Re: Communicating with Your Doctor...BE SURE TO READ THIS!!
From: Lin (j.vermey@xtra.co.nz)
Fri Dec 7 20:15:48 2001
At Fri, 7 Dec 2001, cathy:- wrote:
>
>This is great, but I want to add something. I've had a bunch of
>different doctors over the years because I've moved. In that time I
>found 1 outstanding doctor and 1 excellent doctor and the rest, well,
>not great. I've decided after lots of thought that there is ONE thing
>that distinguishes that one outstanding doctor from all of the rest.
>
>A great doctor ASKS QUESTIONS. And listens to your answers, and thinks
>about what they the answers mean, and asks MORE questions. And those
>questions make sense according to what you have told him/her. We've all
>seen thousands of hours of police dramas and detective stories on TV and
>movies. A great doctor grills you for information like a great
>detective grills witnesses for information about a crime.
>
>I don't know how many of those articles I've read in woman's magazines
>and parenting magazines and pregnancy books that have some simpering
>testimonal to the prototypical doctor, whom I will name "Dr. Orick L.
>Dephi." "Oh he's so WONDERFUL! He takes the time to answer all of my
>questions!" I just want to reach in through the pages of the magazine
>and grab the woman by the neck and yell, "Look, you little twit, if you
>have a question go to the library! When you go to the doctor it's so
>that s/he can figure out what, if anything, is wrong with YOUR body! Not
>a meeting where you chose a subject and the overbearing pompous SOB
>pontificates upon it!"
>
>Even this article, which overall was excellent, fell a little bit into
>The Trap:
>
>>Write down all your symptoms and questions, all medications you're
>>currently taking (including supplements), and gather together all
>>recent medical records and lab results.
>>
>>IN THE WAITING ROOM...As you wait for your appointment, go over your
>>questions and your objective instead of reading a magazine. That way,
>>you'll be focused when the doctor is ready to see you.
>
>No, there is something more important than "questions" and "your
>objective." In any doctor-patient relationship the patient has a lot of
>information about the patient's body that no one else has. THE most
>important part of any doctor-patient communication is to transfer that
>important information from the patient to the doctor. If your doctor
>does not enthusiastically PURSUE that information, then you are not
>looking at a great doctor.
>
>After 2 fairly traumatic pregnancies and one horrific and one
>good-but-grueling childbirth experience, I have often sarcastically said
>the the fundamental principle of modern obstetrical practice is the
>principle that NOTHING which either parent knows or feels could possibly
>be of the slightest value or even interest to the doctor. (This starts
>with the inaccurate due date because it is irrelevant that mom & dad
>know when they had sex and when they didn't, and then goes downhill from
>there.) Now as I get older and see different kinds of doctors I'm
>beginning to wonder if that isn't the bedrock principle of ALL modern
>medicine! :-(
>
>When I was pregnant with #1 I would go in for an OB appointment. No
>matter which of the 4 doctors, they would say 2 things: #1: "You gained
>too much weight." (I gained 33lb during the entire pregnancy, which is
>within the "ideal" range of 25-35lb.) And #2 "Do you have any
>questions?" Well, as I'm sure all of you grammerians will notice, none
>of the following sentences is a question.
>
>1) I burn myself with matches to punish myself for eating. But I keep
>stuffing my face anyway.
>
>2) Every time I go to the bathroom and wipe I'm bleeding.
>
>3) My hemmorhoids hurt so bad I've considered ending it all.
>
>4) Almost every afternoon I lean over the toilet and stick my finger
>down my throat, but nothing comes out because I'm only really crazy
>enough to do the bulemia schtick if my stomach is empty. Then I lie on
>the floor curled up in a ball and cry for hours.
>
>5) When I walk, at totally random intervals, but averaging about one
>step out of ten, as I step down my left hip socket is exruciatingly
>painful.
>
>6) Several times a day I have to sit down suddenly to avoid passing out.
>
>>From what I can tell this is pretty much the norm for prenatal care, at
>least in the US. Patients are not ALLOWED to tell their doctors what is
>going on with their pregnancies. The prenatal appointments are
>scheduled for 4 minutes long, so there is no time for all that. All
>these women who get hospitalized for preterm labor -- I've always
>wondered just how they managed to work the fact that they were having
>contractions into their "questions."
>
>I once read a comment from a frustrated doctor that went something like,
>"Doctors today are terrified to ask their patients 'how are you?' for
>fear that the patient might actually answer."
>
>--
>cathy :-)
>
Cathy,
You've totally blown me away here! I totally agree with you that a good
doctor should ask questions - when first I got ill my doctors would ask
"do you regularly go to the toilet?" Answer "yes" - it wasn't until my
present "good" doctor asked me "how often do you go to the toilet?" and
I answered "o, every 5 or 6 days..." and saw his astonished face - that
I realised that he was very appaled that NOBODY had asked me that
before.
I know, looking back, that I was also STUPID! I should have known that
going to the toilet on average once a week isn't good - but I'd had
'funny' bowel habits since I can remember - I didn't realise it was
abnormal! I knew my family members went every day - but it never
occurred me to mention to them that I did not!
And as for your list of symptoms - I agree - it is only in the presence
of Mr Schroeder that I am given the time to say similar things - the
other doctors when I am admitted into hospital all gather in an enormous
group around my bed -they intimadate me no end - they talk over me - or
at me - not to me - HOW I HATE IT!
Mr Schroeder is totally different - he comes in, and he sits down on the
side of my bed, looks me right in the eye and aks me outright to tell
him everything.... such a difference!
And my GP even rings me up from time to time, obviously because he's
been thinking off me - I've had numerous different doctors before him -
and they have NEVER called me - unless I called them!
I know that in the public hospital system I am treated like I'm some
kind of freak. But I am lucky to have considerate doctors looking out
for me privately.
--
Lin