Famous Rheumatologist Quotes - Words that guide our doctors to be great doctors!

"Your house is on fire and there are flames coming out of the upstairs windows. The firemen are already at the curb with their hoses and want to turn on the water, but you say ' " No, no, you'll ruin my curtains!"

• This is a little story [Dr. Jack Cush] made up for patients who are reluctant to take a medication that [he knows] they need because they are frightened about possible side effects. [He said,] "They look at me a second, but they get it."

Oh, there's so much truth in this quote! If only I'd understood it when I was debating whether to start Cellcept years ago, when my own "house" was on fire. I could have saved myself so much consternation! You can read about my internal medication debate here. Suffice to say, going on Cellcept brought me back into the land of the living, and continues to work for me today.

The quote above is just one of the spot-on quotes included in an article written by rheumatologist Dr. Jack Cush.  The piece, titled "Famous Rheumatologist Quotes - Part I", is a compilation of famous quotes that he and his colleagues have used over the years to guide their ability to treat patients, and treat them well.

Thanks to Dr. Donald Thomas for sharing the article on twitter. (I bet Dr. Thomas has a few fabulous quotes of his own!)

Be sure to check out the entire list of famous quotes, but I'll leave you with just one more. This was contributed by a doctor who once worked with Dr. Cush, the author of the article, and he explains the genesis of Cush's words below:

"Hippocrates may say, 'First, do no harm' but if you ain't doing nothing, you're doing no good"

• Attributed to J. Cush, MD. I heard this during my fellowship when Cush was my attending. It was in the scenario of a very sick SLE patient who developed toxic epidermal necrolysis, acute renal failure, high fevers, in septic shock. Her lupus was active. Everyone was afraid to give her aggressive immunosuppression in her current state. She was deteriorating quickly. This quote stuck with me. We went for it: IV Cytoxan and IV steroids. She got better. Fear paralyzes us from doing what should be done. Sometimes, we need to hear that voice that nudges us.