge a lot for it because of potential lawsuits. My 4-year-old and 2-year-old twins had a drug like that used on them because of a book-learned doctor who was absolutely positive he knew what the problem was.
Later we learned she was allergic to nuts.
Needless to say, I learned the hard way, that people who are educated with book knowledge, but don't have experience, have a very high chance of making mis-guided choices.
