“My mother, who was whip-smart but had little formal education, believed that whatever doctors were telling her was right, that any recommendation was the best one, that doctors wouldn’t be prescribing anything unless she really needed it. And that was good enough for her
“She was also highly aware of a doctor’s very valuable time, and thus reluctant to waste it by asking him to repeat what he’d just said, or to clarify complicated instructions, and most important, extremely reluctant to appear stupid in front of him if she had to admit she hadn’t understood what he was talking about.
