I was reading an article today about how you have 22 seconds to speak with your doctor before he interrupts you. The article goes on to say that it us the patients who must figure a way to bridge the communication gap. Why? Why must I who is sick and dealing with all the issues that entails, be the one who has to figure a better way to communicate? Why, when the doctor is hired by me, ME! I think it is way past the time for us to let go of this God complex we have given doctors. If you read all the current info these days on the shape of our medical system, important results are missed, mistakes are made and your lucky if your doc remembers you. I remember a few years ago I had a HMO primary care physician who introduced himself for 6 consecutive visits in about a 2 month time span. I'd just seen him for pete's sake. I won't even get started on hospitals which after coming out of the operating room for a kidney stone, was mistaken for a patient who had an organ transplant. Of course I'm ecstatic that the mix up was after and not before the operation, although I'd be wealthy by now!!
As someone who unfortunately has been spending so much of my time at doctor's offices, I've been seeing how messed up things have gotten. If I was healthy and only saw my doc for the pleasure of getting felt up for my breast exam and sticking my feet in the stirrups, who cares if they know my name. As long as the test come back fine, see ya next year. I no longer have that luxury and as my life has now come to depend on doctors, labs, tests and procedures, I'd really appreciate that they were done accurately and that maybe after being seen every month for a year, that they'd remember my damn name!
I went in today for what I thought was to get my stitches out and go over my path reports. Instead I dragged my self out of bed(nauseous as my chemo was raised this week), drove 27 miles, waited in the waiting room for 45 minutes, stood in the valet parking for 20 minutes as they lost my keys, all for the privilege of 1 minute with the doc who didn't even know what surgery he had done on me and telling me the stitches will fall out on their own. If I would have known that, I didn't need to go through that. My incision is healing cleanly, no infection so they could have told me that over the phone and I could have saved myself all the aggravation.
Now, there are those docs out there that went into the field for reasons other than playing God and money and I am very lucky to have a few of them on my team. Unfortunately my situation dictates that I haven't always been able to pick some of the docs that have been asked to consult. I have rejected a few that were so obnoxious that you couldn't pay me to go back, but there is only so much you can do before getting the reputation as a "difficult or non-compliant" patient. I have been called non-compliant a few times and I hold that title proudly as I prefer to call it "I have a brain and will not blindly do everything you say". They see it a little differently. Hey, I gotta get my fun in where I can.
We love in a time where we need to be the one in charge of our medical information and stay on top of things and ask questions when things don't make sense. To expect that those in the medical profession will catch anything wrong is sticking your head in the sand. I prefer to be non-compliant and alive.
Take care
Melissa
As someone who unfortunately has been spending so much of my time at doctor's offices, I've been seeing how messed up things have gotten. If I was healthy and only saw my doc for the pleasure of getting felt up for my breast exam and sticking my feet in the stirrups, who cares if they know my name. As long as the test come back fine, see ya next year. I no longer have that luxury and as my life has now come to depend on doctors, labs, tests and procedures, I'd really appreciate that they were done accurately and that maybe after being seen every month for a year, that they'd remember my damn name!
I went in today for what I thought was to get my stitches out and go over my path reports. Instead I dragged my self out of bed(nauseous as my chemo was raised this week), drove 27 miles, waited in the waiting room for 45 minutes, stood in the valet parking for 20 minutes as they lost my keys, all for the privilege of 1 minute with the doc who didn't even know what surgery he had done on me and telling me the stitches will fall out on their own. If I would have known that, I didn't need to go through that. My incision is healing cleanly, no infection so they could have told me that over the phone and I could have saved myself all the aggravation.
Now, there are those docs out there that went into the field for reasons other than playing God and money and I am very lucky to have a few of them on my team. Unfortunately my situation dictates that I haven't always been able to pick some of the docs that have been asked to consult. I have rejected a few that were so obnoxious that you couldn't pay me to go back, but there is only so much you can do before getting the reputation as a "difficult or non-compliant" patient. I have been called non-compliant a few times and I hold that title proudly as I prefer to call it "I have a brain and will not blindly do everything you say". They see it a little differently. Hey, I gotta get my fun in where I can.
We love in a time where we need to be the one in charge of our medical information and stay on top of things and ask questions when things don't make sense. To expect that those in the medical profession will catch anything wrong is sticking your head in the sand. I prefer to be non-compliant and alive.
Take care
Melissa
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